Final setup of Mate

[markfilipak]

Kernel: 5.4.0-121-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: MATE 1.26.0
wm: marco dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

Howdy, Mates. I'm doing final setup. I have just a few setup items to work out.

DPI: I measured. The current dots-per-inch is approximately 101 dpi. I'd like 82 to 84 dpi. I've not found a way to do that.

Pointer: I have a small black mouse pointer. I've not found a way to select a better pointer.

Panel: I found a phantom 'System Monitor' with no icon on the panel. When I removed it, the panel's running application tabs/buttons disappeared! I rebooted but they didn't come back. I had to 'Reset All Panels'. After moving the panel to the top and changing its background color to white and removing the pre-pinned launch icons and adding 'Compact Menu' via 'Add to Panel...', now, the menu button is not at the left edge. Not a big deal, but I'd like to fix that if possible.

Menu: My choices are "Classic Menu" and "Compact Menu". I'm not very keen on either of them. Is there a "door number three"? Maybe something that provides more flexibility/less enforced structure? A "Favorites"-type menu would be okay but I crave something even more flexible.

Thanks for suggestions,
Mark Filipak.

[RollyShed]

Pointer: I have a small black mouse pointer. I've not found a way to select a better pointer.

First question, why MATE?
For the mouse under Cinnamon, System Settings > Themes > three (actually only 2 as both black look the same) mouse options, black or white.

[markfilipak]

Pointer: I have a small black mouse pointer. I've not found a way to select a better pointer.

First question, why MATE?

Somewhat off-topic: I ran Cinnamon for several years. I had some trouble with Cinnamon crashing occasionally and I had the strong feeling it is scripted. I wanted to try Mate in the hope that it's compiled. Is there much difference between the Mint 18.3 Cinnamon and the Mint 20.3 Cinnamon? Can the Cinnamon in 20.3 be restarted on demand, at any time?

Further off-topic: I spent almost 2 months touring NZ in 1984. Very nice, like California with ocean on both sides. The Hutt Valley was called New Zealand's Silicon Valley. If that had actually been true, I'd probably be living there, now. NZ is an excellent country, especially if you love sheep.

[all41]

+1 @markfilipak
Long time Mint users know their desktop preferences

[markfilipak]

+1 @markfilipak
Long time Mint users know their desktop preferences

What does that mean?

[RollyShed]

Somewhat off-topic: I ran Cinnamon for several years. I had some trouble with Cinnamon crashing occasionally and I had the strong feeling it is scripted.

I wonder why crashing because we never have a problem with it doing that. Possibly the computer it was on and limitations?

I wanted to try Mate in the hope that it's compiled.

We have MATE on an old laptop, eMachines that originally had 32 bit WinXP. It does / can run 64 bit 20.3 Cinnamon though a bit slow.

Is there much difference between the Mint 18.3 Cinnamon and the Mint 20.3 Cinnamon?

Some (subtle ?) though I would not say major.

Can the Cinnamon in 20.3 be restarted on demand, at any time?

Do you mean switched on and off? We switch off, mains power off, each night.

Further off-topic: I spent almost 2 months touring NZ in 1984. Very nice, like California with ocean on both sides.

1983 I was in Silicon Valley for 3 weeks, a training trip. Got down to Big Sur but it was falling down. 1985, bicycle from LA to Oregon and back to San Francisco. Bypassed Big Sur because it was burning down. Went to prove that "it" was an illusion. 2002(?) to do a job for NASA in Pasadena and then drive / tour what I'd done by bicycle to show my partner what it looked like.

NZ is an excellent country, especially if you love sheep.

We do have other things too, especially as there now isn't a government subsidy for having them.

[Moem]

Can the Cinnamon in 20.3 be restarted on demand, at any time?

Ctrl + Alt + Esc. This has been a way to instantly stop and restart Cinnamon, and only Cinnamon, for as long as I know.

[Hoser Rob]

Pointer: I have a small black mouse pointer. I've not found a way to select a better pointer.

First question, why MATE?
For the mouse under Cinnamon, System Settings > Themes > three (actually only 2 as both black look the same) mouse options, black or white.

Why Mate? It's a perfectly legitimate choice which some may actually reasonably prefer. IMO Cinnamon is all style over substance. I'd recommend Mate over Xfce if you want a lighter DE.

[rickNS]

Pointer: I have a small black mouse pointer. I've not found a way to select a better pointer.

Not sure what your looking for, but you can easily change the size, and color of mouse pointer.

Menu > Appearance, click Customize, click the pointer tab.

now, the menu button is not at the left edge. Not a big deal, but I'd like to fix that if possible.

Yes, just right click on the menu icon, and select "move", slide it over to left edge, and click again.

[rickNS]

DPI: I measured. The current dots-per-inch is approximately 101 dpi. I'd like 82 to 84 dpi. I've not found a way to do that.

I forgot this one, yes the default is 96, also in Appearance, click the fonts tab, then at the bottom right click the "Details" button, there you can change the DPI.

ksnip220628-103310.jpg (12.9 KiB) Viewed 1286 times

[markfilipak]

... the default is 96 [dpi], also in Appearance ...

