Cinnamon won't load (just get wallpaper and mouse cursor)

[Minterbation]

I installed LM13 Cinnamon 64 bit edition and had it working with one monitor. Then I installed the NVidia driver and enabled twin view. When I log back into Cinnamon, I only get the wallpaper and mouse cursor. There is no right click context menu, no tool bar or desktop icons and no shortcut keys work except CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE. So I'll use that to log out and log back in with Gnome Classic and everything works fine. The multipule monitors are working the way I want with one screen being an extension of the other (not a separate xscreen). So that's how I want it to work in Cinnamon but it won't load to let me adjust any settings from within the Cinnamon session.

[xapatan]

Hi,

Same here on LM13 with an ATI card and a dual monitor setting.

Before fglrx driver installation, I can use g3, cinnamon, and mate, after only g3 and mate are working.

On cinnamon nothing except wallpaper and mouse pointer.

BTW, my setting was working fine on LM12 and cinnamon before upgrade.

edit : more info on my config

Code: Select all

~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Robson CE [AMD Radeon HD 6300 Series] bus-ID: 02:00.0
           X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: fglrx Resolution: 1600x900@60.1hz, 1280x1024@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series GLX Version: 4.2.11627 - CPC Direct Rendering: Yes

[Minterbation]

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GF116 [GeForce GTX 550 Ti] bus-ID: 01:00.0 X.Org: 1.11.3 driver: nvidia Resolution: 3600x1080@51.0hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 295.53 Direct Rendering: Yes


I was also able to get Cinnamon working with NVidia drivers and dual monitors in LM12, but it was on different hardware. I just build a new PC right when LM13 came out so I've had this issue from the start on this particular setup. As it is now though, I am also able to still use Gnome, but I haven't installed MATE.

I think this is a bug with Cinnamon, or maybe a bug in the most recent NVidia driver. I haven't tried running with an older NVidia driver yet, but my GPU is so new that I doubt the previous driver supports it. Do you have a GPU old enough to test the previous NVidia driver?

[EDIT] Oops! Just re-read your post and saw you are using an ATI card. Coffee hasn't kicked in yet. So unless NVidia and ATI both released drivers with the same bug, I think we are looking at a Cinnamon bug here.

[Fajah]

I have the same issue with Cinnamon not loading but only if the panel is set to the top, or both the top and bottom. Cinnamon loads when the panel is set to the bottom only. I had the same issue with Mint 12 and it was never resolved.

[favelado79]

log out of cinnamon session CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE then log into gnome classic session.
Go to mint menu - system tools - preferences - cinnamon setting.

Choose applets and restore to default

Go back and choose panel. If panel edit mode is checked then un check it. Make sure desktop layout option is set to Traditional (panel at the bottom)

Log out and log back in to Cinnamon. Everything should be back as normal. It worked for me

For me it seems to be the Gnome-like menu applets that are causing Cinnamon to break. I have them running on a different machine (Acer extensa) on LMDE cinnamon with no problems. So it may just be a problem with Maya. You could try running LMDE to see if that's more stable on your system.

Cinnamon obviously still needs a bit of work and ironing out, but it's definitely the best way forward for linux. Shame it's just not quite there yet

[Minterbation]

Finally got around to testing this and I can confirm this bug. Cinnamon won't load if panel mode is set to Flipped (panel at top) or Classic (both top and bottom). Hopefully this will be fixed with the next update.

[gibbs1984]

Didn't work for me, did what you said, even installed the drivers but Cinnamon loads the wallpaper and I can move the mouse but that's it, no right click either.

Any help appreciated.

[coldbluesteel]

log out of cinnamon session CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE then log into gnome classic session.
Go to mint menu - system tools - preferences - cinnamon setting.

Choose applets and restore to default

Go back and choose panel. If panel edit mode is checked then un check it. Make sure desktop layout option is set to Traditional (panel at the bottom)

Log out and log back in to Cinnamon. Everything should be back as normal. It worked for me

For me it seems to be the Gnome-like menu applets that are causing Cinnamon to break. I have them running on a different machine (Acer extensa) on LMDE cinnamon with no problems. So it may just be a problem with Maya. You could try running LMDE to see if that's more stable on your system.

Cinnamon obviously still needs a bit of work and ironing out, but it's definitely the best way forward for linux. Shame it's just not quite there yet

This didn't work for me either. Back to Gnome Classic or MATE I guess. Cinnamon ain't ready for prime time.

