How Silly (Mint 18.3 Xfce)

[PussyCat]

I'm on the run! Forced by the eol of Mint 13 (after Mint 8 Gnome and nothing in between being sufficiently persuasive) I'm compelled to look at the most recent version(s) and it has been a bit of a saga.

Try 18.2 but no Screenlets (even though available to Ubuntu Xenial apparently) and also baulked as a consequence of installing Cinnamon (in the vague hope of Screenlets working there) and trying to marry it to Compiz not realising then that this is a no no!

Try 17.3 and that is fine but - if I go through the protracted effort of customising, setting up h/w and installing a plethora of apps - it too will reach eol in about 15 months.

Try 18.3 still no screenlets but eol a further 2 years...

But here's the silly thing. Because of the usual protracted probing (at least 3 times) during installation, took my eye off the ball. Not usually a problem but when I eventually looked at the screen it had blanked and after revival was presented with a log screen. Typed in my name and password - which, of course, it had alredy been given - but to no avail! Tried various seemingly obvious candidates but nothing worked. I know, RTFM - but how in the circumstances?! And yes Grub was still thrashing around probing so waited several more minutes until all disc activity had ceased then selected shutdown (or restart) from the still present log-in screen.

On reboot, the Grub menu appeared promising 18.3 but guess what - I was back in the baulked 18.2. And this despite confirming that I wanted the partition formatted. Was that some sort of "upgrade"? Formatted the partition, just to be sure, using GParted then reinstalled.

I'm thinking now that, if a new install of Mint is to be entertained, I may as well wait a further 6 months for Mint 19 which would provide a further 2 years to eol before having to go through the pain of tweaking, customising, setting up h/w and installing all those apps (even if I can learn to live without Screenlets)...

[xenopeek]

Screenlets were last included in the Ubuntu 14.04 repositories and thus last available that way on Linux Mint 17.3. There is indeed a release from the screenlets team to make it work with Xenial (Ubuntu 16.04, on which Linux Mint 18.x are based): https://launchpad.net/screenlets/+announcement/14462. But it's not in the repository as noted. Take stock of all the screenlets listed on that announcement that don't work. I don't know how complete the set of screenlets is as compared to what was available on earlier versions. I've never really used them.

You can add this PPA to your Linux Mint 18.x system to be able to install the screenlets package: https://launchpad.net/~screenlets/+arch ... ter=xenial

Screenlets were written back in the day for GNOME 2 and with the right WM will also work on Xfce. They are not usable on desktop environments that use other WMs.

Cinnamon has applets, desklets and extensions in place of screenlets. You can browse and install those easily from your system settings menu (you'll find Applets, Desklets and Extensions there, each having a tab to browse all available online). You can also browse what is available on the Cinnamon Spices website: https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/.

[PussyCat]

Thanks xenopeek but had already tried that per earlier post search.php?search_id=egosearch.

However the main point of the OP title is onward from "Try 18.3 still no screenlets but eol a further 2 years..." - ie being logged out during installation etc!

[Moem]

Your main point got lost because you tried to bring up too many different issues at the same time. I suggest that you write a more concise topic, give it a descriptive title, and post it in the appropriate Support section of the forums, not in Chat.

[PussyCat]

I'm sorry if the OP is too much to absorb. The preamble was simply to set the scene and pre-empt any who might otherwise demand more detail or suggest trying version XX.x.

Maybe I should file a bug report but wanted solicit others experience of this "log-out during insallation" feature.

[catweazel]

However the main point of the OP title is onward from "Try 18.3 still no screenlets but eol a further 2 years..." - ie being logged out during installation etc!

That's why it's best to keep your posts succinct and to the point. Waffle merely clouds the issue.

[MintBean]

Initial install only takes a few minutes. Hardly paradise lost.

[Moem]

I'm sorry if the OP is too much to absorb. The preamble was simply to set the scene and pre-empt any who might otherwise demand more detail or suggest trying version XX.x.

Well, that makes sense, but it's not getting you the results you were looking for. Hence my suggestion. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.

[PussyCat]

hanks for the inputs.

Again I apologise if the spirit of OP. posted in Chat, is obscure.

It is basically a chronicle and therefore not necessarily succinct - though I wish it could have been!. However, As remarked earlier, if it had been a query it would have been posted elsewhere where there is often criticism for being too succinct with a demand for more detail!

The most important observation was the gotcha of being logged out during the installation process. Over the years I have installed Mint on dozens of occasions across my machines and never encountered that until 18.3. The particular hdd has 20 partitions. There are always lengthy probes at stages 2 and 3 (I think) to map the partitions but it is the particularly protracted probe latterly as grub does its thing, which is when I was caught out. Yes, I could have waggled the mouse occasionally or gone into settings before starting but that assumes one knows it's going to happen! That is the essence of my observation but have no wish to alienate anyone.

[rickNS]

"IF" I am reading this right the only silly thing is ignoring the warning to disable screensaver. No "bug" to report.
every howto or instruction on the web has it.
[attachment=0]Screenshot at 2018-02-01 19-35-19.png

@pussycat, so which screenlet is it you can't live without ? as xenopeek pointed out there are "options"
I used to use temp. screenlet in mint 9 as I had an old acer with fan issues, now you don't need it as temp is available in other places by default.