Issues with menu on install

[JakFrost]

I downloaded Mint 14 (Nadia) a couple of days ago. It is the first time i have tried to put Linux on any computer, and I attempted to put it on 2 computers. The first one went effortlessly. The second install however didn't go as smoothly.

I have attempted to install it twice on that machine. The images (icons) and the text in the menu did not install correctly. Everything else seems to be fine. Could this be an issue of some hardware on the computer being to old? Or is it more likely that I am making some mistake durring install? Is there an easy way to fix this, or should I try to install an earlier version of mint?

[sunewbie]

I suppose you have installed Cinnamon edition. Which version are you using 32 bit or 64 bit? though 64 does not have any problems, some users say that 32 bit works well and it requires less RAM (half that of 64 bit).

Does your PC have a dedicated graphic card like Nvidia, ATI Radeon?

Is your PC very old like P 4 which does not support PAE kernel?

PAE is Physical Address Extension which means that it supports more than 4 GB RAM?

Please can you give your PC specs.

Did you try installing MATE edition.

[JakFrost]

Yes, it is Cinnamon.
32 bit.
It does not have a dedicated graphics card.
It is probably 8 or so years old.
They both have pentium 4 processors.
it has 2GB of ram.
I have not tried installing any other editions yet.

[sunewbie]

Yes, it is Cinnamon.
32 bit.
It does not have a dedicated graphics card.
It is probably 8 or so years old.
They both have pentium 4 processors.
it has 2GB of ram.
I have not tried installing any other editions yet.

Cinnamon requires 3D acceleration and this may cause problems.

For new comers MATE or mint 13 XFCE are better.

for P4, I would Prefer Mint 13 XFCE. Mint 13 is LTS means Long Term Support, and it will be supported for 5 years as against regular releases which will be supported for 18 months.

to add to it, Cinnamon is comparatively more resource consuming ie. needs more RAM to work properly. In short it works well in Core-2-Duo or Dual core processors with 2 GB RAM than in P4 with 2 GB RAM.

Whereas XFCE is a DE for older PCs and is less resource hungry.

Cinnamon uses may be 300 - 350 MB RAM in idle state as compared to XFCE uses 200 MB

MATE is a fork of Gnome2. Gnome2 was very stable and popular DE, but the newer version Gnome3 received criticism and so there was a fork of Gnome 2 called MATE.

MATE is also rock solid, and it consumes less RAM than Cinnamon and more than XFCE.

Linux Mint Developer Clem, forked a part of Gnome DE, called Gnome-shell and called it Cinnamon to take advantage of latest technology and maintain old traditional look.

So in short, I personally think Mint 13 XFCE 32 bit would be ideal for you. Clem suggested MATE for new windows converts than Cinnamon. But for P4, I think XFCE suits best.

But it is 7 month old and so will have lots of updates immediately after install.

If you have a grip with PC like to spend some time, you can install XFCE DE on Cinnamon, so that you do not have to reinstall completely and save some MBs

If you want to feel XFCE DE, open Software manager and search for "xubuntu-desktop" (without quotes) and install it.

After installation, log-out and upon login screen, there is an option to select either Cinnamon or XFCE (or maybe Xubuntu). Select XFCE (or Xubuntu) and you are on XFCE

But this will also install default apps for XFCE e.g.

App Cinnamon XFCE

word processor - LibreOffice Writer Abiword
Spreadsheet LibreOffice Calc Gnumeric
text Editor Gedit Leafpad

and some more like music player. So you end up with 2 apps for same application.

You can also install simply XFCE Desktop Environment, but Xubuntu is tweaked and I find it better. Some users also install xubuntu-core. i.e. just plain simple XFCe with minimum apps

To do this open terminal

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-core

You will miss the cinnamon menu. there is Mint-menu, which can be installed. On the other hand, I use a keyboard launcher Synapse. Just open synapse and type name of software e.g. "writer" or "Firefox" (without quotes) and hit enter to launch it. Edit settings by clicking on right side small circle and change shortcut key to your wish and check box to load on start up). It's a fast way to launch softwares.

From personal experience, I think it will take same or somtimes more tie to install Another DE and then manually remove duplicate apps.

If MBs are not a problem, just go for Mint 13 XFCE 32 bit. 32 bit version also supports non-PAE motherboards and processors.

If things does not work well, you can also try rock soild xubuntu 12.04 LTS, but it's not supported by Linux Mint. You will have to ask in Ubuntu forums. There is another lighter distro called Lubuntu (they are all off-springs of ubuntu)

Cinnamon is great if it's working for you. But if it's not, then MATE and XFCE are better options for P4.

I hope this is not too complicated.

To know more about LTS versions and DE's, please visit these thread

What is the difference between Debian, Fluxbox, XFCE, ... - read Robins reply.

