Mint 12 Tips & Tricks Guide (updated Jan 10)

[z06gal]

Thank you so much for this! I'm trying to slowly muddle my way through understanding Linux and Mint, and this is a huge help for a beginner like myself.

Regarding item 1b, adding launchers, I am a bit stuck. I don't seem to have the directory ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/, am I just looking in the wrong place or is there a way to get this directory that I missed? I'm green, sorry if this is an obvious one.

I did not have that directory either so I just created it

[kdane4]

Just wanna say thank you for this wonderful thread. It's really helpful.

[gftd]

After following several of the tips in this great thread, I'm a lot closer to getting the look I want but I ran into a few problems:

1) The top panel is now on the bottom where I want it, but pointing to the top-left hot corner no longer shows the overview; what happens now is that the transparent notification panel (?--not sure if that's the right term) which used to pop up on the bottom--kind of as an overlay--now drops down from the top of the screen. I don't know how I made that happen, but I'd like to get rid of it entirely and restore the original function of the hot corner.

2) I would also like to restore the original bottom panel (which is gone) and have it sit directly atop the now repositioned bottom panel (which started out at the top). Hope that makes sense. That's how I set up my previous Ubuntu installation, and I'm used to seeing things that way.

[Lantesh]

Thanks for posting this great thread. Gnome Shell was kind of a shock for me after 4 years of using Gnome 2, and realizing I had to relearn how to do just about everything. What a pain in the butt this has been, so having all these tips in one place has been fantastic. Thanks for posting this.

[bimsebasse]

First of all thank you very very much for this guide!!

I have two questions...first, on number 1l. how would I go about having the window appear but NOT the notification pop-up?

That one I couldn't get at, when I tried to prevent all system pop-up notifications from appearing with some unpretty hacks, the shell would crash on me constantly, don't know a safe way or a half safe way of achieving this.

And secondly, on 2o. which notification bar is this talking about? The black one that appears underneath the notification pop-up? Would this also prevent it from appearing and disappearing 5 or 6 times whenever I install something? (I think it says something about "dconf update" if I recall correctly...)

It's called "Message tray" in Gnome Shell's internal language but is probably better described as a notification bar. The tweak will make it hidden all times. It's active and popping-up, just popping up 0px's

[bimsebasse]

After following several of the tips in this great thread, I'm a lot closer to getting the look I want but I ran into a few problems:

1) The top panel is now on the bottom where I want it, but pointing to the top-left hot corner no longer shows the overview; what happens now is that the transparent notification panel (?--not sure if that's the right term) which used to pop up on the bottom--kind of as an overlay--now drops down from the top of the screen. I don't know how I made that happen, but I'd like to get rid of it entirely and restore the original function of the hot corner.

I'm certain daniel or esteban found a way to handle that later in the thread - did you follow the newest instructions?

2) I would also like to restore the original bottom panel (which is gone) and have it sit directly atop the now repositioned bottom panel (which started out at the top). Hope that makes sense. That's how I set up my previous Ubuntu installation, and I'm used to seeing things that way.

Not possible yet afaik.

[bimsebasse]

The new Ubuntu Tweak (i.e. the one designed for use with Gnome 3 and not Gnome 2) is out, installation instructions and a few screenshots in the updated guide. See also: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/12/ubuntu-t ... eased.html

[twodogs]

I like your tips-n-tricks page very much. Thank you.

I like the wallpaper in 5b. Could you tell me where to get it? It looks sweet with the Cinnamon theme!

[kmb42vt]

Excellent tips and tricks tutorial, nicely done. One suggestion on 5C of your Cinnamon section. It may seem obvious as to how it's done but you might want to amend 5C to include adding and removing launchers from the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu as well. Yes, it's very obvious that it's done the same exact way by modifying the "favorite-apps" line, two lines above "panel-launchers" line, but it's not so obvious that "favorite-apps" pertains to the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu. Just for clarity's sake you know.

PS: I've tested this out myself, btw.

[bimsebasse]

Excellent tips and tricks tutorial, nicely done. One suggestion on 5C of your Cinnamon section. It may seem obvious as to how it's done but you might want to amend 5C to include adding and removing launchers from the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu as well. Yes, it's very obvious that it's done the same exact way by modifying the "favorite-apps" line, two lines above "panel-launchers" line, but it's not so obvious that "favorite-apps" pertains to the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu. Just for clarity's sake you know.

PS: I've tested this out myself, btw.

That's coming in a separate entry - but I had a look at it while doing the panel launchers and my "favorite-apps" value does not as it is correspond to my Mint Menu favourites, anyway gonna fiddle with it later

[bimsebasse]

I like the wallpaper in 5b. Could you tell me where to get it? It looks sweet with the Cinnamon theme!

http://the-cageman.deviantart.com/art/W ... -180231981

If you do a "bokeh" google image search, you'll find a lot of similar wallpapers

[kmb42vt]

Excellent tips and tricks tutorial, nicely done. One suggestion on 5C of your Cinnamon section. It may seem obvious as to how it's done but you might want to amend 5C to include adding and removing launchers from the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu as well. Yes, it's very obvious that it's done the same exact way by modifying the "favorite-apps" line, two lines above "panel-launchers" line, but it's not so obvious that "favorite-apps" pertains to the "Favorites" section of the Cinnamon menu. Just for clarity's sake you know.

