Mint 13 MATE: Avant Window Navigator & AWN Mint Menu

[MintRainbow]

If anyone pre-unity ever used program launchers, they probably caught wind of AWN. For some, it's a supplement. For others, a total panel replacement. Regardless how it's used, it's stylish looks and multi-dock capability cannot be denied as making it one of the most customizable bolt-on addins to any system.

Installation is pretty simple -- Go to terminal:

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sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator

And you're well on your way to installing the program. Just in case you didn't get all of the applets:

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sudo apt-get install awn-applets-all

Now, there is one applet people with Ubuntu and AWN went ga-ga over, and that was AWN Mint Menu. This hard-to-find program was great in Gnome, but we're talking about Mate here. If ran by itself, then it will not work at all. So to first install it, go into Synaptic, and find the Repositories dialog. Add the following:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/neelance/awn/ubuntu natty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/neelance/awn/ubuntu natty main

Then update; The new repository will be there and the software can be installed. But we still have that little issue of it not working... Do this:

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gksu pluma /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenuAwn.py

Then go into find and replace (Ctrl+H) and make gnomeapplet become mateapplet. Save a backup prior to editing if you're paranoid.

Once saved, kill AWN, then restart it. After a minute it should show up.

EDIT: Modding some features of AWN plugins where no dialog is accessible
Sadly, MateConf can't do this. Install gconf-editor, then once there, navigate to apps/avant-window-navigator to see the available components and change their features at will. When finished, you can safely remove gconf-editor and gconf-defaults-service.

If you want to replace mate with AWN entirely, this one is easy too! Go into the Configuration Editor utility, navigate to /desktop/mate/session/required_components and change panel from mate-panel to avant-window-navigator. Note you'll have to use xkill to force-kill it.

Want mate-panel back? Revert changes, or select Mate from the list of available sessions.

[kelebek333]

@MintRainbow,thank you for solution.
I edited that awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb package according to your explanations.
You can install awn-mintmenu package with follwing code on Mate Desktop Environment.

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wget -c http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35943691/MintMenu/awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb

[cowsquad]

I'll try this latet

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Tnt533]

@MintRainbow,thank you for solution.
I edited that awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb package according to your explanations.
You can install awn-mintmenu package with follwing code on Mate Desktop Environment.

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wget -c http://dl.dropbox.com/u/35943691/MintMenu/awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i awn-mintmenu_1.0-3_all.deb

Worked PERFECTLY! Thanks! I've been poking around the "Internets" all morning looking for a solution to get the MintMenu on my AWN. Thanks a bunch.

[cowsquad]

Awn mintmenu crashes every time I am adding it to dock

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[naike]

How can I get it to work on Mint 13 xfce?
I assume the issue is that there is no "gnomeapplet" anymore, but I'm not on mate so I can't change it to mateapplet.
The plugin just loads in AWN for a while but then just crashes.

Edit: I installed the required python-mate stuff, works now.
However it loads for ages
Workaround here:
https://launchpadlibrarian.net/67255498/mintMenu.patch

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*** mintMenu.py~   2011-03-25 15:29:37.000000000 +0800
--- mintMenu.py   2011-03-25 20:14:29.000000000 +0800
***************
*** 829,847 ****
      gtk.main_quit()
      sys.exit(0)
 
! if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1] == "run-in-window":
!     gtk.gdk.threads_init()
!     main_window = gtk.Window( gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL )
!     main_window.set_title( NAME )
!     main_window.connect( "destroy", quit_all )
!     app = gnomeapplet.Applet()
!     menu_factory( app, None )
!     app.reparent( main_window )
!     main_window.show()
!     gtk.gdk.threads_enter()
!     gtk.main()
!     gtk.gdk.threads_leave()
! else:
!     gnomeapplet.bonobo_factory("OAFIID:GNOME_mintMenu_Factory",
!                          gnomeapplet.Applet.__gtype__,
!                          "mintMenu", "0", menu_factory)
--- 829,848 ----
      gtk.main_quit()
      sys.exit(0)
 
! if __name__ == "__main__":
!     if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1] == "run-in-window":
!         gtk.gdk.threads_init()
!         main_window = gtk.Window( gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL )
!         main_window.set_title( NAME )
!         main_window.connect( "destroy", quit_all )
!         app = gnomeapplet.Applet()
!         menu_factory( app, None )
!         app.reparent( main_window )
!         main_window.show()
!         gtk.gdk.threads_enter()
!         gtk.main()
!         gtk.gdk.threads_leave()
!     else:
!         gnomeapplet.bonobo_factory("OAFIID:GNOME_mintMenu_Factory",
!                                    gnomeapplet.Applet.__gtype__,
!                                    "mintMenu", "0", menu_factory)


(You can do this manually too, just fine the line "if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1] == "run-in-window":" and replace the whole bunch with the latter starting with "if __name__ == "__main__":")

Source:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+b ... comments/7

I just installed the package written by neelance to make MintMenu available as an AWN applet. However, as he notes in a comment on his ppa, the applet can sometimes take a really long time to start up. I think I've figured out why: when his code imports the MenuWin class from mintMenu, python gets hung up for a long time on the top-level call to gnomeapplet.bonobo_factory().

To make mintMenu friendlier for this kind of use, could you just make a simple change to the code, checking that __name__ == "__main__"? Doing so resolves the delay in mintMenuAwn, without effecting mintMenu's use with gnome-panel or as a standalone window; I've attached a patch that makes this change. Thanks!