Get classic Mint desktop in Gnome shell

[Daniel4lm]

@ Esteban1uy: This is great what you've done. Very good set of extensions. I will try your extensions.

@ Bimsebasse: (Regarding the issue of restrictions on window tabs in the middle panel) - I think the problem is with Gnome Panel, because the reflection extension only reflects(invert) Top Panel at the bottom of the monitor. Windowlist extension has the same effect as on the top Gnome Panel.

I made small changes to code in mint menu and windowslist extensions, changed their names in the 'mint menu 2' and 'windows list 2' (because of testing, I did not want to change original ext.). I will put them later on this forum.

Regards, Daniel

[Daniel4lm]

Arrrgh. A fresh mint theme (or something like that, I must admit I forgot that already) update came to my system and reverted the Menu extension back. Had to use this neat trick to get rid of the Activities once again. Well, it seems that nothing else has changed, so I could just copy esteban's modified menu extension there once again. Nevermind. The point is that things will break on updates if these extensions won't become a part of MGSE...

Activities button appears because of the code in Mint menu extension.I solved it by changing the code. Here I put extens.zip the attachment.
Unpack . zip content to a location .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/(in Home location, because it is easy to manipulate code). Reset gnome shell with Alt + F2 + r.

Open Gnome tweak tool and to turn off the original Menu and Window List extensions. If you already have gnome-shell-reflection extension with esteban1uy fix(for notifications), then you don't need my. Reset Gnome shell again.

Update: I solved the problem with a11y extension. Now it appears normal when noa11y extension is off

[esteban1uy]

I made small changes to code in mint menu and windowslist extensions, changed their names in the 'mint menu 2' and 'windows list 2' (because of testing, I did not want to change original ext.). I will put them later on this forum.

Great!!!

@Monsta
Theme designers didn't take into account that we can have only one panel at bottom, so some themes have that weird behaviour (lower parts of a maximized window hidden behind the bottom panel). For example, the updated Minty theme.
The only solution is manually edit the theme's stylesheet and correct that. That's why I put a tweaked copy of Minty as an attachment.

On the other hand... did you know that it is possible to create lauchers/shortcuts doing right-click at the desktop?

Look at here.

A detail: if at your system the "Desktop" folder has another name (mine is "Escritorio", the Spanish word for desktop) edit the file in that webpage to correct it, otherwise it won't work for you.

[esteban1uy]

esteban1uy: It all seems to work for me except that Weather Indicator extension won't stay "on". Can't get the weather indicator on the panel. Any solution?

Ok, let's make it work...
Go to the author's page, go to "downloads" and get the zip file.
Inside is a README file with instructions to compile the applet and install it. Don't worry, it is very simple!

Even more simpler...

Go here, download the .deb file and use GDebi to install it.
Then follow the instructions at autor's webpage to configure your location, units, etc.

[esteban1uy]

Update: I solved the problem with a11y extension. Now it appears normal when noa11y extension is off

Man, you're a genius!

[Daniel4lm]

Update: I solved the problem with a11y extension. Now it appears normal when noa11y extension is off

Man, you're a genius!

Oh, it's nothing, accidently I saw on the forum for problems with a11y extension. I just commented on a piece of code that it excludes.Have you tried my extensions? Have any bugs?

[esteban1uy]

Oh, it's nothing, accidently I saw on the forum for problems with a11y extension. I just commented on a piece of code that it excludes.Have you tried my extensions? Have any bugs?

They're working like a charm!

[tdockery97]

Ok, let's make it work...
Go to the author's page, go to "downloads" and get the zip file.
Inside is a README file with instructions to compile the applet and install it. Don't worry, it is very simple!

Uhhh...the README file has an .md extension. I can't open it.

[Daniel4lm]

Ok, let's make it work...
Go to the author's page, go to "downloads" and get the zip file.
Inside is a README file with instructions to compile the applet and install it. Don't worry, it is very simple!

Uhhh...the README file has an .md extension. I can't open it.

Open it on the web site author's page

[Monsta]

Unpack . zip content to a location .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/(in Home location, because it is easy to manipulate code). Reset gnome shell with Alt + F2 + r.

Oh. I didn't even think about it. It's much easier, thanks

Open Gnome tweak tool and to turn off the original Menu and Window List extensions. If you already have gnome-shell-reflection extension with esteban1uy fix(for notifications), then you don't need my. Reset Gnome shell again.

