Desktop settings

[moheganer2]

I have recently installed mint 17 mate.For some reason the Desktop Settings in preferences will not open.Also it will not add apps to the desktop but it will to the panel.Anyone else have this problem or solved this issue?

[Kalyk]

I tried it right now in my VM with Mint 17-13 Mate english and adding Firefox to the desktop went smoothly.
Did you by any change change a theme or did you do some other tweaking?
The programs you add to your desktop you can also find in the directory Desktop in your Home-dir.
So try to add the link there and see what you get.

[Monsta]

For some reason the Desktop Settings in preferences will not open.

Try running it from the terminal:

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mintdesktop

[shawnhcorey]

`mintdesktop` runs the Python file `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` This is written for Python version 2.x. If you are running version 3.x, it will fail.

[catweazel]

`mintdesktop` runs the Python file `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` This is written for Python version 2.x. If you are running version 3.x, it will fail.

Both python 2 and 3 are installed in Mint by default.

[shawnhcorey]

`mintdesktop` runs the Python file `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` This is written for Python version 2.x. If you are running version 3.x, it will fail.

Both python 2 and 3 are installed in Mint by default.

But only one is `python`

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$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 21  2016 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7

[catweazel]

`mintdesktop` runs the Python file `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` This is written for Python version 2.x. If you are running version 3.x, it will fail.

Both python 2 and 3 are installed in Mint by default.

But only one is `python`

*sigh*

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#!/usr/bin/python3

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#!/usr/bin/python2

[revian]

`mintdesktop` runs the Python file `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` This is written for Python version 2.x. If you are running version 3.x, it will fail.

Both python 2 and 3 are installed in Mint by default.

But only one is `python`

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$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 21  2016 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7

catweazel is trying to tell you that both python2 and python3 on the same machine will work - and have worked alongside each other on various Linux distros for the years.

Open a terminal and type this command to get the python 2 shell:

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python

Now, try this command to get the python 3 shell:

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python3

I'm studying python so I can help with development and I write my apps in python 2 or python 3 depending on what the project is.
Both are installed and both work fine.

[shawnhcorey]

catweazel is trying to tell you that both python2 and python3 on the same machine will work - and have worked alongside each other on various Linux distros for the years.

And what I'm trying to say is that `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` uses `python`.

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$ head -1 /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
$ which python
/usr/bin/python
$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 21  2016 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7

But if you change `python`, it will fail.

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$ ln -s /usr/bin/python3 ~/bin/python
$ python --version
Python 3.4.3
$ mintdesktop
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py", line 14
    except Exception, detail:
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
$ rm ~/bin/python
$ mintdesktop # works

[revian]

catweazel is trying to tell you that both python2 and python3 on the same machine will work - and have worked alongside each other on various Linux distros for the years.

And what I'm trying to say is that `/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py` uses `python`.

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$ head -1 /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
$ which python
/usr/bin/python
$ ls -l /usr/bin/python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Feb 21  2016 /usr/bin/python -> python2.7

But if you change `python`, it will fail.

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$ ln -s /usr/bin/python3 ~/bin/python
$ python --version
Python 3.4.3
$ mintdesktop
  File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintDesktop/mintDesktop.py", line 14
    except Exception, detail:
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
$ rm ~/bin/python
$ mintdesktop # works

Yes, that is due to the differences in syntax between python 2 and python 3. I am unable to check those differences as that file is not present on my Mint 18.2 machine. At any rate, it would be easily converted to python 3.