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This does seem to be a common Newbie Question (lord knows, I asked it ) I did do a search for it but did not find anything, so it seemed appropriate to write ..... How to Find A Missing Application, starring GKrellm! (apologies if it has been done before; if it has, it didn't turn up in any of my searches )

So you've downloaded an application and you open your MintMenu and it's not there. Well, sometimes it takes a few minutes for Mint to realize it, so you wait a few minutes and it's still not there. So you go looking for it and you can't find it anywhere. You try to run it in through the Command Line Interface Terminal (yes. yes, that's what I call it, because I'm a Bad Person ) It runs, so it's there, but you can't find it any other way. That's when you realize it's... The Incredible Vanishing Application! *cue Psycho music*

We'll use GKrellm to demonstrate this how-to. Gkrellm is a system-performance monitoring app that can be tricked out with a number of plug-in widgets and appearance themes (my favorite is the bubblefishymon plug-in, which shows your inbound and outbound network traffic, CPU usage, memory and swap usage, and time clock, all disguised as a duck pond.) It's available through Synaptic; do a search for Gkrellm and Synaptic will show you the Gkrellm base package, as well as several plug-in options.

So, you've downloaded and installed GKrellm (or the app of your choice) and it's pulled its disappearing act on you. First, hit alt-F2 to open the Run dialogue box. First, check the scroll-down list of Known Applications; if it's there, great, click and run to confirm that it works. If it isn't, go up to the text box and type gkrellm then click Run. That will launch the application and confirm that it works. You can close it again.

Well we know that it's there and it works, so that means we have to add it to the MintMenu manually. Yes it's an inconvenience but sometimes we have to, so we suck it up. Besides, then we get bragging rights and experience points

First, open the menu editor. There are two ways to do this: 1) Open MintMenu and go to Preferences, and click on Main Menu. 2) Right-click on the MintMenu button and select Edit Menu. Either way will get you to the Main Menu edit screen.

The Main Menu screen will show you the divisions under Applications on the left pane, and the applications within each division on the right pane. I put Gkrellm under Accessories, so highlight Accessories. You still won't see Gkrellm among the items in the right pane, so go to the buttons on the right and click New Item

This opens the Create Launcher dialogue box. The Type drop-down menu defaults on Application; Gkrellm is an application, so that's okay. In the Name box, type Gkrellm In the Command box, type gkrellm In the Comment box, type whatever you want, usually something to describe the application like 'nifty tricked-out system monitoring app.'

Click OK and Gkrellm will appear in the right pane. If the box beside it isn't ticked, tick it to activate it into the Accessories subdivision. Click Close.

Now open MintMenu, open Accessories and see if it's there. If it isn't, close MintMenu again and wait a few minutes - sometimes it takes a mo' to settle in and get comfy, like new jeans. Open MintMenu Accessories again and the Gkrellm launcher should be there. Click it and see if it works. Tah-dah! Now pat yourself on the back, get a beer, show everyone what a hoopy frood you are, and listen to the cha-ching! of level-up chimes as you rake in your Linux experience points

Getting rid of it is easier: Right-click on the launcher and click Uninstall We luvs our MintMenu, yes we do, yes we do.

alt-F2 to open the Run dialogue box. First, check the scroll-down list of Known Applications; if it's there, great, click and run to confirm that it works. If it isn't, go up to the text box and type gkrellm then click Run. That will launch the application

Absolutely correct if it's in your path and well behaved - if not you may have to search for it
first try the terminal commands which and apropos and as a last resort followed by You probably get a bunch of hits, so you'll have to make a guess as to which is the right one, but the chance are that you guess right....