Ohmygod! I've instantly assembled an army: RollyShed, all41, Moem, Hoser Rob, rickNS. Thank you! Now, bear with me. I think a breakthrough is about to happen. I have a journey story, but kindly don't respond to each step in the journey. Let the journey just unfold.

First, rickNS, I have no menu item named "Appearance". Rather than getting all tangled up in existing/nonexisting menu terminology, can you give me the CLI command that launches "Appearance"?

Next...
The Journey Story begins:
I prefer Nemo to Caja, so I uninstalled Caja. While running Synaptic, I noticed a few other "caja" things left over, so I uninstalled them, too. After reboot, I quickly realized there was more to Caja than just a file browser. I realized that 'Mate' is really a desktop manager named "LightDM" plus a file manager named "Caja". So, I put the "caja" things back.
Journey Note: It is not helpful that dependencies that break cause menu items to simply disappear with no clue left behind.
...The journey will continue once I've managed to adjust the 'dpi'.

[markfilipak]

Next step in the journey:
Regarding the GUI window (for example: The "System Reports" window) that is generated by issuing a CLI command (for example: "mintreport"), is there a way to force the command's text (for example: The word "mintreport") to appear in the window's title bar? Is there a way to force all such windows to display the name of the program that creates them? That would be ever so helpful.

Yes, I do know I can browse the raw menu to get such info (or query "System Monitor" if the program is running), but having it on the window's title bar is preferred.

PS: What I seek is to make Mint-Mate architecture/operations less opaque. If there is a special 'mode' (e.g., for tracing), or if you can you provide guidance (or know of tricks), now's the time to reveal them, eh?

PPS: I see that caja is scripted in python.

[Cosmo.]

Regarding the GUI window (for example: The "System Reports" window) that is generated by issuing a CLI command (for example: "mintreport"), is there a way to force the command's text (for example: The word "mintreport") to appear in the window's title bar? Is there a way to force all such windows to display the name of the program that creates them? That would be ever so helpful.

No, not possible. Mint has the philosophy to translate nearly everything and creates with that difficulties, which are totally superfluous. A design bug in my eyes and I wrote about it already here viewtopic.php?p=2188888#p2188888
What you can do is to open the menu (Super key) and enter mintreport. Regardless how it is named in your language you will get it.

[markfilipak]

Regarding the GUI window (for example: The "System Reports" window) that is generated by issuing a CLI command (for example: "mintreport"), is there a way to force the command's text (for example: The word "mintreport") to appear in the window's title bar? Is there a way to force all such windows to display the name of the program that creates them? That would be ever so helpful.

No, not possible. Mint has the philosophy to translate nearly everything and creates with that difficulties, which are totally superfluous.

Keep users in the dark, eh?

A design bug in my eyes and I wrote about it already here viewtopic.php?p=2188888#p2188888
What you can do is to open the menu (Super key) and enter mintreport. Regardless how it is named in your language you will get it.

The issue is not running it if you already know the name. The issue is getting the name so you then know it.

To add notes directly into the UX file system, do you know of an easy way to make a zero-length file with a user-supplied name? In Windows, I'd submit .>"...your text here..."

PS: Dear reader, "Keep users in the dark, eh?" are not my words. Moem changed what I wrote. I did not use any profanity. What I wrote was "Keep users" ...3 words... ", eh?". The 3 words, in alphabetical order, were: "and", "barefoot", and "pregnant".

[markfilipak]

... What you can do is to open the menu (Super key) ...

Oh, dear, another menu, but one that I like (better).

So, what's the path/name of that menu and how can I attach it to the panel?

[Cosmo.]

I use Cinnamon, not Mate, so I cannot answer your questions. But the said menu is placed in the panel.

[RollyShed]

I use Cinnamon, not Mate, so I cannot answer your questions.

I asked the question to know if there was a reason for MATE, not saying one is better than the other. Is it just an appearance preference?
The comment about Cinnamon crashing wasn't resolved. As some of us never have that problem, why does some else have a problem?
The answer to WHY, might help others.

[markfilipak]

I use Cinnamon, not Mate, so I cannot answer your questions.

I asked the question to know if there was a reason for MATE, not saying one is better than the other. Is it just an appearance preference?
The comment about Cinnamon crashing wasn't resolved. As some of us never have that problem, why does some else have a problem?
The answer to WHY, might help others.

Cinnamon appears to be javascript-driven. Mate appears to be python-driven. Of the two, I would opt for javascript (rather elegant) over python (basically, a hack), but neither is as responsive as compiled code -- no scripting language can provide event handling that's as timely as source that's compiled to machine code. Is there documentation that supports my allegations? Not that I've found. Timeliness aside, I've found python to be architecturally unsound at more basic levels.

[markfilipak]

DPI: I measured. The current dots-per-inch is approximately 101 dpi. I'd like 82 to 84 dpi. I've not found a way to do that.

I forgot this one, yes the default is 96, also in Appearance, click the fonts tab, then at the bottom right click the "Details" button, there you can change the DPI.

Thanks for the screen shot. I don't have anything that looks like that. Nothing that has tabs across the top. Nothing that has a "Details" button.

Can you give me a command line that launches it?

PS: I abandoned Mate. I'm now running Cinnamon.

[pbear]

I see the same thing rickNS describes. From a Mate 20.1 VM:
.