PS: I've tested this out myself, btw.

That's coming in a separate entry - but I had a look at it while doing the panel launchers and my "favorite-apps" value does not as it is correspond to my Mint Menu favourites, anyway gonna fiddle with it later

Initially it won't as the default "app.desktop" entries as listed under 'favorite-apps' include 'Favorite' menu items that are apparently set by the Gnome devs (for "plain vanilla" Gnome3/gnome-shell) and reflect applications that are not installed by default in LM 12 (like the Evolution mail client for example). If the app isn't installed then it won't show up in the Favorites section of the menu even though it's listed under 'favorite-apps' in the "org/cinnamon" section of the 'dconf-editor'. Otherwise editing the 'favorite-apps' line is the same as editing the 'panel-launchers line. You can just remove the entries for the apps that are not installed.

By the way, in Gnome-shell/MGSE and Cinnamon the menu is actually called "menu" (boring, huh?) according to Clem and not the "Mint Menu" which is present only in MATE. The name for the new style menus will change eventually. I got this from posting on one of the "Issues" for Linux Mint on GitHub.

[bimsebasse]

Roger. If you have any other useful Cinnamon tips, I'm very happy to include them credited to you.

[kmb42vt]

Roger. If you have any other useful Cinnamon tips, I'm very happy to include them credited to you.

No need to credit me at all. That's a fine tutorial you've written up and from my own experience I know it's not an easy thing to do nor to keep the thing updated the way you have. So take credit where credit is due because information can come from the strangest places you know.

[wlake]

Hello All,
The indicator-weather app works in gnome-shell. I prefer it to the gnome-extension because it has
multiple locations, forecasts and you do not need a code when you set it up. Here is a link to a screen shot.

http://imgur.com/r77F5

[roger64]

Hi

All these tips and tricks are very useful. Thank you for putting them together and including Cinnamon too.

I have a question related to Cinnamon. How to control the level of transparency of the MintMenu slab? How to suppress all transparency? This is to show why I ask this question.. I use the theme Eleganse.

[z06gal]

Hi

All these tips and tricks are very useful. Thank you for putting them together and including Cinnamon too.

I have a question related to Cinnamon. How to control the level of transparency of the MintMenu slab? How to suppress all transparency? This is to show why I ask this question.. I use the theme Eleganse.

If you navigate to the /usr/share/themes folder and click on eleganse, you can click on the cinnamon.css directory and find all the info there about the theme

[kmb42vt]

Hi

All these tips and tricks are very useful. Thank you for putting them together and including Cinnamon too.

I have a question related to Cinnamon. How to control the level of transparency of the MintMenu slab? How to suppress all transparency? This is to show why I ask this question.. I use the theme Eleganse.

If you navigate to the /usr/share/themes folder and click on eleganse, you can click on the cinnamon.css directory and find all the info there about the theme

Heh, I've been going through that .css file and it's reminding me how little I know about coding. I do okay with WordPress theme .css files and these seem to be coded the same way but I'm still looking for that menu transparency thing. No, no...don't tell me. I haven't gone through all the code yet (and if you tell me it's under the /*menu*/ section I'll ask, where?)

[bimsebasse]

Code: Select all

sudo gedit /usr/share/cinnamon/theme/cinnamon.css

Find this bit:

Code: Select all

/* PopupMenu */

.popup-menu-boxpointer {
    -arrow-border-radius: 8px;
    -arrow-background-color: rgba(80,80,80,1); /* rgba(80,80,80,0.9) */
    -arrow-border-width: 2px;
    -arrow-border-color: #a5a5a5;
    -arrow-base: 24px;
    -arrow-rise: 11px;

The last value in "(80,80,80,0.9)" controls transparency, 1 = no transparency, 0 = full transparency (aka silly setting). Eleganse is at 0.7. This affects all panel pop-up menus, not just the mint menu.

[kmb42vt]

Code: Select all

sudo gedit /usr/share/cinnamon/theme/cinnamon.css

Find this bit:

Code: Select all

/* PopupMenu */

.popup-menu-boxpointer {
    -arrow-border-radius: 8px;
    -arrow-background-color: rgba(80,80,80,1); /* rgba(80,80,80,0.9) */
    -arrow-border-width: 2px;
    -arrow-border-color: #a5a5a5;
    -arrow-base: 24px;
    -arrow-rise: 11px;

The last value in "(80,80,80,0.9)" controls transparency, 1 = no transparency, 0 = full transparency (aka silly setting). Eleganse is at 0.7. This affects all panel pop-up menus, not just the mint menu.

Ah, many thanks! No way I could have figured that out. I see you've modified yours a bit. I'll be setting the transparency a bit less transparent then.