IBM T40 Thinkpad - Mint 13

[Minterbation]

I updated to the most recent nVidia driver, rebooted and logged into GNOME Classic and reset the Cinnamon panel back to the one panel at the bottom. Then logged into Cinnamon and switched to one panel at the top. So far so good and I've rebooted and logged out/logged in a few times now. This makes it seem like an nVidia driver bug, but I know at least one other person in this forum had this issue with an ATI card.

[coldbluesteel]

My T40 uses ATI graphics, so it's not just nVidia.

[gibbs1984]

I updated to the most recent nVidia driver, rebooted and logged into GNOME Classic and reset the Cinnamon panel back to the one panel at the bottom. Then logged into Cinnamon and switched to one panel at the top. So far so good and I've rebooted and logged out/logged in a few times now. This makes it seem like an nVidia driver bug, but I know at least one other person in this forum had this issue with an ATI card.

Where do you get the latest nVidia driver from, I was just using the one in the Additional Drivers section?

[Minterbation]

The Additional Drivers window on mine displayed two different ones. One said something about post release updates or something to that effect. I don't remember the exact wording and I'm at work on a Mac right now so I can't check. I was using the one that said (Recommended) after it at first. Then I tried the one with the post release updates and it seems to be working now.

[gibbs1984]

The Additional Drivers window on mine displayed two different ones. One said something about post release updates or something to that effect. I don't remember the exact wording and I'm at work on a Mac right now so I can't check. I was using the one that said (Recommended) after it at first. Then I tried the one with the post release updates and it seems to be working now.

Thing is though that on a LiveCD it doesn't show any drivers.

Did the same for MATE too but once installed they showed up but with Cinnamon I only get a wallpaper so I can't install the drivers.

[ankerbass]

had the same problem. favelado79's method worked for me. also rebooted the machine to see if it works stable now and it does.
i'm working on a t61 without any proprietary drivers. installed mint 13 mate first and then decided to download the cinnamon package.

[gibbs1984]

had the same problem. favelado79's method worked for me. also rebooted the machine to see if it works stable now and it does.
i'm working on a t61 without any proprietary drivers. installed mint 13 mate first and then decided to download the cinnamon package.

Did you just download the Cinnamon packages in Synaptic, install them, reboot and then pick Cinnamon as your desktop?

Does it have any side effects for your MATE desktop?

[kahlil88]

My friend's machine has the same problem, also running a dual-monitor system on AMD Radeon HD 5700 graphics (not using proprietary drivers). I managed to get dual-panel mode working on a second user account, but the window manager crashes when I try to swap them and will hang after login with just the background and cursor.

[cygnus]

I use Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.04. I recently installed MATE and have been using it for a while, but I wanted to log back into Cinnamon and I got the wallpaper/mouse problem. However, when I bring up a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and run cinnamon --replace, the complete Cinnamon desktop shows up, but it goes away if I close the terminal window.

Interestingly, nothing else GNOME 3 related would load either, including Unity. I fixed that by running unity --reset but I still have the problem in Cinnamon. I'm thinking my MATE install broke some config files in my profile, because a new user can log into Cinnamon with no problems.

If anyone knows of a way to fix my profile without killing all my preferences and settings, I would appreciate it!

EDIT: I can log into GNOME Classic but Cinnamon 2D doesn't work.

[kahlil88]

I use Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.04. I recently installed MATE and have been using it for a while, but I wanted to log back into Cinnamon and I got the wallpaper/mouse problem. However, when I bring up a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and run cinnamon --replace, the complete Cinnamon desktop shows up, but it goes away if I close the terminal window.

Don't run it in a terminal window, open the run dialog (Alt+F2) or choose the "restart cinnamon" option if you have the settings shortcut on your panel.

[cygnus]

I use Cinnamon on Ubuntu 12.04. I recently installed MATE and have been using it for a while, but I wanted to log back into Cinnamon and I got the wallpaper/mouse problem. However, when I bring up a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and run cinnamon --replace, the complete Cinnamon desktop shows up, but it goes away if I close the terminal window.

Don't run it in a terminal window, open the run dialog (Alt+F2) or choose the "restart cinnamon" option if you have the settings shortcut on your panel.

I don't have a panel and I can't open a run dialog. However, for some unknown reason Cinnamon now opens up. However, when I restart Cinnamon it crashes.