missing menu and panels in Mint 12

[mwshook]

I am having similar problems, although not as severe as some others.
I upgraded from Ubuntu 11.11. The first day, everything was beautiful. I loved the "infinity button" in the upper left.

I then decided to install the proprietary ATI drivers, as was recommended by the icon in the upper right corner. This failed and required an X restart. When I came back, I no longer have the Mint-specific interface. I can run the default GNOME desktop and MATE, but I am missing it's not the same Mint I had when I started. It's OK, but not as good as what I had. Also, I can no longer run TweetDeck.

I tried to re-install from the DVD, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without formatting my /home partition (I don't want to do that).

I tried creating a new user, and seeing if that would help. No luck.

Does anyone know how to re-install Mint without reformatting /home?

[cavedweller]

The quick fix is menu/system tools/system settings/additional drivers. Highlight the one you installed and click Remove at the bottom of the page. Reboot and all should be back to how it was at install. If you are using the AMD/ATI adapter don't waste your time going to their site and installing 11.11. It only clears up a few issues, but is still a buggy mess. Think I am going to go back to Kubuntu 11.10 and KDE 4.73 it worked flawlessly or debeian. Think they pulled a MS from Ubuntu to Mint and jumped the gun on this release with Gnome 3. A lot of blaming AMD, ATI, and Nvidia going on. Should have stuck with what was working until the bugs were worked out a little better. To be honest I expected a little better from mint.

[RobCandee]

I have seen the same menu options listed in other replies, but I don't have an option "system settings" under System Tools. this may be due to the fact that I am currently using MATE (no panels or menu in the GNOME 3 version). Is there another way to get to the "additional drivers" list?

[marshman]

I had this problem at first but solved it and posted the method on the community web site.

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/691

[rustguard]

the menus in my install, I seem to have as much customisation as in ubuntu 11.10. when I go into system settings there are a sparse amount of icons and most dont do much, is there something I am missing? I was eager to try mint 12 as I thought there may have been some more tools, customization added, but alas no. I really like the new look of both ubuntu 11.10 and mint 12. But I dont seem to be able to get under the bonnet

[pauloates]

Thank you to all those who have posted replies to my original question - most of whom have the same problems. Judging by the number of views there are many more people. It is a shame that the problem has not been addressed but I guess the developers have been overwhelmed - and the problems may be Ubuntu or Gnome related. I originally installed Mint 4 because it was one of only two of the distributions that I then tried that worked 'out of the box'. This seems to me to be essential for any new Linux user. I had no problems with Mint up to version 11 and eventually had to go back to 10. I am doing this now but will explore other distros as well. I will try Mint12 KDE and LXDE when they are issued to see (a) if they work and (b) if I like them.

[dehawkinz]

I am currently using Mint10 LXDE

but this is in part due to my hardware configuration, and a stubborn hardware problem that has started generating kernel panics under Mint12.

When I can resolve that issue, I may re-explore the issues of the graphics adapter / card / driver and Mint 12

[ddmetzger]

Ditto all of the above. Have tried on four different computers and Mint 12 crashes (locks up) on all of them when booting from "live". Why should I spend time installing when "live" version will not work.
I've managed a lot of software projects and in my judgement you need to:

'Fess up (and pronto)
Fix It!!!!!

[darethehair]

Update: Was hoping that 'cinnamon' -- especially the newly-released 1.2 -- would be another way of getting a Gnome 3 desktop working on my older Dell Inspiron 1150, but no dice:

Code: Select all

$ dmesg
...
[  124.689828] cinnamon[1576]: segfault at 0 ip   (null) sp bf9d7fdc error 4 in libmuffin.so.0.0.0[110000+bc000]
[  133.696241] cinnamon[1752]: segfault at 0 ip   (null) sp bfc989bc error 4 in libgdk-3.so.0.200.0[110000+76000]

$ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device bus-ID: 00:02.0
            X.org 1.10.4 drivers intel unloaded: fbdev,vesa tty size 237x73 Advanced Data: N/A out of X
           GLX Renderer N/A GLX Version N/A Direct Rendering N/A

I'd love to 'join the party' of Mint 12, but this is a showstopper for me right now

[voomie]

Well I decided to upgrade and 12 is working. I think it might be the mirror I downloaded it from had a faulty version. I am not a fan of gnome 3, I am trying cinnamon right now.

