MATE desktop - Mint Control Center missing

[fraplich]

Hi, struggling a bit here. I installed Mint 13 Maya Cinnamon version (32 bit) on a PC dual booting with WinXP.

I had an odd and so far unsolved freezing issue with Firefox in the Cinnamon environment (see viewtopic.php?f=90&t=123958) which makes that desktop unusable for me at the moment. However, I don't experience the same problems using the MATE desktop environment.

I feel rather foolish in confessing that I can't remember if I had to install the MATE desktop environment in Cinnamon-flavoured Mint, or if it was already there. But if I Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to get to a login prompt, I can select MATE under the session tab, and my system boots into a MATE desktop. However, this doesn't seem to be the Mint-flavoured MATE - the taskbar is at the top (it does have a MintMenu Icon), but I can't find the Mint Control Centre anywhere.

So my question is two-fold: 1) Can I add the Mint Control Centre? and 2) When switching between different desktops, are they completely isolated from each other? That is, running in MATE, I can see the Cinnamon Settings Applet under Preferences. Would that do anything in MATE, and would any changes made to it in MATE carry over if and when I switched back to Cinnamon?

[xenopeek]

Sounds like you install the Cinnamon edition and added the MATE desktop environment afterwards. Anyway, make sure you have install the package mint-meta-mate.

That shouldn't have any effect on your user. You can either create a new user, and it should get the default look and settings for Linux Mint MATE, or you can for your current user delete the current settings and then log out and log in again to get the new settings (because they will be put in your home folder when they are not there at login). Not sure exactly which to delete, but open your file manager and press Ctrl+H to show hidden files and folders. Then either rename (add a suffix "-backup" for example) the following four folders, or delete them if you feel brave (I tried it and it worked fine here, but it will remove all your MATE settings). Then log out and log in again and you should have the default Linux Mint MATE look I believe.

.mateconf
.mateconf.d
.config/mate
.config/mate-session

[fraplich]

Hi xenopeek, thanks for helping out.

As you say, I did install the Cinnamon edition and added the MATE desktop environment afterwards. I've tried and failed to install mint-meta-mate - I can open the Software Center and successfully search for the package, but when I double click to open it up and go to the details page (and install button), the Software Center just stalls, and never opens the details page. I can open the details page for other packages, both those already installed and those not installed. So I don't know what is going on with that.

Can I install mint-meta-mate from the command line?

[passerby]

You certainly can.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-mate


but if you're only after the control center, you could instead run

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mate-control-center


[fraplich]

Thanks passerby - I seem to have made a right pigs ear of this. I ran those commands, but get the following error message:

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-mate
[sudo] password for telegraph:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
mint-meta-mate : Depends: mate-settings-daemon-pulse but it is not going to be installed
Depends: mate-media-pulse but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

What does all that mean? Under Synaptic Package Manager, I get the same error (no suprise) but with a message to check repositories.

Any idea how I can proceed, or is this an "impossible situation"?

Edit: Also, I can't find the files that xenopeek mentioned (.mateconf etc). The search function in the file manager doesn't find them, nor does the search function under Applications>Accessories>Search For Files... However, neither of these search functions can find a known file (.dmrc) that I can see in my Home folder. Is that because its a hidden file? How can a simple search for files go wrong?

[xenopeek]

Try:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install -f

[fraplich]

Thanks xenopeek - what does the " -f" qualification to "sudo apt-get install" do?

[xenopeek]

You can find that in the manpage, the manual for the command. Most Linux commands have one. You can access it from the terminal with "man apt-get". Here is the relevant bit:

Code: Select all

       -f, --fix-broken
           Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.
           This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
           to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are
           specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option
           is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT
           itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a
           system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be
           so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually means
           using dselect(1) or dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the
           offending packages). Use of this option together with -m may
           produce an error in some situations. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Fix-Broken.


[fraplich]

I ran "sudo apt-get install -f", and it apparently found nothing wrong. I then re-ran "sudo apt-get install mint-meta mate" and got the same error messages. The terminal output is below;

~ $ sudo apt-get install -f
[sudo] password for telegraph:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 26 not upgraded.
~ $ sudo apt-get install mint-meta-mate
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
mint-meta-mate : Depends: mate-settings-daemon-pulse but it is not going to be installed
Depends: mate-media-pulse but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

[xenopeek]

mint-meta-mate : Depends: mate-settings-daemon-pulse but it is not going to be installed
Depends: mate-media-pulse but it is not going to be installed

Can you try first installing both of these two packages?

