Boot into user command line mode, without launching graphical user interface X and Mate.
You should see a text-based login and your user's command prompt, such as quixote@bryum:$My workaround to do this in Mate:
You don't want recovery mode, because that's root, and you're trying to change your user's theme.
Mate's login screen does not give an option for an X-less login. So:
login to recovery mode.
Edit /etc/default/grub
(using, for instance nano you'd type
#nano /etc/default/grub)
change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash" to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet text"
In nano, you hit Ctrl-x to exit editing, y to answer yes to the save question, and return to confirm the filename.
Then run
#update-grub
and type reboot to, ahem, reboot .
(Once everything is all fixed, remember to change "text" back to "splash" and run "sudo update-grub" again.)
Make sure you have a GTK 3.8 theme installed:
Code: Select all
sudo apt-get install mint-themes mint-themes-gtk3
Code: Select all
dbus-launch --exit-with-settings gsettings set org.mate.interface gtk-theme 'Mint-X'
dbus-launch --exit-with-settings gsettings set org.mate.interface icon-theme 'Mint-X'
dbus-launch --exit-with-settings gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general theme 'Mint-X'
Code: Select all
startx
After booting, I get this rigamarole of having to cycle through repeated startx until Mate loads. Don't ask me why. It comes back from suspend just fine, though.
One last thing: the updated Mate is reset not to show desktop for some reason. To fix that, open a terminal and type:
Code: Select all
gsettings set org.mate.background show-desktop-icons true
============Original question=====================================================================
Okay. I've been going around and around on the forums, trying things, doing reboots and more reboots, and I have hereby officially given up. The attraction of LMDE was NOT having to reinstall the system. This install has had numerous specialty packages installed, and my friend's world will end if he has to reinstall. (I'm trying to do this for a Linux newbie, but I think it's a case of the blind leading the blind.)
Anyway. The situation is this: Based on a 201303 LMDE 64-bit Mate iso, some upgrades may have been applied but mostly it was not up to date. A few days ago I put it through the big upgrade using
Code: Select all
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Looking around, this is some kind of issue with GTK3 and themes or something? There is no indication how to fix this from the command line. The problem is that I have no GUI. I can't "simply change theme." If I select "run Xclient script" as the session, sometimes it boots into a GUI desktop. When I then tried to change the theme under Prefs > Appearances, it doesn't seem to help, nor will it let me install any other themes.
From what I've seen on the forums, it sounds like this is some arcane conflict instroduced by something or other (GTK3? Mate's default theme? Something else entirely?). There has got to be some commands I can use in recovery mode that will deal with that! What are they?
I should add: that install tracks testing.
Update: Title changed to more accurately reflect the question (I hope!). But I may have the whole thing misdiagnosed, so I don't even know if Mate themes are the problem. I hope someone can help!