An important bug fix is coming towards Linux Mint 12 for the MATE desktop. This fix addresses the following issues:
- 100% CPU usage with certain themes
- Panel disappearing with certain themes
- Notification daemon freezing with certain themes
What was the cause of the issue?
The issue was a compatibility problem between the Ubuntu version of GTK and MATE which affected users depending on the theme they were using. Some themes were known to work well (Carbon, Mint-Z-Mate, Clearlooks), but most were problematic and made MATE both buggy and slow.
We removed an Ubuntu patch in GTK (010_make_bg_changes_queue_repaint.patch) and repackaged it in Romeo (the unstable branch of the Linux Mint repository).
With this new version of GTK, MATE seems stable and fast with all themes.
How to test the fix?
If you’re using MATE in Linux Mint 12 and you’re interested in testing these fixes before they become available to everyone else, please follow the steps below:
- Open the Update Manager
- Click on “Edit”->”Software Sources”
- Enable “Unstable packages (Romeo)”
- Click on “Close”
- Click on “Refresh”
- Sort the list of updates by version number
- Apply all updates which version is “2.24.6-0ubuntu5linuxmint1”
Once the updates are applied you will need to log out and log back in.
Why is this going through Romeo?
Romeo isn’t often used, and when it is it’s usually for a few hours and within a small group of people. Community testing usually happens between RC and stable releases. GTK is a core component in Linux Mint and so it normally wouldn’t be modified once the RC release is out. Because these bugs severely impact the stability and performance of MATE, we don’t want to wait until Linux Mint 13 to release this fix to you, but we need to ensure some level of community testing is applied to them before we let it out.
With your feedback we want to ensure this fix improves MATE and causes no other regressions.
What is the future of MATE?
In the future, MATE will likely be the only available implementation of a Gnome 2 desktop and it’s extremely important it gains in stability and features to get to the point where it can act as the true successor of Gnome 2.32 and give people who do not want to change desktops a path in future releases.
In the RC release of Linux Mint we included a first version of MATE with mintDesktop support. In the Stable release we significantly improved the MATE experience by porting mintMenu to it, by adding Mint-Z-Mate, and by fixing a critical bug which caused Caja to crash.We then followed up with updates for mintMenu and we’re now introducing this update which should put an end to most of the critical issues users are facing while using MATE.
Once we manage to get a stable desktop, the next step is to add additional features to it and to configure it so that it looks and behaves exactly like Gnome 2 did in previous releases of Linux Mint. Ultimately, our goal with MATE is to reach the stage where you can’t tell the difference with Gnome 2. It might take a while before we get there but as MATE gains momentum, it should happen eventually.
We consider MATE yet another desktop, just like KDE, Gnome 3, Xfce etc… and based on the popularity of Gnome 2 in previous releases of Linux Mint, we are dedicated to support it and to help it improve. The most popular Linux desktop was, and arguably is, Gnome 2. It is no longer possible for Linux Mint to provide Gnome 2 but there are two promising alternatives available, Gnome 3 which is stable and which could lead to an even better desktop than the one we previously had but which lacks features and flexibility at the moment, and MATE which design is identical to Gnome 2 but which lacks stability at the moment. The future will tell which of these desktops will eventually become the most popular. In the meantime we’ll be working hard to bring more features and configuration options to Gnome 3 and more stability to MATE.
I’d like to thank all the people who will participate in this test, for their help and for their feedback.
Thanks for the fix it sped up mate for me on an HP AMD 4800. I think the tweak tools update broke my weather extension though or is my suspicion.
Cheers
@osxlinux: Thanks. The gnome-tweak-tool update (that was yesterday if I remember well) is safe and only affects the layout of the tool. It fixes a visual glitch in the tool where the content wouldn’t fit in the window and you couldn’t see some of it. This update was made available in the main sections of the repository.
I notice that any theme using this code:
bg[PIXMAP] = “someimage.png”
for background panel will cause this resource hog.
Then I remove the line (or commented it), and it works fine.
.