Regarding Mint 9 LTS Isadora

Enable Backports to have latest apps in LTS

in brief about DE's

KDE : Very Polished, used by many as windows replacement DE for new windows converts - Heaviest. Now concentrates on touch interface
Gnome3 : Gnome 3 with gnome-shell is developed keeping in mind touch screen.
Cinnamon : New but stable and fast evolving and exiting. It is fork of gnome-shell (version gnome2) - Heavier
MATE : Fork of Gnome2, which was rock solid and most popular DE - Heavy
XFCE : Stable, simple, no-nonsense, stable traditional DE built for old PCs, less features than MATE / Gnome2 / gnome3 but customizable.
LXDE : Lightest DE built for old PCs, less feature rich but customizable

There are many more, but these are main DEs.

[JakFrost]

Thanks for all the help. I am going to download either MATE or XFCE (both would be MINT 13). Just for some reference, this computer is being repurposed for a high school student I have recently taken in. She has little experience with any computers, but all of the experience she does have was Win. When you say that XFCE is simple with less features. Is it still going to have an intuitive GUI for her to learn easily?

Slightly more information:
The programs that will be run most are NetBeans, Firefox, and whichever word processor comes with the distr.
I want to make sure she will be able to launch them with a GUI and not be forced to use a launcher.

-Thanks again for all the info you have provided.

[sunewbie]

Thanks for all the help. I am going to download either MATE or XFCE (both would be MINT 13). Just for some reference, this computer is being repurposed for a high school student I have recently taken in. She has little experience with any computers, but all of the experience she does have was Win. When you say that XFCE is simple with less features. Is it still going to have an intuitive GUI for her to learn easily?

Slightly more information:
The programs that will be run most are NetBeans, Firefox, and whichever word processor comes with the distr.
I want to make sure she will be able to launch them with a GUI and not be forced to use a launcher.

-Thanks again for all the info you have provided.

Hi,

For beginners, KDE menu is more resembling to windows 7 start menu. But it is too heavy for P4. In KDE add widgets or small apps on your desktop (like the ones in Vista) add calender to desktop, etc. This kind of features are not present in XFCE. When you are developing an ap, which is light on resources, there will be some compromise, when it comes to features, but it's more of a pro thing. For an average user, it little matters. e.g. a File Manager for LXDE DE called PCManFM (like windows explorer), will only open on instance, since other instance will increase load on memory. XFCE file manager is called Thunar will open multiple instances. This is the difference. Mint is popular because Clem (lead developer) makes tweaks and makes an OS user-friendly.

there will be a difference, as it is completely new OS. Under-the-hood, Linux works differently.

You can install Libreoffice writer. If you are going for Mint distro, all flavours (editions) will have consistent look-n-feel.

In MATE edition, there is a cinnamon like menu, in XFCE it can be installed. Both XFCE and LXDE has it's own GUI, just like XP classic menu or say old win 98 menu.

There is no 'Programs' menu, but it is spit according to class of applications

e.g. it is an expandable main menus

1. Internet
2. Office
3. Graphics
4. Settings

Internet further expands into

Firefox
Opera
Pidgin
Xchat (for IRC chat)
Transmission (bittorrent client)

etc, so it is not difficult. On the other hand, keyboard launcher will be fun to use. It's easy too.

I am not a pro. Don't go by the stars and numbers of posts below my avatar. though I like to help as much as I can, I am just an end user with no coding knowledge.

don't worry, my 9 year old nephew quickly grasped the change in XFCE menu and can open pogo.tv in firefox, chromium and opera

There is an advantage of LIVE CD / DVD in Linux. To check any distro, you do not need to install it. You simply download the ISO, burn it to DVD or even write it to USB (preferably 2 GB or more) using unetbootin, which is available for both windows and Linux. You can also install apps in LIVE CD. They work well. Only thing is, the changes are lost when you shut down. This should help you.

Regarding apps,

In mint 13 both XFCE and MATE, they will have Libreoffice writer, which is more stable to Abiword (word processor). Firefox is default browser. Other browsers can be downloaded from software center.

Software center v 7.4.4 is latest on with many improvements. But in Mint 13 it's 7.4.3. I personally prefer Ubuntu software center.

You can install it by opening software manager and typing "software-center" (without quotes).

I don to have any idea about NetBeans, but the website says it's cross platform and so should work under Linux.

there are many Linux distros. Ubuntu is very popular. So apps and software developed for Linux are generally compatible with Ubuntu. Mint (main editions and not LMDE - Linux Mint Debian Edition) is based on and fully compatible with Ubuntu. It has Ubuntu at it's core. So anything that works with Ubuntu will work with Linux Mint.

Good Luck.

some synapse links with screenshots. Links below are good blogs to subscribe to.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/syna ... iew-ubuntu
http://lifehacker.com/5704221/synapse-i ... -for-linux
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickly-fi ... se-ubuntu/

[sunewbie]

Hi,

you can check the screenshot of XFCE menu and Mint Menu here

You can also search for linux mint 13 XFCE screenshots in google image

XFCE also contains an App finder, which helps you to find an app say if you type file manager, it will show thunar.

reviews

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-d ... nt-13-xfce
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/07/24/li ... e-preview/