[ad1976]

The same happened to me when I logging in Gnome. I have an old laptop Acer 4420 (64bits) with an ATI (Radeon) graphic card that always gives me problems.
In Gnome Classic or Gnome Classic (no effects) everything is working all right.

[Lumikki]

I had my first try same problem, when I installed Linux Mint 12 my older computer what has some motherboard graphics card.

I looked while and it seem to run somekind of VESA drivers. So, I assumed that Linux Mint 12 Gnome 3 side needed more graphics functions that GPU on motherboard had with that driver. I did go easy solution and but old ATI graphics card in and installed Mint 12 again. Fixed my issue. Of course I could have login to MATE side, what requires less from graphics drivers. Or I could have also tryed to find my motherboard GPU better drivers, if they exist. But in my case puting graphics card in the computer was easyes solutions, as I had one extra.

[kibbie]

DON'T GIVE UP ON MINT
problem ...here as well. after weeks of 'fixing' something I haven't a clue about. I got there.
At the log in click on the gear and degrade the front end interface. I first chose Gnome no effects.
ReBoot and this worked then I chose the one in between and re booted this worked as well.

Here is why. for the last 15 years all graphics cards conform to some standard, the only real difference among models and makers is additional features.
by choosing the no effects you are telling the system to just use the card to the standard vga ega ...

this solved... after 22 years of windows, an entire museum system goes mint.

DON'T GIVE UP ON MINT

regards
dan

[bmcilw1]

It does appear to be related to graphics card.

I installed Mint 12 with a Radeon 3650 card with 1GB memory installed. I had the 'new' look, complete with top and bottom bars and infinity icon.
I swapped my graphics card back to my older card (GeForce FX5200 with 128mb memory) for testing purposes with a different issue, and when I logged in, I was back to the 'reduced' desktop.

I can not swap to MATE as I dont have the "wheel" and I set it to automatically login.

If you did not know about the 'new' look, then it probably would not look such a bad desktop, although it is now missing the iconise all button.

EDIT:
I did try logging out, which then gives the cogwheel, but the only options were
Gnome
Gnome Classic
Gnome Classic (no effects)

but whichever option I choose, the desktop is still presented the same.

See my forum for a similar problem (Bad weird menus).

Is my "problem" a temporary "fix" to this no-menu bug?

[delicious]

Im pretty new to linux mint myself, but maybe this will help? I login to the default one Gnome 3. Ive removed my bottom menu, but if you go here:

https://extensions.gnome.org/local/

you can check the extensions for the top/bottom menu as well as other fun/cool things Hope that helps!

[billsimson]

I am new to Mint and had ubuntu 11.1 in classic mode on a 1GB Thinkpad R31 working fine. Mint comes up as described above with no memu options, and after reading this post it appears I should just go back to Ubuntu and be happy it works. I am not conversant in the line editing and commands in Terminal, so there appears to be no useful fix for me. Any additional thoughts?

[darethehair]

I am new to Mint and had ubuntu 11.1 in classic mode on a 1GB Thinkpad R31 working fine. Mint comes up as described above with no memu options, and after reading this post it appears I should just go back to Ubuntu and be happy it works. I am not conversant in the line editing and commands in Terminal, so there appears to be no useful fix for me. Any additional thoughts?

I have an 'indirect' thought on this. With no progress in sight for this problem, I eventually decided to try the newest LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) 201204 on my old Dell laptop instead, and feared that it would also stumble like LM 12 did. There were a few worrying messages during 'live' mode, but I was surprised and pleased to see that it *did* work just fine after the install completed (!). I have no idea what is 'wrong' with LM 12 and 'right' with LMDE 201204 re: graphics modes and menus, but glad for success. LMDE is my 'preferred' version anyways -- but it would be nice to have the choice of booting into LM 12 as well if I wanted to. Perhaps whatever the 'fix' in LMDE will make its way into LM12 or 13?

Bottom line: rather than give up on Linux Mint, why not try LMDE 201204 in the meantime?