Panel - positions wrong and Mintmenu empty.

[longsoft]

Noobs 1st post - hope this is the right place...

LMint 13 (Maya), Mate, 32-bit. Dell D600 Laptop.
After a power-failure I have two problems with the panel. Firstly it comes up with the clock in the centre, applets at the left end. I cannot move the clock back to the original position on extreme left. If I Rclick->'move' it only allows me to drag it closer to the applets, not swap places. Secondly clicking 'menu' to go to the Mintmenu produces a 'shadow' indicating its position, but no actual menu. If I click again slowly a few times I can get the Mintmenu to show.

I'm a bit stumped as I've only been a Linux user three weeks...

Longsoft,
Southampton, UK

[dagon]

Moved here by moderator!

hope this is the right place...

I thought your case will be noticed easier here but I have no solution for you.
One thing you can try is to see if the config file has been borked during the power.

I don't run mate myself other than to try it out once in a while, I'm still on Gnome 2, but here are some files you can remove to change the desktop back to it's original state.

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rm -r ~/.config/mate  ~/.mate2 ~/.mateconfd

This will remove your personal settings though. I'd copy these files for backup if the operation fails (I don't know what could possibly go wrong here, nothing I think). Many programs look for a configuration file in the users home catalogue when you run it and if there is no file there, a new one will be created from a template.

It could work!

Edit: I removed ~/.mateconf from the list of 'rm candidates', see mpiter's post below!

[mpiter]

Do not delete ~/.mateconf. This directory contains the configuration parameters of many pieces of software including your email client. If you are a new user, you will probably not want to break your mail configuration.

You cannot switch two applets if I understand well your post. When you right click the applet that do not move, is the Lock to Panel button unchecked? Also have you tried to remove the applet from the panel and to reinstall it?

About the Linux Mint menu, I think there is a bug. Usually, when I open a new session it happens also to me once. After I have made the menu to appear, it works well. You can also try to unlock and remove the menu from the panel, then to reinstall it.

[longsoft]

Many thanks! I've tried all these suggestions but sadly nothing worked (but nothing bad happened either!). I have found that I'm getting used to the messed up layout and, unless something else goes wrong, I will just live with it. Thanks again for your kind suggestions.

Longsoft
"Soaking in Southampton"

[dagon]

I have found that I'm getting used to the messed up layout and, unless something else goes wrong, I will just live with it.

It's a bit early to give up on this one I think.

What happens if you restart the panel? Open a terminal and run this command:

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killall mate-panel

And:

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mate-panel --reset

Also, you didn't answer mpiters questions above.

[longsoft]

I've tried killing the panel and restarting, and removing the configuration files. The problem never corrects at all. What happens is that the date/time is in the middle of the panel - and the icons for things such as wifi, screenlets manager and dropbox sit on the extreme right end of the panel where date/time normally sits. I have tried unlocking them and 'moving', but they will not shift. I can drag the 'hand' icon that apears when I select 'move' but the selected item on the panel will not move to the position I go to. Other parts of the panel will move, just not the date/time or the applets/screenlets or whatever they are supposed to be called.

Not exactly a show-stopper, although in a dual boot situation like mine I get used to where the time should be and it throws me when it isn't there. I had Linux and WinXP set up exactly alike until this happened.

At one stage I tried creating a new panel (at the top of the screen) and adding the features in such a way that Mint Menu was on one end and date/time on the other, then everything added after that in the right place, but I cannot see a way of adding the screenlets to the new panel - they do not come up in the list of items that can be added to a new panel. If it had worked I would delete the old, corrupt one and move the new one into its place.

Hope this clarifys things a bit. Sorry about the terminology, but the last experience I had with Linux was Redhat 2 in a console-only setup on an 8Mhz, 640Meg RAM, 30Meg HDD situation! X was not even in the country, let alone on the table.

LongSoft

[longsoft]

Well, this is highly embarassing... I have managed to put things right with absolutely no idea HOW! I added the option to show running programs on the panel and selected the wrong one of the two by mistake. When I removed it from the panel and replaced it with the correct option the panel went blank, then came back with only the programs I had added to the panel for selection by their icon. I logged out and logged back in and voila! The date/time was where it should be, the applets were all there (except ejecter - which has a life of its own) and the Mint Menu was back. All the other settings had gone but it was the work of ten minutes to figure out what needed to be put back.

To be honest I'm now a bit nervous about touching anything.

LongSoft - bemused in Southampton