MATE taskbars not loading

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soccerz619

MATE taskbars not loading

Post by soccerz619 »

Hey guys,
I use this everyday and about 3 days ago my MintMenu on my task bar stopped working. It would pop-up with an error and as if I wanted to reload, but it would never reload. So today, I removed the MintMenu and added a regularMenu (can't think of the exact one), but after I did that, my taskbars went away. It will try to pop-up with an error message, but it's there for a split second and I can't get a screenshot of it or read the text of it.

In any case, I no longer have my regular taskbar with my menus, launcher shortcuts, calendar, etc, (which I left placed on top) or my bottom menu that showed running programs and desktops, etc. How can I get these back so I can use MATE? Cinnamon doesn't work with my hardware (very old) and fortunately I had played with Enlightenment and am able to boot to a desktop. Thanks!
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all41
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by all41 »

I had totally destroyed my menu and taskbar. In my case the resolution was:
Alt+F2 to open terminal and type in

Code: Select all

mintmenu --reset
and click Run.
Later I found how I tore it up by unknowingly repeating the same mistake,
but I was able to recognize and repeat the reset. It was happening when I selected
a Menu Button icon with a .svg extension


also
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 39#p683722
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
soccerz619

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by soccerz619 »

hitting Alt+F2 won't do anything. I cannot use any other keyboard shortcuts to launch the terminal either. The only way I could maybe get there is to do right-click, add Launcher, but I don't know where the Terminal is in the whole architecture of /.

In any case, I successfully used mintmenu --reset in a Terminal in Enlightenment, but it didn't effect my MATE session when I logged into it. If I put the mouse up to where the top taskbar should be, the files on my desktop move down a little bit (I keep the top taskbar hidden), but I can't see or click anything, and even if I click where my programs are up there, they don' activate.

I tried mate-panel --reset and it didn't help either. It is still blank at the top, but after resetting the panel, I can hit the Alt+F1 and it did fire the menu, but it keeps going away, shifting my screen up then back down. So far, no go.
Briand18
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by Briand18 »

For some reason my Taskbar shows two copies of the icon for any open applications. Closing one of them closes the other eg at the moment I've got two Firefox icons and two 'Computer' icons. Closing one of the Firefox icons closes the other Firefox (ending the session) and leaves the two 'Computer' icons. Not particularly bothersome, but very puzzling.
Briand18
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by Briand18 »

Actually, I was being unduly calm in my last post. This doubling up of every icon in the Taskbar is starting to get on my nerves. I can't see any obvious options for fixing it. Any ideas?
soccerz619

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by soccerz619 »

Briand18 wrote:Actually, I was being unduly calm in my last post. This doubling up of every icon in the Taskbar is starting to get on my nerves. I can't see any obvious options for fixing it. Any ideas?
I don't know if it would work, but you can try

Code: Select all

mate-panel --reset
in terminal to see what it does. I can't see mine still, but it did appear to reset something I'm just not sure what.
Briand18
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by Briand18 »

Many thanks. That seems to have done the trick for now.
soccerz619

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by soccerz619 »

Would a full uninstall of MATE work? Purge it and then reinstall?
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by Briand18 »

Soccer - no need. Your previous suggestion did the trick ! Unless you're replying to OP, in which case my apologies.
sannfog

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by sannfog »

I seem to have the same problem. The taskbar is gone and I've tried the suggestions above as well as those in this thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 39#p683722. The ALT+F1 works so I can still use the computer but any other suggestions would be welcome. If nothing else, what would best way to reinstall MATE? I guess What triggered it was that I accidentally set a background image that was stored on a partition that isn't mounted on boot, but that it fixed now.
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by TheDynamicHamza21 »

sannfog wrote:I guess What triggered it was that I accidentally set a background image that was stored on a partition that isn't mounted on boot, but that it fixed now.
A background image for the desktop or for the panel? Either one shouldn't have caused errors with the panel.

sannfog wrote:I seem to have the same problem. The taskbar is gone and I've tried the suggestions above as well as those in this thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 39#p683722. The ALT+F1 works so I can still use the computer but any other suggestions would be welcome. If nothing else, what would best way to reinstall MATE?

did you try to purge the panel then reinstall? Other than that the only way to fix it would be reinstall.
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sannfog

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by sannfog »

A background image for the desktop or for the panel? Either one shouldn't have caused errors with the panel.
That was just my interpretation, because that's what I did just before shutting down and then the error appeared when i rebooted.
did you try to purge the panel then reinstall? Other than that the only way to fix it would be reinstall.
I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how to purge and reinstall the panel.

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sudo apt-get --purge remove mate-panel

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sudo apt-get install mate-panel
??

ETA: I tried the above code and rebooted, but it didn't work. I've googled a bit on how to reinstall MATE completely, but there seem to be different opinions on which packages to remove. Does someone have any experience with this?

I updated (clean install as suggested in the manual) from 14 to 17 recently, and I used Cinnamon before but changed to MATE as I understand it uses less resources and my laptop is getting a little old. I had no issues with Cinnamon ever, but I enjoy trying something new. Is there a chance that this could be some hardware compability issue with MATE? That seemed unlikely to me, but I have never had any desktop issues ever.
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Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by TheDynamicHamza21 »

If your computer can handle Cinnamon then it should handle Mate but looking through this forum Mint 17 Mate has a lot problems. Mate 1.6 and above is very different and not as stable as Mate 1.2 and Mate 1.4. mate and Cinnamon on same system does cause major issues for many users. Some users experience no problem at all.

If you have cinnamon installed on you computer you could purge Mate and reinstall and see if that helps. If resetting or purging the panel didn't help before than I'm lost why your panels disppeared and can not be reset.

if do so use

sudo apt-get --purge remove mate

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get clean && autoclean
then

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sudo apt-get update
then

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop && mint-meta-mate
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soccerz619

Re: MATE taskbars not loading

Post by soccerz619 »

TheDynamicHamza21 wrote:If your computer can handle Cinnamon then it should handle Mate but looking through this forum Mint 17 Mate has a lot problems. Mate 1.6 and above is very different and not as stable as Mate 1.2 and Mate 1.4. mate and Cinnamon on same system does cause major issues for many users. Some users experience no problem at all.

If you have cinnamon installed on you computer you could purge Mate and reinstall and see if that helps. If resetting or purging the panel didn't help before than I'm lost why your panels disppeared and can not be reset.

if do so use

sudo apt-get --purge remove mate

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get clean && autoclean
then

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update
then

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop && mint-meta-mate
Is this advisable over a fresh install? I am considering just reinstalling with a whole new OS and maybe switching from Mint, but don't know if this will break anything major. I am currently using OpenBox, but it is super minimal and maybe uses something from MATE...I do have GNOME Classic as well, but it's slow and crashes if I open a text editor.
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