@Zon: That’s a good workaround. You should be able to put the line back with this fix and get the panel background to show properly again without the performance and stability issues.
ok,goods jobe
clem thanks for the quick response. My resources are using about 20% cpu on each core and 114 MIB for gnome shell. I think my extension issue may be a result of Yahoo and their feed but I will continue to explore why it stopped.
@Clem: OK, sweet!
Thanks for the quick turnaround on this fix!
Clem please tell some news about KDE version.
Thanks
@David: The KDE version is something I planned to personally work on this December. There will be news about it, but this is completely off-topic.
@Clem: thanks for the attention that you devote to (ex) Gnome 2 users. Your strategy makes a lot of sense, and you’ve already converted me to Linux Mint 12 as my desktop on my main box (currently using the Gnome 3 + MGSE and feeling less and less pain because of your extensions! ty again :).
A little note about the future: since you and the Elementary guys seem to be the most active and productive Gnome 2/3 ‘modifiers’ (hope that doesn’t sound reductive!), have you considered joining forces with them?
Rehdon
will definitely wait for version 12.1, bug fixed version if clem so wished.
When will mint 12 KDE be released? Any dates? I’m a long time KDE user on SuSe long ago and on Kubuntu since 2006. I tried mint 12 (first time I tried mint) and I find that the team has done a nice job with it.
Gnome 3 + MGSE rocks :)…
I think Gnome 3 will be the future after it allows users more configurations and customisation. Thank you Linux Mint team..and sorry for off topic reply.
Ein freundliches hallo aus der Schweiz
Danke für den Hinweiss! 🙂 Dachte schon, dass mein Laptop sein defekt!
A friendly hello from Switzerland
Thanks for the clue! 🙂 I thought my laptop is broken!
Please excuse my english … 😉
linux mint (ahora 12) es mi sistema operativo
pero no funciona bien
instale LM12
> Gnome3 / MGSE no sirve
> Mate consume mucha cpu por: mate-panel y mint-menu
< funciona bien gnome clasico solamente.
gnome3 no funciona bien ni desde live-DVD, ni instalado
(Active los controladores de graficos normalmente. y actualice el sistema)
I tried to put the system monitor in the panel from mint menu but it still does not succeed.
Now I am trying to start Compiz. During installation of the Compiz-configuration packet ( I think it was the reason ) I got following message:
(unity-window-decorator:3441): Wnck-CRITICAL **: wnck_screen_get_workspace_count: assertion `WNCK_IS_SCREEN (screen)’ failed
(unity-window-decorator:3441): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)’ failed
At the moment CPU load is also rather high. About 80%
I will continue try starting Compiz…. 😉
NOW I got the Cube to rotate! And wobbly windows as usual! 🙂
CPU still working to hard about 80%
Hello there,
I installed a fresh Mint 12 in a virtual machine and ran only the selected updates. After logging in and out and back into MATE. The CPU Frequency was way up there, but after 5 minutes it went back down. A reboot, also showed the CPU frequency at it’s usual pace so I assumed it was fixed. I was using the default theme. but I tried a couple other themes like Shiki-Wise and the CPU 100% issue came back. The RAM also rose. According to the system Monitor, Python was using most of the recources.
So to sum it up. I only installed those updates after a fresh install and it still didn’t seem to fix the problem for me. The issue is reproducible if i reboot and change to Shiki-Wise or WildMint. if there’s anything else i could do, or if I missed something let me know.
@ZerinSakech: It’s normal to observe a pike in CPU after a theme change, especially from python as mintMenu reloads itself after a theme change. The 100% CPU usage bug was happening while using MATE, not as the result of a theme change or after a login.
Fetch more theme on the net doesn’t work, no available server.