[fraplich]

I don't think it worked: terminal output

~ $ sudo apt-get install mate-settings-daemon-pulse
[sudo] password for telegraph:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
mate-settings-daemon-pulse : Depends: mate-settings-daemon-common (= 1.2.0-4+precise) but 1.4.0-2+precise is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.


~ $ sudo apt-get install mate-media-pulse
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.
mate-media-pulse : Depends: mate-media-common (= 1.2.1-5+precise) but 1.4.0-1+precise is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages

[xenopeek]

Ah. You have enabled the backports repository I think? Suggest you first open Update Manager and apply all level 1, 2 and 3 upgrades.

[fraplich]

AHAH! Actually, I enabled the backports repository to get the new version of Cinnamon - then disabled it again. I guess that was a mistake, and I should now leave it enabled permanently?

Anyway, I enabled it and installed a handful of level 3 updates, then ran "sudo apt-get install mint-meta-mate" - and a whole lot of things installed. Hurrah!

I guess now I should delete .mateconf etc? How do I find these files? A search doesn't reveal them (see my earlier posts)

[xenopeek]

He Yes, the backports didn't only bring newer versions of Cinnamon but also of MATE.

You don't need to search for the four directories you want to remove, just open your file manager press Ctrl+H to show hidden folders like these. They are all in your user's home folder, where you will find .mateconf, .mateconfd, and .config. Inside .config you will find mate and mate-session.

.mateconf
.mateconf.d
.config/mate
.config/mate-session

[fraplich]

YEEHA! It worked!!

I'm also officially an idiot - I was looking for files, not folders........should have read more carefully.

A few supplementary questions, if I may:

1) I have a standard (I think) MATE taskbar at the top of the screen. I understand how to move applets down to a taskbar at the bottom, but not how to get the icons for the Update Manager, Sound Preferences and Connections (Right hand side of top taskbar) into the bottom taskbar. They don't appear to be in the applets menu.
EDIT - I guess what I'm actually asking is how to create a system tray in the bottom taskbar (its currently in the top taskbar), then how to populate it with the above options.

2) MATE is based on Gnome 2, and Cinnamon on Gnome 3. Cinnamon used 3D effects (presumably hence my problems with Cinnamon). Is it then the case that MATE does NOT use 3D effects?

[fraplich]

Found a solution to q1 - just in case any others browsing this thread have the same question, right click in the panel and select properties, then in the pop-up window that appears you can select panel orinetation. Oh and you can get program windows to minimise to this (or any other) panel by right clicking in the panel, selecting Add to Panel, then adding the Windows List applet.

xenopeek, thanks so much for taking the time to help out with this, its much appreciated. You're certainly accumulating many points in the circle of virtue!

[xenopeek]

Okay, moving on to question two Yes, MATE on its own does not use 3D like Cinnamon does. There are users that add Compiz to their MATE installation, and Compiz allows you to add various 3D effects and such to your desktop. It seems Compiz is in troubled water as it is currently only maintained for, and supporting, Unity. Its lead developer has also said he will not adapt Compiz for upcoming changes to the Linux desktop, like Wayland. However, a user here on the forums has created a fork of Compiz specifically for MATE viewtopic.php?f=217&t=114613. That is for LMDE, so I'm not sure if it will work directly on Linux Mint 14, but it is worth a look if you are interested in Compiz.

[fraplich]

Compiz? I've got enough problems just getting the basic desktop working

The reason I asked relates back to my issues with Cinnamon. In principle I'd prefer to run Cinnamon as a DE rather than MINT, just because the reading I've done suggests that the inexorable progress in Ubuntu is towards Gnome 3, and sooner or later Gnome 2 is going to get left out. Thus, as a beginner facing a steep learning curve either way, it seemed better to wade into Cinnamon/Gnome 3.

The problems I had with Cinnamon seemed to be driver related, since they didn't occur when running Cinnamon in 2D mode - and presumably don't occur in MATE because its also running in 2D.

Anyway, MATE is working so I am happy and can move on exploring Mint - what could possibly go wrong?

Thanks again for your help and time.