Several bugs after upgrading to Mint 21

[BrunoMiranda]

Hi folks!

After upgrading to Mint 21 I've got a series of bugs and regressions. I've managed to solve some of them and others persist, including these ones that I believe are related to Cinnamon:

• While navigating on the Mint Menu, sometimes I get some erratic white triangles that flash for just a moment and they they're gone, but sometimes I can get another one a few seconds later while I'm still navigating on the Menu looking for an application.
  They pop up while I have the mouse cursor on one of the categories (games, WINE, Internet, Accessories, etc.), not on the applications on the right side of the Menu.
  If I move the mouse just a little bit from side to side while inside that same category, the triangles can flash on every mouse move, but I cannot get them to stand still to do a printscreen.
  I've tried to record the screen but while it is recording this bug does not happen.
  The below images were taken with my phone:

https://imgur.com/a/eoMR5Du

• Applications running as root (synaptic, nemo, etc.) are not obeying my dark theme configurations and show up in a light theme that I can feel my tired eyes muscles contract in strain.
  Here is a curious example: The update manager. When launched it is dark themed, but when it installs anything, after given the root password, the new window installing software as root is light themed. Printscreen here:

https://imgur.com/zx2yc02

• When I try to do a screen video recording with Cinnamon's in-build way, by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R, the red circular icon stating that there is an ongoing screen recording no longer shows up. Cinnamon is capturing the video, just the reminding icon isn't showing up.
  Further investigation let to know that the Menu "Applet XApp Status" is not showing the icon. It creates room for itself among the other applets (WiFi signal, sound volume, etc.) leaving a tiny blank space, but fails to present the red circular icon. When I press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + R to stop recording I can see the "Applet XApp Status" blank space disappearing and the other applets' icons rearranging themselves accordingly.

These three bugs just affect my account and I believe there is some general rendering bug doing this crazy stuff.
After creating another account for testing purposes, I can verify that these bugs do not occur in it, just in my account.
So what could be doing all this? Are there some working configurations I can fetch from my working test account into mine, to solve these? (where and what?)

Thank you very much!

[Cosmo.]

I am astonished, that #2 works as you want in the test account.

But nevertheless, try this:

#1 Delete the hidden folder .cache. Log out and back in and check.

The folder gets automatically recreated.

#2 If this does not help rename the folder .config to .config.renamed. Log out / in.
Very most of your settings will get lost, but you can get them back, by renaming to the original name.

Also here a new folder with default content gets created. If you later want to get back, delete this folder and rename the original folder back. Out / In.

#3 The same as #2 with .local.1

[BrunoMiranda]

@Cosmo., thank you so much for your reply!

I followed some of your instructions with variable results and took notes, and then reading your reply again made me notice that I still have to do the .local part, so I'll do it and report back later.

But peeking at the .local folder I've noticed one thing that called my attention:
the /home/bruno/.local/session_migration-cinnamon file internally calls for /usr/share/session-migration/scripts/dark-theme-migration.sh. So, for what I am understanding, there is a theme migration during system upgrade. Meaning one more point of eventual failure.

This points me to a trend I've been noticing since the last years, the evermore lacking of configuration of Cinnamon, specially on the Look & Feel. Even MATE has being losing on this front! For years that I've been asking for proper theme configuration and editing tools that would have saved me from a lot of these troubles. Theme went berserk after upgrade? Just re-configure it. Plus plus minus, knob left or right, click click, apply, save, there! My OS upgraded fine, it's just the Look & Feel that is weird. Now I have to dig around Cinnamon's guts just to figure out what went wrong...

Ah well... Thanks again, Cosmos, I'll finish testing and will report back soon.

[BrunoMiranda]

Ok, so here's what I've found out:

• Deleting the .cache folder did nothing at all.

• Deleting the .config folder solved most problems except the white triangles bug.

• Deleting the .local folder solved most problems including the white triangles bug.

• Deleting both .config and .local folder solved the most problems but my configurations are gone and I need to selectively restore and wish I don't break anything.

• There was yet another weird problem I forgot to mention in the original post.
  This laptop has a keypad with an Enter key. After upgrade it stopped working on the Mint Menu and it didn't get solved when I created a new account, only when I've deleted the .local folder.

And then it comes down to plain theming. I like the buttons' colors on CBlack, it gives a good contrast of the active window. I've lost count of the times I've closed a background window by mistake due to weak and confusing contrast between the active and background windows!
But CBlack makes root windows light themed! Could it be not fully compatible with the current version of Cinnamon or did it botch during the upgrade?
I would prefer the general contrast of the adwaita-dark theme, but those active window buttons don't have enough contrast to keep me from mistakenly closing the wrong background window and potentially lose work!
And from what I've noticed, going back and forward Adwaita-dark and CBlack makes the disk manager and Synaptic be one dark and the other light themed, one theme fixes an application and bugs the other one, and changing the theme reverts the applications, meaning either way I have one working and one buggy application!