This is the message when I start Compiz from a terminal window:
sven@Mint12-Aspire-one ~ $ compiz –replace
Checking if settings need to be migrated …no
Checking if internal files need to be migrated …no
Backend : ini
Integration : true
Profile : unity
Adding plugins
Skipping upgrade com.canonical.unity.unity.01.upgrade
Skipping upgrade com.canonical.unity.unity.02.upgrade
Initializing core options…done
Initializing bailer options…done
Initializing detection options…done
Initializing composite options…done
Initializing opengl options…done
Initializing imgjpeg options…done
Initializing decor options…done
Initializing gnomecompat options…done
Initializing mousepoll options…done
Initializing move options…done
Initializing place options…done
Initializing grid options…done
Initializing resize options…done
Initializing vpswitch options…done
Initializing animation options…done
Initializing wobbly options…done
Initializing session options…done
Initializing workarounds options…done
Initializing fade options…done
Initializing cube options…done
Initializing scale options…done
compiz (expo) – Warn: failed to bind image to texture
Initializing expo options…done
Initializing rotate options…done
Initializing ezoom options…done
Couldn’t find a perfect decorator match; trying all decorators
Starting unity-window-decorator
Setting Update “active_opacity”
Setting Update “acceleration”
Too much talk about Unity for my taste. 😉
Note: It’s only when Compiz is activated power consumption is so high!
Depending on which theme I select it complains about …..GTK+theme engine “aurora” or “clearlooks” or “murrine” is not installed.
@tux-sven: Yes, it’s still complaining about the theme engine not being present, that’s an issue we haven’t fixed yet.
But I am very happy I could get my icons “Gnome-Wise” back! 🙂
It is something strange-looking down in right corner of the panel. It hides the hide-arrow from being clear visible.
It looks for me a bit like the figure in right-down-corner of a window, where you can pull to make it bigger or smaller.
Note, this strange thing was also before this actual update!!
I also have noticed that ALL programs I have tested are impossible to ad to the panel. Adding them to the desktop works fine.
@tux-sven: please don’t run the whole LM QA test-suite on MATE, we’re only interested in this particular bug/fix :)) The bottom-right corner looking out of place in Ubuntu/Mint is due to an Ubuntu patch adding a resize grip. It’s a regression which happened a few releases ago and we might remove it as well in the future. I’ll have a look at “add to panel”, it’s possible this mintMenu feature still refers to Gnome and needs porting to MATE.
I also notice: From this update it has been possible to ad your own picture as desktop-background. Very good.
It’s also now possible to select what shall be shown in panel-clock. Nice.
@tux-sven: Thanks for the feedback on mintMenu. “Add to Panel” is now fixed in mintmenu 5.2.8.
Working great here.
Windows 7 Enterprise x64 / VirtualBox 4.1.6 / guest:
* 4 CPUs
* 2048 MB memory
* 3D acceleration enabled
@tux-sven : I see the “GTK+ theme not installed” warnings too, but if I look in Package Manager, they are indeed installed. Reinstall doesn’t help.
OK, Clem. Finally then: For me it has not been any problems using “Add to panel” or changing background colors or arrows any longer.
@Clem, Romeo oh Romeo, that fixed my problem. 😉
Thank you for the personal attention. I am having fun again with my computer. As I said in the other blog, my CPU’s ( all 4) run from 23% to 48% with MATE (Compiz installed). And w/Gnome3 at about 2% to 5%. This is at idle. MATE stays at that range even while typing right now using Firefox, so maybe it IS just staying in that range of use for now.
I just turned off Compiz and the rate is the same in MATE, CPU’s at 23-48%.
Thanks again for the updates and personal attention. Now let me go find the donation button to help you guys.
Bill
Okay there ya go, glad you have PayPAl, thanks Clem.
@bill: Thanks for making a donation. The CPU activity is nothing to worry about, it’s when it’s stuck at 100% and it prevents other tasks from running smoothly that we have a problem. My idle cores are between 0% and 20% in MATE but again, it doesn’t mean much. If the desktop is snappy and responsive that’s the main thing. It’s possible Gnome 3 also comes with a smaller footprint, and doesn’t need the equivalent of gnome-settings-deamon, or maybe there’s less dbus activity going on, or maybe the rendering is simply delegated to your 3D card and the CPU doesn’t need to take care of it like it does in MATE? I’m only guessing at this stage, but I wouldn’t worry about these figures.
