Display Applet - Won't Display in Panel

[vdeane]

I performed a clean install of Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon on my computers when it came out, and I've either resolved or worked around the other little annoyances from release, but one remains - I can't figure out how to get the display applet to appear in the panel and stay there. I have a HDMI cable running from my desktop to my TV which I use for streaming media from services like HBO Max and Paramount+ (basically everything except Netflix at this point, since my TV is old enough that the other services either don't have supported apps or don't have supported apps that work well *cough* Hulu *cough*). I prefer to keep the TV "display" disabled when not in use to save on processing power and because some programs act weird in dual monitor situations, especially if one isn't actually being used, so whenever I'm going to stream I open the display settings from the panel to turn it on (similar with the sound settings to switch that over), and then again to turn it off when I'm done.

That's all well and good, but ever since installing Linux Mint 21, I can't get the panel applet for the display settings to add and stay there. If I add it normally, there's a brief flash and the end of the applets on the right side of the panel, but nothing shows up. If I engage panel edit mode, the applet will add, but it will be gone again when I turn my computer back on the next day (I shut down at night). I saw there was a Cinnamon update today, so I tried everything again after a reboot - same behavior. Is there some way to solve this, or a better way of handling this process to work around the issue, or am I just stuck hoping this will get fixed in Linux Mint 21.1 (similar to how the power applet display issue on desktops worked with Linux Mint 19 or 20 - had to wait for the .1 release for it to be fixed)?

[spamegg]

Hello vdeane
Please share your system info by entering the command inxi -Fxxxmprz into a Terminal and posting its output here.

[Dan-cer]

How is the display applet called exactly? I'd like to check it on LM 20.3 and 21.

[Cosmo.]

I also cannot find an applet with this name and I have no idea, what this might be.
There do exist applets, which hide themselves, if they have nothing to show, e.g. notifications or removable drives. Usually it is configurable, if they shall hide themselves.

[vdeane]

Here's the system info output:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-46-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.4.10 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: Mutter dm: LightDM
    Distro: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: H170M-PLUS v: Rev X.0x
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 0405
    date: 08/11/2015
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M510
    serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.68 GiB used: 1.89 GiB (24.6%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-6500 bits: 64 type: MCP
    arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/3600 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800
    4: 800 bogomips: 25599
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM206 [GeForce GTX 950] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia
    v: 515.65.01 pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none
    off: DVI-I-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1402
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1600x900 dpi: 92 diag: 508mm (20")
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950/PCIe/SSE2
    v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 515.65.01 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a170
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM206 High Definition Audio vendor: ZOTAC
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fba
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-46-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15b8
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 106.01 GiB (22.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST500DM002-1SB10A size: 465.76 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.88 GiB used: 106 GiB (23.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 523 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.0%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 45 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2482
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vanessa main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 242 Uptime: 45m Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers:
  gcc: 11.2.0 alt: 11 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal
  inxi: 3.3.13

The applet in question is the built-in Display applet, xrandr@cinnamon.org.

[Cosmo.]

I found it. The problem is, that the names of the applets get translated, so the word "desktop" does for me never appear (German word is Bildschirm) and of course I did not look for xrandr.

Her it is in LM 21:

Directly to the left of the update manager icon in the tray.

Open Users & Groups and create a new account. Log into this account and try it there. Do you see it?

[vdeane]

I tried with a new user account. Same issue, even with a clean account. Oddly enough, the new account had the same configuration my account got stuck with when I first installed the Nvidia proprietary driver - with the TV as the default and my actual monitor as the secondary on the right - the exact opposite of how I have it configured. I don't recall having that particular issue with prior versions of Mint.

I did also try with my laptop, which doesn't have a Nvidia card and therefore no proprietary driver. It works fine even without creating a new account.

This leads me to believe that the Nvidia proprietary driver and the applet do not play nice with each other.

[Cosmo.]

This might be. My screenshot comes from a virtual machine (also no NVidia driver anywhere).