[SOLVED] Start menu suddenly changed on LM21.3

[shakyknees]

Thanks for the info michael-hi. My first LMF post. I had a issue similar to viewtopic.php?t=411431 (suddenly Whisker) in my 21.3 xfce after installing protonvpn including a separate recommended panel-icon for protonvpn. The latter installed gdm3, prompted a choice of display managers, and I selected gdm3 without researching it (newbie fail). Got the OP's experience, & learned enough about dm's to reconfigure lightdm, but lost all my old config. I was thinking of locating the config file(s) I'd lost and edit/restore them from timeshift. Searched for all files like "llightdm*.conf" but none had new dates (I had tweaked enough to show a touch). Questions:
1. what file(s) did I fail to find that held my lost customizations for lightdm
2. how likely will I blackscreen if I go diddling those files?

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-97-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1
    tk: Gtk 3.24.33 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E7240 v: 00 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
    type: 9 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0531FD v: A00 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell v: A21
    date: 05/08/2017
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 25.8 Wh (100.0%) condition: 25.8/31.4 Wh (82.3%) volts: 11.9 min: 11.1
    model: SMP DELL 9C26T33 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-4300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Haswell
    rev: 1 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2679 high: 2822 min/max: 800/2900 cores: 1: 2594 2: 2708 3: 2594 4: 2822
    bogomips: 19954
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a16 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-4:3
    chip-ID: 0c45:64d2 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0") s-diag: 414mm (16.3")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: LG res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 125 size: 277x156mm (10.9x6.1")
    diag: 318mm (12.5") modes: 1366x768
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4400 (HSW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a0c class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Intel 8 Series HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:9c20 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-97-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f080
    bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:155a class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell driver: ath9k
    v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0032 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 29.86 GiB (12.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD PM851 mSATA 256GB size: 238.47 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 9D0Q scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 46.21 GiB used: 29.85 GiB (64.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda12
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda11
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 81 MiB (4.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:8000 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 9 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-2:2 info: Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid
    interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 1.5 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 045e:0040 class-ID: 0301
  Device-2: 2-4:3 info: Microdia Integrated Webcam type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0c45:64d2 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-4: 3-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: 38.0 C sodimm: SODIMM C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2339 apt: 2325 flatpak: 14
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linuxmint-packages virginia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/protonvpn-stable.list
    1: deb [arch="all", signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/protonvpn-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //repo.protonvpn.com/debian stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https: //updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:
  Processes: 267 Uptime: 1h 9m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.66 GiB used: 4.15 GiB (54.2%) Init: systemd
  v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client
  inxi: 3.3.13

[michael-hi]

Hi shakyknees and welcome to the forum.

It looks like the customization files for lightdm are in the folder /etc/lightdm including a configuration file slick-greeter.conf which relates to Mint's login page which forms part of it. There is some info here:
https://github.com/linuxmint/slick-greeter

I haven't customized lightdm nor do I use Timeshift so I can't really comment. I would have thought it's safe to swap files over provided you have a Timeshift snapshot which you can restore if necessary from a Live session should your installation fail to start! That said, I would think it easier and safer to re-do your customizations using Mint's "Login Window" GUI (found under Settings in the Whisker Menu).

Otherwise, if you could post more detail about what sort of customizations you are referring to, someone might have more specific advice. You may want to edit the title of your initial post first, though, as that still refers to the Start menu having changed. That was the problem in the thread from which this thread has been spun off, but it doesn't appear to be your current issue...

[shakyknees]

I had located the /etc/lighdm conf files on my own but their timestamps show they hadn't been touched since installation despite my having done some tweaks. I used a bash script to identify 13 other conf files with a relationship too lightdm but they also showed no activity since installation.

I tried a couple of things I found on the web to try to recover my old settings, which I won't detail here because they all reported failure. Then I uninstalled the bits that were supposed to have added a VPN icon to my panel. I can list those if you think it would be useful. That did not appear to fix it but two reboots later, suddenly my old panel configuration reappeared and the "Windows key" start recovered its function. So my problem is evidently solved but I don't have much of a diagnosis or mitigation to suggest for this channel.
Thank you very much for looking at it.
I will go back to the newbie instructions to see how to mark this thing resolved.

[michael-hi]

It's good to hear the problem's been sorted! To mark the thread as Solved you need to click the pencil icon on your first post (not the last) and edit it by adding [SOLVED] to the title.