Ah ha! I restarted MATE and ALL the CPU’s are at 2% to 4%. Then I started Compiz and voila! CPU’s 23% – 48%. When I turn off compiz the rates stay the same until I log out and back in. So Compiz is the culprit. I’ll levae you alone now. Thanks.
Clem can you clarify – is MATE a fork of Gnome 2 or a rewrite?
Reason I ask is whilst I hate Gnome 3 I understand that technically it is much better than Gnome 2 which was old and difficult to build on.
@Alan: It’s a fork.
Something interesting here. When I have a window open, Firefox, LibreOffice, or Solitare, and then I open a terminal, with transparency enabled. I do not see the window(s) underneath, I have X-Ray vision and see through the terminal all the way to the Wallpaper on the desktop. Using MATE and gtk window and metacity and ANY theme.
Not looking for solution just mentioning what I find.
clem what are your thoughts on using xfce, lxde, kde for main edition?
i had installed “Lisa”, and had logged into MATE. well what i usually do when i start customizing the desktop is to add two more panels, and rearrange them as so:
two panels at top, one in the middle which has; the menu(of choice), and the notifications.
at the right of the screen the other panel which only has the clock.
(both panels are not extended)
the last panel is at the bottom, which holds the hide window button, then the window list on the left side of panel, then on the right side; disk mounter, gconf-editor custom app, force quit, window selector, work space switcher, and shutdown. (left in its extended form)
all panels on auto-hide mode, and transparent (using a netbook).
any how, when i went to do this the panel arrangement. i would select add new panel and the panels wouldn’t show up. i would reboot and the panels would show up but be unmovable, or the one panel that had move wouldn’t be there.
could this be related to the CPU usage? if so i would use the update huh.
otherwise i like the MATE desktop, it’s not bad.
should make it your own.
A Mint Branding you could say.
Not to puff you guys up.
More responsive after the fix, but themes still don’t show well and complete, depending on the selection.
Thanks for the fix, though, Clem and Team.
Compiz is still unstable, especially the workspace switcher; I have to right click on the default workspace switcher, reset it to one workspace, enable compiz, reload window manager every time I log in to MATE. Also, if I enable Compiz at startup, it screws my Gnome 3 setup. I realise this is probably not your main concern at the moment. Maybe there is some way to separate the config files for different DE’s?
Having a problem removing launchers from the top bar too.. very easy to drag ‘n’ drop stuff there, but I can’t figure out how to remove them.
My main concern though, is the amount of work you are putting into this transition from Gnome 2. Updates are coming thick and fast.
So is Christmas! Don’t burn yourself out…we can wait.
@Clem, I’m not sure if this is the best place to inform you of this, but doing Control-Super key in MATE or Gnome classic brings up the Mint menu, even though by default it’s configured to. It worked fine under Mint 11.
Otherwise loving Mint 12!
I have yet to see the mint 12 menu changes. My updated 12 RC has 3 Desktop options (gnome, Gnome(no effects), and ubuntu)
The Gnome one has the app/places menu in the left weather in the middle and user,sound,update manager, and connections on the right. i can’t remove items from the panel that were added on accident. The ubuntu option looks like a green unity desktop. It doesn’t have any of the mint specific appearance changes. The advanced settings tool just disappeared after one of the many updates. I’m still enjoying my mint 12 desktop, but I don’t think I ever really got the new mint 12 desktop. please help
Applied the changes and voila! Mate is now very responsive. CPU cores idle between 0% and 12% and the overall speed is impressive. A big improvement for sure!
@clem, I just did the update and it fixed all problems. No problems with themes and CPU% is normal.
Dave
Using Mate + Compiz. Stable for me now except for temp at 76.8 C (170.24 F). Too hot IMHO.
CPU1 = 7%
CPU2 = 3%
I just noticed that mate has become more slower after recent update. mate is dragging so much that I went to install another desk top. I came over to mint from open suse.but I have a lot of security issues with mint or ubuntu. no root password?so very scary to think of a new Linux user using a OS with out having to set a root pass ward. they might tare up there system if they don’t know what they are doing. I want to love mint but I have my doubts…… I hope you release the mate update soon..cheers
Thank you Clem.