Now with all this, what I can try is pinpoint the folders and files that introduce the regressions.
I can selectively restore from backups the various files and folders into the .config and .local folder and try to find the problems by trial and error. And for what I've seen, among other eventual folders, it will boil down to the files of the Adwaita-dark and CBlack themes.

More! I've found out that there's a folder called /home/bruno/.themes. CBlack is installed there. And I don't know how does it mix&match with other themes on the system, as when I change the theme there seems to be no changes in this folder.

And from there on it will be a matter of going through their code and try to spot things.
But I am not a coder, I have no documentation or knowledge on how Cinnamon is themed and I may find it way too hard to exactly pinpoint the problems.
So, beforehand I ask, how hard will this be, how long will it take and will it eventually worth it.
Furthermore, will this information reach the developers so they can fix it without returning to the repeated history of asking me to open a Github account for bug reporting?

I have fully functional Mint 20.3 backups that will be valid for a few more years and work the way I want and need.
I can skip Mint 21.x altogether and in a couple of years bite the bullet and do a Mint 22 nuke & pave.
But all this just because of some minor (but critical!) visual configurations?

And this boils to the same point: Cinnamon is becoming less and less themable and we need a theme configuration and editing tool. MATE had this, and even that has been abandoned! System upgrades disabling Enter keys on the keypad based on buried deep down home folder settings is a very annoying regression! We need a tool so regular users can click and select the most common desktop items: border colors, button icons, bar font color and style for a proper contrast, etc. in order to easily create and fix the desktop visual ergonomics to fit our own needs, like if it were Accessibility settings, and without users having to wait for a developer to fix their theme (if it ever manages to get fixed!).
If I wanted locked pre-selected Look & Feel settings I'd go to the Apple walled gardens. KDE Plasma shows it is possible to configure just about anything!



Either way, Cosmo, I'm truly appreciative of your help! If you know how can I easily modify the adwaita-dark theme as a base and give it CBlack's top corner (minimize, maximize and close) buttons while keeping applications running as root dark themed, please let me know!
Thanks and cheers.

[BrunoMiranda]

Just discovered that what brakes the desktop video red circle notification. It happens when I add the applet turn-off-monitor@zablotski. That's when the red circle stops appearing, just its blank space. Removing it doesn't solve the problem.

How to contact the developer? Through Github. Leaving him a comment as a note on the Cinnamon applets site? Need to create an account.
No, just no! Developers need to realize normal users aren't going to create a Github account or any other account for that matter just to drop a note. Why not use the old fashioned email account anyone has and knows how to use? (frustrated sigh)

[Cosmo.]

Just to prevent, that you wait endlessly for an answer: You will not get one from me.
The reason is simple: After investigating since the appearance of LM 21 Cinnamon beta I found out, that #1 there are too many regressions and bugs and #2 no real advantage (the best I found are the wallpapers). The consequence is, that LM 21 will not get on my system (only in virtual test machine) and out of this reason I will not waste my time with details questions. LM 20.3 works perfectly here and I consider it as the far superior system. Who looks for the second prize, if he got already the first?

I do note here the problems with LM 21 only for the purpose to find out with the next release, if they are solved.

[BrunoMiranda]

Thanks for replying and being honest, Cosmo. I appreciated that!

And my thoughts are just in line with yours.
Yesterday while going to bed I was thinking this would be too much work for little outcome apart from more recent software, some of which we can get it through PPAs.
I made the decision that if this would be too much complicated I would just restore my Mint 20.3 backup and hang in here and skip 21.x altogether and then see how things will go with Mint 22 - although I already predict not better - and by then bite the bullet and nuke&pave.

This is day #3 or #4 of trying to fix just one single machine and installation. I have a few of each, so even having learned how to deal with the problems, that would be too much work applying everything on each one of them.
Alas, I don't even reinstall from scratch - too many customizations on my systems.
I install one and get it to work, make a backup of it and then restore and adapt it into each new machine and partition. Some work the 1st time but after that each partition has its own backup and works rock solid until the .3 release, including .x updates.
So yeah, I'm staying on 20.3 on all my machines, at least I have consistency and things work the way I want and need. Too much borking and regressions in Mint 21 indeed, specially regarding upgrades from 20.3.

While reviewing some stuff I realized there was a change in Mint 21's Cinnamon's engines, meaning this might be really really hard to change, something like having to learn the innards of the themes and changing the code, and even with that good luck eventually with the root applications obeying it...

By the time of Mint 22 I'll check how things are and will probably ditch Cinnamon for MATE or install KDE on top of Mint. I've never liked this GNOME3 paradigm of the minimalist unconfigurable walled garden. For that there are Apple products, and I don't touch those not even with a 10 feet pole! I have two problems with those: a full brain and an empty wallet.

Ah well...
Thanks again for your sincere reply.
Rebooting and reverting back to 20.3...
Cheers.

[BrunoMiranda]

Just to add that when I was booting the Mint 21 live boot to restore my Mint 20.3 backup (now running perfectly and happily for my relief!), I've played a bit around the live session with themes and yes, that thing is broken from the get go!
If I apply the adwaita-dark theme, things go dark-themed but the disk manager disregards it and keeps on in a light theme. So yeah, broken from the get go...