So I copied only Menu 2 and Window List 2 to the directory mentioned above, then tried to turn them on. Strange... "window list 2" setting remains off in the gnome-tweak-tool settings, no matter how many times I restart the shell and the tool. But the window list itself is shown:




Hmmm... maybe you guys should start writing some kind of changelog... and set a repository for your modifications

[esteban1uy]

Ok, let's make it work...
Go to the author's page, go to "downloads" and get the zip file.
Inside is a README file with instructions to compile the applet and install it. Don't worry, it is very simple!

Uhhh...the README file has an .md extension. I can't open it.

I edited my post to make those things even more simple.

[tdockery97]

Well, the closest I could get was that a cirling arrow icon showed up on the panel, but even though I had done the gsettings for location, scale, etc. no weather shows up.

EDIT: Disregard. I reinstalled it using the .deb file and now it works correctly. Thank you for your trouble and your patience.

[bimsebasse]

Arrrgh. A fresh mint theme (or something like that, I must admit I forgot that already) update came to my system and reverted the Menu extension back. Had to use this neat trick to get rid of the Activities once again. Well, it seems that nothing else has changed, so I could just copy esteban's modified menu extension there once again. Nevermind. The point is that things will break on updates if these extensions won't become a part of MGSE...

A way around this is to copy the relevant folders and give them new names. E.g. I have a copy of the Mint-Z folder called Mint-Zplus for all tweaks and such - I believe the same can be done with extensions. You won't get updates automatically for your renamed copied folder (I check the new code in the original folder when I can see the thing has got an update), but you won't lose your tweaks either.

esteban and daniel: will check all these final fixes and adjustments when I get home later - you guys rock! One little thing, username should be to the right of clock? (done manually by quickly disabling/enabling move clock extension)

[esteban1uy]

Well, the closest I could get was that a cirling arrow icon showed up on the panel, but even though I had done the gsettings for location, scale, etc. no weather shows up.

EDIT: Disregard. I reinstalled it using the .deb file and now it works correctly. Thank you for your trouble and your patience.

My pleasure.

[esteban1uy]

One little thing, username should be to the right of clock? (done manually by quickly disabling/enabling move clock extension)

I uploaded two versions of my extensions, one to put the clock at the bottom right corner, other for the user applet at the bottom right corner. Choose whichever you like.

[Monsta]

A way around this is to copy the relevant folders and give them new names. E.g. I have a copy of the Mint-Z folder called Mint-Zplus for all tweaks and such - I believe the same can be done with extensions. You won't get updates automatically for your renamed copied folder (I check the new code in the original folder when I can see the thing has got an update), but you won't lose your tweaks either.

Well, I've already got a solution (thanks to Daniel4lm) - new or renamed extensions can be placed at ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions. As for the modified extensions whose name wasn't altered, I didn't try that yet.

[bimsebasse]

Problem with that solution, at least for me, is that the shell starts to act funny in root mode - I can only get it to act normally if everything is in /usr/share/... - maybe it's just my setup.

[Monsta]

Well, if you run the shell as root it would probably seek for new extensions in /root/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions... no?

[esteban1uy]

Well, if you run the shell as root it would probably seek for new extensions in /root/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions... no?

That's right. That's a good reason to prefer /etc/share/... for the location of the extensions.
The important thing is what Daniel4lm discovered, that you can rename a tweaked extensions so it will be shown along with the original and no update could affect it.

Exchanging extensions files between us seems to be a fast way to test our tweaks, but I must insist: better describe in a post the changes you made to every file, so everyone can take control of what's going on. It also helps other people to discover new tweaks!

Also remember, you can always know if an extension is faulty, even if it's not enabled, using "LookingGlass" (Alt+F2 lg to enter, Esc to exit). Start "LookingGlass" and take a look at the "Errors" pane, it can give you very useful hints.

[esteban1uy]

Let's take control of the exact position of the clock applet.

There is an extension for that, part of a pack used by many of us.
It forces the clock applet to stay at the right side of the panel instead of the middle, but if you want the user applet to be there and the clock to be next to it, you can do this:

(It is asumed that you have move_clock extension installed and enabled)
Start a terminal and do a sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/Move_Clock@rmy.pobox.com/extension.js
At the opened gedit, scroll down to line 84. You will see this:

Code: Select all

Main.panel._rightBox.insert_actor(dateMenu.actor, children.length-1);

Now change it to:

Code: Select all

Main.panel._rightBox.insert_actor(dateMenu.actor, children.length-2);

Save, restart Gnome-shell (Alt+F2 r)... ready!

As you can see, children.length-somenumber dictates where the clock applet will be shown, -1 for the absolute right, -2 for the second place, -3 for the third, etc.