“Because these bugs severely impact the stability and performance of MATE, we don’t want to wait until Linux Mint 13 to release this fix to you”
…and THIS is why I’m a proud Linux Mint user. I’m no expert, so I’m not willing to goof around too much on MATE at the moment. Fortunately, I’m quite happy using MGSE, but I agree with the general consensus that the 10-11 era mintMenu was (and still is) the best interface there ever was, and I salute you for the fact that you and your team are devoting so much effort to bring it back to us.
Now if only we could get Caja Elementary or something… (Nautilus Elementary port to MATE.) :3
And maybe a mate-globalmenu. ^_^;
Looks okay to me — I’m not seeing a CPU spike or disappearing panel with any of the available themes.
screencap: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/linkrt.jpg/
(Note the tooltip and link to mate.org; perberos fixed this in #30.)
https://github.com/perberos/Mate-Desktop-Environment/issues/30
For me GNOME is dead. GNOME 3 (and Unity) is hypertrophy of form over content. Switching to MATE and hoping for improvements coming soon.
@Clem : Please make font better at least same as MGSE.
After logging off – and logging in again some menus, and filemanager background becomes black. It happpens on every desktop enviroment. Only thing that resets that problem is “sudo killall Xorg”. Then after logging off problem comes again. I am using Nvidia 290.10 driver with Geforce 450 gts.
Stuff like this is why Linux Mint became so popular. Thank again, Clem.
I solved my black menu problem I mentioned. The problem was KDM does not work well on Mint 12. I chose lightdm and now everything is fine, and works well on every DE.
I don’t care about MATE
Mate it’s waisting of time, that MINT team could spend for improving Gnome 3 Mint
Speed has drastically improved.
Themes such as felicia not being displayed properly (grey Movie Player)
Compiz periodically crashes and freezes which results in a manual restart required.
Bottom right hand corner of panel cut off
No option to set screensaver
No MainMenu option to set the applications to be displayed in the Menu.
No Fortunes Husse despite being installed and enabled via desktop Settings
Hope this is helpful Clem and thankyou for you efforts
@Oyabun
Have you not read previous posts on the blog ? Suffice to say by general reading many have concluded ‘GNOME 3 SUCKS’ no matter how it is dressed up !
I personally won’t be using Mint 12, because Mint 11 is nearly the “perfect” desktop for me, and Mint 12 simply is not at the point where I find it as usable.
However, I do understand why this upgrade has to be done, and I will say that I think the Linux Mint team is making the best of a bad situation– I am trusting that by Mint 13 or 14, the desktop will be back in a place where I can use it, perhaps even better! I personally will likely be using MATE when it gets stabler, however if the Mint team is able to make it so that I can get a customizable panel in GNOME3, then I would consider using it.
What has been done with Linux Mint is truly amazing, and I have no doubt that Linux Mint will be my desktop of choice for many years to come, and that is because (nowadays) it is the one and only distro that really listens to what the users want.
This reply really got longer than I wanted. Basically, all I want to say thank you very much for listening to those of us who found the Gnome 2 desktop to be much better than Gnome 3 or Unity. Thank you for giving us choice, even if it may take a while for Mint to get back where it was.
Just did the morning update of my Lisa VM…….very impressed at the amount of improvement over the past week or so…..fyi, I’m most likely to use Gnome 3 + MSGE and/or Mate desktops in the future (currently using LMDE), so I look forward to the continued maturation of these desktop options. So my advice is ignore the chronic complainers and keep up the productive work!
@Guy
If someone dont know how to configure Gnome 3 then maybe sucks 4 him.
I got system monitor on top panel, notifications, auto startup of skype, radiotray.
I configured easly new theme.
Without clicking but only thru moving mouse i switch, windows desktops, and it works like magic.
Bottom panel i turned off
I add extensions to nautilus and it works like in gnome 2 and same very fast.