[Cosmo.]

Only a side note:

I would / will not wait until the next major release, but take a look at the dot release(s).

[BrunoMiranda]

Sure, I always pay attention to those.
But changing to them would imply an update, that will inevitably break and regress a lot of things; or nuke&pave that will take a lot of time and work to setup the way I like. And for that I'd rather maximize that effort that I already had with my 20.x and keep it to its EOL.

Out of curiosity I've searched on YouTube for how to custumize your Cinnamon themes. Found one video, around half an hour, that taught some basics like the folder structures and a few modifications, but the guy was complaining that there is not much documentation (the code is commented clearish enough) and he was trying to change some settings that didn't work after all. It's not a hard process per se, but it's a complex one and having no descriptive detailed documentation only makes things harder and more frustrating. And I thought the process would have been fully documented as part of Open Source...

Well, at least I'm covered on 20.3 for 3 more years, lets see where things go but trends haven't pleased me the last decade since designers (one of my pet peeves) started making things looking cool but have gotten way way worse in terms of functionality and ergonomics. I can't understand icons anymore and those colors... When I look at some modern desktop, I feel like I'm watching Baby TV on LSD... And this is what they want to lock me in staring into all day while attempting to work and achieve productivity?!?!?!?

[Cosmo.]

But changing to them would imply an update

Not if you (I) use a virtual machine. VirtualBox is great for things, I would never do with a physical machine.

[BrunoMiranda]

I get VMs, they have a lot of pros and applications. But for this I do it in bare metal, after proper backup, that I can reinstall back really quick. Here I want the real life experience!

And Linux Mint's upgrades, although they have their own quirks due to their complexity, are not what I qualify as bad, even considering the current regressions. Linux Mint 21 is not bad! My upgrade didn't go smooth enough for me and have the alternative to stay back in 20.3. I'm still happy in Mintland. It's old not up to date Mintland but it's still Mintland!

Regarding bare metal upgrading, here's a real life example.
I had some issues with some temporary freezes for 2 to 5 seconds. At first I thought my old 32GB SSD was starting to die but no SMART data indicated that. Other people have similar complaints.
I've restored my 20.3 backup and things are fast(er) and smooth(er) as usual. So I believe it might be something related to the 5.15 kernel that I don't experience with the 5.4 on Mint 20.3.
And this critical experience would be hard to verify and pinpoint on a VM since the hardware would not be real.

But if I ever decide to install Mint 21 from scratch I will definitely do it on a VM, get everything done the way I like and then make a backup I can restore on each individual hardware piece I've got here. I've done that years ago and it worked pretty well. And a VM snapshot is a very important feature before important steps that can fail, they make it easy to revert back in just a couple of clicks.

Cheers.

[viggen66]

i agree wirh these statements, linux mint 21 is just a rubbish release, never seen so much bugs, hangs, random issues, instability, one of the worst limux distros i have ever tried.

i gave it a try today again, and by changing icons it started to behave weirdly, i have never seen so much problems, but on the other hand mint 20.3 is rock solid, really can't understand what went wrong, probably ubuntu 22 is still a work in progress and not stable enough for release.

I don't recommed using mint 21 but 20.3, you loose a theme setting, and you loose lots of stability

[SMG]

i agree wirh these statements, linux mint 21 is just a rubbish release, never seen so much bugs, hangs, random issues, instability, one of the worst limux distros i have ever tried.

I think you may have posted in the wrong topic. This topic is a support topic where someone has asked for help on specific issues.

If you are not going to offer help and you just want to discuss Linux Mint 21, then you can post in this topic Mint Cinnamon 21 - the most buggy release in the Linux Mint history? in the Chat about Linux Mint section of the forum.

[motoryzen]

I've restored my 20.3 backup and things are fast(er) and smooth(er) as usual. So I believe it might be something related to the 5.15 kernel that I don't experience with the 5.4 on Mint 20.3

I've been running every 5.15.whatever-whatever kernel in LM 20.3 Cinnamon since they first became available ( I ONLY get them via Update Manager ftr) and never had a single problem

Asrock x570 taichi atx mobo
ryzen 5900x
128GB Kingston hyper x Predator ddr 4 3200mhz ram at 18-18-18-32
8GB rx 580 sapphire nitro+ vid card
Cinnamon 5.2.7 ( I want to say it was available since Cinanmon 5.2 or maybe even 5.1 but don't recall)

I noticed you have yet to follow step 5 on "how to get help' link posted in blue font . Please post your system info, perhaps it will give us a clue ( aka inxi reprt as I call it. One of two ways..either via inxi -Fxxmprz in terminal or search for System Info via your cinnamon menu, launch it, then click " Upload System information", give it 7 to 20 seconds and webpage will autolaunch, highlight n copy all that info, come back here. .click that </> button above where you type your responses, press that space bar two times to give yourself some " aiming" room. then paste it ctrl +v )

[dizmoduck]

I got so many error after upgrade from 20.3 to 21 that i ended up doing a total reinstall

PS: Last time i did a reinstall was with Mint 19, 4 years ago.