18.3 Panels Trashed

[gkelley]

In 18.3 I added a top panel and copied/pasted all applets to it. Created a Left Panel and added Launcher Applet. Removed all applets from bottom panel and added Windows applet. Now I can only right click the bottom panel to get context menu to popup, no popup on left or top panels. Also can't reposition/drag launcher applet to top of left panel, stays at bottom and can't drag-drop applications from Menu to launcher applet in left panel. Deleting Panel only deletes the bottom panel. It's as if the top anda right panels aren't being recognized any more.

How do I manually remove all panels (config files) and start over? Need to remove ALL panels and re-create new panels from scratch but can't do it through context menu.

Or is this a bug in 18.3?

Panels work fine in 18.2 running on different laptop.

[Cosmo.]

Also can't reposition/drag launcher applet to top of left panel, stays at bottom and can't drag-drop applications from Menu to launcher applet in left panel.

Some applets are hard to move, because you have to find the right pixel, where you click it for moving. The easier method: Right click the source panel (in your case the bottom one) and copy the applet configuration. Now you right click the target panel (in your case the right or left one) and select to insert the configuration. This will remove the currently stored applets on the target panel, which you can add later.

Deleting Panel only deletes the bottom panel. It's as if the top anda right panels aren't being recognized any more.

This sounds, as if you would do this always from the bottom panel. You have the use the command to remove the panel from the right click menu of the panel you want to remove.

The ultimate solution would be to right click the panel (doesn't matter in this case which) -> trouble shooting -> reset Cinnamon to default.

If you cannot right click the panels (= nothing happens), try to open the effect settings of the system and disable all effects. Log out and back in to ensure, that all changes get effective.

[gkelley]

Thanks. I did a reset to default.

Created a new panel on top

Right-click bottom panel and copy all applets

Tried to right-click top panel to paste but it does NOT respond to right-click - same issue as before. Panels other than bottom don't respond to right-click.

Turned off all effects - no change.

I have 18.3 installed on two Acer Switch Alpha 12s and BOTH exhibit the same problems - no right-click, can't delete panels other than the bottom, etc.

[Cosmo.]

I cannot confirm any problem with right clicking a vertical panel or the top panel in Mint 18.3.

Create a fresh new user account and check there, how it behaves. Do no changes in the test account except adding panels, adding, removing and moving applets from one panel to another.

[gkelley]

I just installed 18.2 on my main laptop, an Asus GX75 (was running kubuntu) and panels all work as expected.

Something strange going on with these Acers...

Will try a new user acct and see if that works.

Thanks for the suggestions.

UPDATE:

Panels work after creating new user. Would be nice to find the cinnamon panel files causing the issue and delete or reconfigure without having to move everything from current user over to new user.

[Cosmo.]

Let us check, if there is a problem with the ownership of the files in your home:

Mark the following command and press ctrl-c

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

open a terminal and press ctrl-shift-V
Mark the complete result inclusive the command with the mouse and press ctrl-shift-C
In the forum click the Code-button (looks like </>) above the text edit box, than press ctrl-v.

Report in case, that there is no output.

[gkelley]

No output, all files owned by me.

I have looked through all cinnamon related files in my $HOME directory and can't find anything related to panels (~/.cinnamon, ~/.config and ~/.local/share)

Would be nice to copy files from different user where panels work to my $HOME but can't identify which files are 'broken' in my instance.

I may be forced to copy my personal files to the new user home (not many as this is fairly new install) and delete my original user.

[Cosmo.]

That is surprising. Did you follow my advice very precisely? Do you have the update manager completely disabled?

I take it for now as you reported. In this case the cause for the problem must be in the settings.
Open the file manager and make hidden files visible (ctrl-h). Rename in your home the folder .config to .config.bck. Do the same accordingly with the folders .local and .cinnamon. Immediately log out of your account and and back in. Check.

The renamed folders get automatically recreated with default values. If you want to revert the changes, you can delete the newly created folders for getting able to revert the renaming.

[gkelley]

FYI - I have been building and using Linux Servers and Desktops for over 20 years, so feel free to get technical and skip the hand-holding - I can keep up

[deepakdeshp]

FYI - I have been building and using Linux Servers and Desktops for over 20 years, so feel free to get technical and skip the hand-holding - I can keep up

Later you should be a valuable contributor to the forum.

[Cosmo.]

FYI - I have been building and using Linux Servers and Desktops for over 20 years, so feel free to get technical and skip the hand-holding - I can keep up

In this case you can surely translate my advice according your experience. The interesting part is:What is the result?

[gkelley]

Since I only had a few apps installed, I created a new user and moved the app settings folders over and now panels are working as they should. Not worth digging into the why since the migration to a new user was straight-forward and didn't take wearly the time it would have to continue debugging the panel issues for the old/original user. Thanks for your input.