I was also afraid of gnome3 but right now i will not switch to gnome 2 for any price, no maybe for xxxx $ 🙂
And this is how my panel looks like after 1 hour of adjustment, everything is in internet, gnome 3 is more configurable than 2.
http://i43.tinypic.com/b5nu5s.png
And if you guys wanna stay with win 95 alike then free way, but i think, for you is lxde or other lightweight shell.
Mate is like making zombie alive, maybe is good for slow/old computers but why not lxde then?
German Salazar (12), amateur translations (Google translate worked very poorly on this whole message, btw.)
Señor, una pregunta para usted que sigue a continuación (abajo).
Linux mint (now 12) is my operating system
but it doesn’t work well
installed LM12
> Gnome3 / MGSE no good
> Mate consumes [lots of] cpu por: mate-panel and mint-menu
< Only Gnome Classic works well.
Gnome3 doesn't work well from live-DVD nor installation.
(Active graphics drivers normally. and update[d] the system)
===
[Asking courteously for more information about his machine]
Siguiente es en español, con ayuda de Google Translate:
El Sr. Salazar, que podría ayudar si usted nos da las especificaciones básicas de su ordenador, tales como su fabricante, cual CPU que utiliza, y la cantidad de memoria.
Saludos cordiales!
@Clem
Enabled Romeo repo, applied applicable updates. For the first time got MATE to load a panel. Never been able to do this sucessfully before, no matter what theme was used. Tried all the suggested ones. You seem to be on the right track with this.
Thanks.
After last regular update today it’s also possible to add items to the panel from Mint Menu. Nice!
CPU consumption with Compiz activated is still a lot to high compared to the CPU consumption in LMDE or LM10 (also with Compiz activated)
I also think Compiz is crashing all the time but is able to recover itself. If I uncheck “Bailer” in the Compiz Configuration Manager I get a no-usable empty desktop only.
Some kind of Compiz misconfiguration?
Otherwise the MATE-desktop now begins to be closer than ever before to the lovely Mint 10 desktop.. 🙂
MATE is running great. Loving Mint 12 (all desktops)!
MATE running at idle:
CPU 1 = 2%
CPU 2 = 1%
CPU 3 = 0%
CPU 4 = 0%
AMD Phenom II Black 3.2 GHz quadcore cpu
Gigabyte MB
4GB DDR3 Mushkin Silverline
OCZ SSD
Tried to install DVD Mint 12, and it was extremely slow.
On this Lenovo 3000 Desktop I only have 500 MB Memory but Dual Core 64 Bit Intel.
Just Now this is Mint 11 and Mint 10 and 9 (CD’s) are much faster.
Maybe it is due to MATE?? Or something Else?
Thanks
Sam
PS. Willing to beta on Part of the Disk.
Gnome 3 on Fedora 15 is very Good on Asus Notebook with 1GB Memory.
Also LXDE looks the Same on any Linux based System I have tried.
Thanks
Again
Sam
Now I will give Mint 12 a try for more regular use… thx Clem. 🙂
This is exactly why I use and love Mint! You guys are amazing and responsive to the needs/requests of the community!
@Oyabun: MATE is definitely NOT a waste of time. Gnome 3 is beautiful at first appearances, for sure, and over time will just get better. However, for many of us, Gnome 3 just doesn’t cut it. It is still extremely unstable, drops too many configuration options that many have relied on for years, puts things in hard-to-reach places, and is really mostly surface eye candy (but no usable eye candy) without much substance yet.
I want to be able to use Compiz (SO much more useful, beautiful, and CONFIGURABLE than Mutter at the moment).
I want to be able to easily put any part of the UI anywhere I want it without having to search out, install, and configure a bunch of extensions, which will also end up making my desktop more unstable.
I want to be able to use my computer without fear that the GUI will suddenly crash and/or restart itself in the middle of what I’m working on (which is what Gnome 3 does on my system every few minutes).
I want to have quick configuration access by way of right-clicking on a UI element without having to dig into the screwy menu system and find where that stupid advanced system configuration program went and then search through the list of extensions trying to find the one that affects what I want to change. I just want to right-click, change, done.
