Cinnamon 1.61 on Ubuntu 12.10

[ChrisOfBristol]

I’ve just installed Ubuntu 12.10 today and then immediately installed Cinnamon 1.61. Gnome Classic works fine – so I’ve already got a big improvement over Unity! If I choose Cinnamon at login I’m left with a screen which is blank apart from my wallpaper. There are no menus of any sort and no key combinations or mouse movements have any effect.

[naike]

No idea to be honest but did you install muffin?
Maybe try to load the meta/default packet (that includes mint menu and such iirc) for cinnamon from the linux mint repository?

[ChrisOfBristol]

Installing Muffin (note correction) doesn't make any difference.

If I log in as "Guest", Cinnamon works perfectly. This suggests to me that all the necessary software is installed, but that something, perhaps the window manager, isn't being started when I log in with my own account - . Any suggestions what I might check?

[zerozero]

uncheck compiz from auto-start.

[ChrisOfBristol]

I couldn't find auto-start anywhere so I googled it - and found the command gnome-session-properties recommended by someone called zerozero lol.

Using that I was able to inspect the list of startup programs, there was no compiz, but gnome-wm was. I put it there a while ago when I was using Ubuntu + gnome-session-fallback because otherwise I had no window titles or buttons.

Removing it makes no difference to Cinnamon but causes problems with Gnome Classic as above.

I tried replacing it with Compiz/Metacity/Mutter/Muffin - all gave the same result, they stopped Gnome Classic working properly but didn't help Cinnamon.

So that is not the answer - but I think you are on the right track, it might be something to do with a window manager.

[zerozero]

hi,
i believe that is an interaction between compiz and muffin (mutter's fork and cinnamon's wm); they don't play together, the same happens in gnome-shell (any attempt to use compiz in there breaks the shell.
gnome-session-fallback uses metacity that's why has no problems with compiz.

now to this:
1- are you (re)using an old HOME? or is this an in-place upgrade from precise to quantal? this because if the guest account has no problems, there's 1 config somewhere in your account that is killing cinnamon;
2- in .config/autostart check if you have any compiz-desktop

[ChrisOfBristol]

I'm sure you are right. As I mentioned, I get no window buttons or title in Gnome Classic unless I include compiz or metacity in the startup list and when I tried MATE it didn't work either. I'm convinced it's something to do with window manager(s).

1- are you (re)using an old HOME?

I have formatted "/" but kept "/home" and I agree that there may be

1 config somewhere in your account that is killing cinnamon;

Next you suggest:

2- in .config/autostart check if you have any compiz-desktop

All removed - see attached.

I also got a Ubuntu error message last time I tried logging into Cinnamon which seems quite relevant:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/cinnamon

[zerozero]

the more i think about this the more i'm convinced that it's a config file messing around. now the problem is find out which.
the guest account works well, so it's not the installation that is somewhat broken, same for gnome-fallback.
in my experience here in the forum (re)using previous HOME isn't worth the trouble.

[ChrisOfBristol]

I'm sure you are right zerozero, but I want to keep my data from "/home". If I were to copy it all out, re-install the system then copy it back I would copy the problem configuration file back too wouldn't I? On the other hand, if I copy everything except "." files I will lose things like Tomboy notes.
My conclusion is that I would need to work out which files I can afford to lose and then not copy them - in which case I could just have deleted them from "/home" couldn't I?

[zerozero]

sorry for taking this time to get back to you
Chris,
applications config files/folders are not the problem (and are not those almost for sure that are causing these issues):
.mozilla
.thunderbird
.xchat
.opera
.purple
are safe to keep (and /or backup and restore afterwards)
ofc you'll add here any specific app that you use (you mentioned tomboy; should be one safe as well)

the issue are the system config files/folders (as opposed to the applications above): those can/will be troublesome.

and as a foot note: why (re)using a previous HOME is nowadays more problematic than it was say until one year ago?
- until one/one and a half year ago gnome was evolving quiet slowly (the 2.xx was up for ages) and most of the code was fairly compatible >> this scenario is not true today anymore: gnome is evolving at a fast pace (a major release every 6 months)
- furthermore (and to add to the problem) until then we had 1 gnome shipped more or less tweaked in all major distros; today we have gnome proper, unity, cinnamon ,pantheon soon (and we can add mate to the mix) all with different config (and sometimes incompatible )

[ChrisOfBristol]

No worries. Again what you say makes good sense. The problem for me is knowing what is application data that I need to keep and what is operating system stuff which I can dump. There are about 100 "." directories and there isn't any way for me to know the difference apart from a few obvious ones like .config.

I am going to use Ubuntu+Gnome Classic with gnome-wm in the startup list. This suits me very well - apart from it being clumsy to add launchers to a panel. I'll wait until Cinnamon and MATE have matured a bit, then try again in the hope that they cover configuration issues more comprehensively.

Thanks very much for your help.

[ChrisOfBristol]

I'll wait until Cinnamon and MATE have matured a bit, then try again in the hope that they cover configuration issues more comprehensively.

It has now got to that point. I tried Mint-14/Cinammon instead of Ubuntu+Cinammon and had the problem stated in the first posting again, so I bodged it to make it work. It ran without seizing (unlike 13 http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=102836) so I decided to stick with it. I then had an inspiration about how to get rid of the 'old configuration file' problem without having to trust everything to a backup. I have done that and it works fine (explained on http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=102836).