Backporting Cinnamon?

[dee.]

So... using 13 because want the long term stability and support, but wondering if the updates to Cinnamon in 14 would be worth backporting for.

What are the pros/cons? Does it cause any sort of conflicts with other packages, or any instability issues, that sort of thing? Does it give benefits to speed, functionality, bugfixes, something else? I'd like some kind of risk/benefit assessment, please.

ps. Not sure if this is the right forum, please feel free to move thread if necessary.

[xenopeek]

Moved to Cinnamon section.

Backports for Maya explained here: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2225. Whether you want to use the newer Cinnamon or not is up to you. The current version 1.6.7 has some fixes and small additions as compared to Cinnamon 1.6, so you can review the introduction of Cinnamon 1.6 here for the major improvements you are making yourself miss out on: http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/?p=207. Nemo, the new file manager for Cinnamon, has seen more changes but here is it initial announcement to give you some feeling for that: http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/?p=198. Both are very much still under active development, with Linux Mint 15 promising even more awesomeness for both.

If you have a broadband Internet connection, you could download Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon, but that on a DVD or USB stick and try it out live to see if you like the new Cinnamon and Nemo.

[dee.]

Mmh, I guess that could be an option... how exactly do you go about with a live USB, I've never tried it? Does it matter if there's other stuff on the USB stick or do I need to empty it before loading it up with the ISO?

Also thanks for the links, I'll check them out.

[xenopeek]

Here is a tutorial for putting the ISO on a USB: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/744. AFAIK you don't need to format the USB stick (I never do at least ), and the current files on it will be overwritten and lost.

[dee.]

Sorry, I have a couple more questions about backporting.

If I do it like suggested (enable backports repo, install new cinnamon, disable backports) will I still get updates to the cinnamon desktop, or will I have to enable backports each time to check for updates for cinnamon?

Also, is there any fix to the window list going out of bounds when there are lots of windows open?

[xenopeek]

If you enable the backports and upgrade Cinnamon from there and then disable the backports again then yes, you will have to enable backports again later to get upgrades for Cinnamon again. You only get upgrades with backports enabled.

As for window list going out of bounds, I don't know what you are doing. I've tried opening about a hundred terminal windows and nothing bad happens... Perhaps the newer Cinnamon version will be the fix for this also

[dee.]

If you enable the backports and upgrade Cinnamon from there and then disable the backports again then yes, you will have to enable backports again later to get upgrades for Cinnamon again. You only get upgrades with backports enabled.

As for window list going out of bounds, I don't know what you are doing. I've tried opening about a hundred terminal windows and nothing bad happens... Perhaps the newer Cinnamon version will be the fix for this also

To clarify, I mean, when I have lots of windows in the same workplace, the window tabs overlap with other widgets (workplaces, show desktop etc)... if this is fixed in Cinnamon 1.6 then it's indeed a good reason to upgrade.

Also, do I have to update the other packages (muffin) as well, or is it ok to just update Cinnamon?

[dee.]

Ok nvm that question, I noticed that Cinnamon pulls the Muffin packages anyway.

Yeah, the window list works as should now, which is great.

However it seems that Cinnadock no longer works
Is this expected behaviour or is there a way to make it work? It's not enough to go back to 1.4, but it'd be nice to get a dock for quickly hopping between windows. But I guess it's not so crucial now that the window list in the panel works properly.

[xenopeek]

Cinnadock seems to not have been updated in a long while, so yes that may need adjustment to work properly with 1.6. Perhaps there is something similar? I'm not familiar much with docks.

[dee.]

Cinnadock seems to not have been updated in a long while, so yes that may need adjustment to work properly with 1.6. Perhaps there is something similar? I'm not familiar much with docks.

I don't know of any other docks specifically for Cinnamon, at least there aren't any on the Spices page.

[dee.]

Ha, I got it working!

It was a really simple fix: I went in to the Cinnadock directory, and added the entries "1.6.0" and "1.6.7" to the "cinnamon-version" variable in the "metadata.json" file. So basically it was just a matter of telling Cinnamon "this extension works in 1.6" and then it does.

So far it seems to be working just fine, with no additional changes.