Linux Mint Forums

I've noticed that the menu button in the bottom left disappears.
Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnKs1cWMbw

It's a 64bit machine.

Help to fix the missing menu button is welcome.

Here's the vid card info:

Can't you just go into Add/Remove Applet on the panel (under settings) and tick the box to add the Cinnamon Menu? Was it there before?

Odd!

Have you tried adding the menu back? Right-click empty spot on the panel, select Add to Panel, select mintMenu.

@Condorman, OP is running MATE not Cinnamon. But we're thinking alike

Oh it's MATE. Apologies OP and Vince.

The problem was that I had tried to set python3.2.3 as my default. That broke the menu button. I've rolled back my changes and menu button has reappeared.

thanks to all for their assistance,
Dennis


Below is for reference only
Thanks to all for quick answers. I've found what looks like a bug: I cannot add MATE Menu to panel.

I get this message:

The panel encountered a problem while loading "OAFIID:MATE_mintMenu".

here's the video:
http://youtu.be/ADRvDoWg2co

I would appreciate tips on how to fix this problem... with many thanks.

Dennis

This is interesting, I have Python 2.7.3 installed and I get the same error when trying to add the mintMenu to the top panel. I'm not having any issues with it on the default bottom location, and the other two menus can be added just fine. Using Mint 13 with Mate and all official updates installed.

--
David

@David Rahrer That _is_ curious... maybe there is a bug somewhere in the menu panel handlers...

@pleabargain: We can call this fixed, as mintMenu is written for Python 2.7 and you had set Python 3 as the default. As shared on your other topic, that will break various system tools. This includes the mintMenu.

@David Rahrer: You can only run one instance of the mintMenu. If you want to have it in your top panel, first delete it in your bottom panel (I've confirmed this works, and also confirmed that then trying to add it to the bottom panel will give the same error). There can be only one

Understood, thanks.

xenopeek wrote:Have you tried adding the menu back? Right-click empty spot on the panel, select Add to Panel, select mintMenu.

@Condorman, OP is running MATE not Cinnamon. But we're thinking alike

In various places on the web other users have plaintively asked what to do when Mint's main Menu/cogwheel button disappears from the bottom left corner due to one mischance or another. I don't know about MATE, but in my 32-bit Cinnamon, right-clicking on an empty spot on the bottom panel does nothing at all. To restore the missing Menu button/cogwheel it is necessary to right-click on any other icon there (eg: "Show Desktop"), then left-click on "Add/remove applets" in the pop-up box which next brings up the settings box labelled "Cinnamon Settings - Applets". It has a button labelled "Restore to default", and left-clicking that restored the Menu button/cogged wheel to it's original spot at the far left of the bottom panel.

I've got a similar problem.

I needed to install Python 2.6 (long story); doing so caused the cogwheel to vanish (and the "failed to start OAFIID: MATE_mintMenu; do you want to remove it?" message to appear at login).

Also the update manager disappeared from the lower right.

So I installed Python 2.7 from source; this didn't help. I verified that "python" resolves to Python 2.7.3. (which python ==> /usr/local/bin/python --> python2 --> python2.7.3 )

I eventually found I could add a menu to the bottom bar ("panel") - this isn't quite as convenient as the cogwheel, but I think, between the "main menu" and the "Mint menu", it shows all the same options. Notably, I can get to the Synaptic package manager again, and also the "Software Manager" (MintInstall 7.3.9). I tried reinstalling Python (2.7.3-Oubuntu2) from the synaptic package manager. it claimed success but awfully quickly, and noticed this within the Details:
"Waited for dpkg -assert-multi-arch but it wasn't there - dpkg Go (10: no child process)"

(When I select software in the Software Manager, it just freezes up and never does anything.)

I tried launching the Mate control center from the command line. I can see STDERR that way. "No module name pygtk" comes up when I click on Desktop Settings (which otherwise does nothing).

To sum up: I've got a working Python 2.7.3 installation; it's the default Python version, but some parts of MATE (cogwheel, update manager, desktop settings applet) are still not happy. Perhaps I need specific modules not included in the standard Python install.

If the package manager's not working, is there a quick way to reinstall the exact version/configuration/module set of Python 2.7 that I had before?

I could actually add it back on. I also got the error once when i first tried to add 'mintMenu' from the 'add to panel' menu. so instead i added the 'Main Menu' . Later when i tried to add the 'mintMenu' again, it allowed me. To move it back to the corner just uncheck the 'lock to panel' of the panel showing the windows(right click on the the three horizontal lines at the corner). After that you can place your advance menu (or any panel item) at the corner. hope this helped.

I also couldn't add the mintmenu button after restoring my Mint13 backup. After updating, MATE updated from 1.4 to 1.6 and I couldn't find a mintmenu button to add to the menu.

I could easily fix this by installing mintmenu_5.4.9_all.deb from [url]http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mintmenu/mintmenu_5.4.9_all.deb[/url].

In my case, it needed a dependency that GDebi automatically installed.

Then I could add the mintmenu button to the menu!

(FYI, I have Python 2.7.3 installed.)