Applications section of start menu not functioning

[dlvonde]

Hello,
I recently decided to try and breathe some new life into an old desktop and a netbook by installing Linux Mint 20.1 MATE. The desktop install works as expected, but the netbook version is having one strange issue I haven't been able to find the fix for. When I click on the LM menu, the first row works as expected (Places, System), but the 2nd column of the menu (Applications) doesn't work. The default icons are there (Accessories, Graphics, Internet, Office, etc.), but when I click them nothing happens...it doesn't show me the applications that are "bundled" in that category.

I first noticed it when I installed Chromium and then went to the Internet menu icon to find it and it wasn't there. When I clicked the internet button, nothing happens. I also tried the search bar which doesn't find the application. I can type chromium in terminal though and the program runs..I can also launch it from Software Manager. Finally I went to the "Main Menu" icon under Control Center (where you can customize the icons that show on the applications menu) and noticed it DOES show the new programs that I've installed when I click on the Internet, etc. menu items. SO! The applications are getting installed...their icons are being placed on the Applications menu...but the actual applications menu doesn't work at all..it just shows the default buttons and clicking on them does nothing....searching for the application also doesn't find them...only web search results.

The only signifigant difference between the desktop and laptop installations is I had to update the boot parameters on the laptop to get it to boot without going to a black screen and getting stuck. I installed a program called Grub Customizer, and changed the "quiet splash" parameter to "nomodeset".

I would appreciate any suggestions/ideas as to what the problem might be. Both desktop and laptop installations had all updates installed at first reboot and I've rebooted several times to no avail.

[dlvonde]

looking around the forums there are a few other things I tried...
- ALT + F1 brings up an alternate applications menu and that menu DOES work properly...
- I found another thread where a file was deleted in ~/.config/menus/ but that did not work. In my menus folder there are 2 empty folders "applications-merged" and "mate-applications-merged" and the file mate-settings.menu

[LinuxLover2]

Following as I have the same issue...

[cfgobel]

I have the same problem. Also tried delete the mentioned files and folder. The Classic menu applet does work.