All of these things are where Gnome 2/MATE trump Gnome 3 at the moment. Gnome 3 is a HUGE backward step from Gnome 2/MATE. Sure, Gnome 3 is the future. As I said, someday Gnome 3 will get there. But I need to use my computer now, not someday in the future. MATE allows that, and makes sure that Mint is a great overall viable solution both for people who love Gnome 3 and people who hate it. Yes, there are other solutions (KDE, XFCE, etc.), but non are at quite the same level of quality and/or simplicity as Gnome 2/MATE.
Personally, I would love to see MATE use GTK 3, the newer nautilus, etc., adding some of the more sensible new Gnome 3 features, while keeping the great Gnome 2 features we’ve always had. That’s what Gnome 3 should have been to begin with, in my opinion, even if it was still a rewrite.
@tux-sven: Could the problem be the newer version of Compiz? I haven’t worked much with Compiz and Mint 12, but in Mint 11 I had to completely replace Compiz 0.9.x with the older Compiz 0.8.6 from Mint 10, because it was causing system problems, one of which was high CPU usage. Perhaps we need to do the same thing again with Mint 12?
@Mike 74 – Nice post, yep we need the ability to customize without having to spend hours googling and using gedit.
Question, how did you downgrade Compiz? Any directions anywhere? Or is it back to googling or in this case Duckduckjgoing.
Thanks.
@ Mike Freeman:
Thanks. Yes it’s possible that it should help changing to an older version, but I will wait an see what happens. (I also got LMDE and LM10 to relay on! 😉 )
It could be something with the Compiz configuration, because during installation Compiz was claiming about Unity.
.
I trust on Clem. I think he will manage the problems. 🙂
Today I also managed to start Skype. I had, as always problems with my built-in microphone but it was possible to fix it. (Not a real Mint-issue however.)
Great stuff, guys, works a treat now.
Getting better all the time!!!!
wow, i did the fix for mate. tremendous of how fast everything got. downloading too. good job.
shaluwm.
When I first log-in to MATE, there is no Mint Update Manager icon appearing in the lower right, bottom panel by default.
When/If I launch Mint Update from the Mint Menu, then I see the Mint Update Manager icon appear in the lower panel, and it remains for the rest of the current session, but will not appear again on a restart.
@Bill: Here are instructions for doing it in Mint 11 (cut/pasted from a forum post I wrote almost 6 months ago, and slightly modified). I’m not sure that it will work with Mint 12 as well, as a lot has changed between the two, but who knows. Could work…
1. Open Synaptic (Package Manager) and type Compiz into the Quick Search bar.
2. Uninstall all Compiz-related packages by clicking on the green box to the left of each, selecting Uninstall, and when they’re all marked, click Apply.
3. In Synaptic (Package Manager), go to Settings -> Repositories.
4. Click on the Other Software tab.
5. Click Add.
6. In the APT line box, type or cut/paste the following: ppa:guido-iodice/compiz-0.8.6-natty
7. After exiting the sources manager, reload your sources (click the Reload button on Synaptic).
8. Install the same Compiz-related packages that you just removed (look at File -> History and click on today’s date if you’ve forgotten) by selecting the grey box to the left of each package, selecting Install, and when they’re all marked, click Apply. There is one exception to this. Fusion-icon won’t install because of dependency issues.
9. If you need a replacement for Fusion-icon, go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/displex/files/. It has many of the same functions as Fusion-icon. Download displex-0.7.2-all.deb, and save it to your desktop. From the desktop, right-click on the file you just downloaded, and select Open with Gdebi Package Installer. Click Install.
A note about this for Mint 12: At step 6, you may need to further edit the PPA. Select the new PPA you just added and click edit. If the “Distribution” section says oneiric, it may not work (unless the author has compiled a new version). If this is the case, change it to natty.
As I said, this might not work at all. I haven’t tested it in Mint 12. If it doesn’t work, just uninstall compiz again, remove the new repository, and reinstall the compiz that came with Mint 12 again (if you want to). Let me know what your results are. Good luck!
@80 Mike Freeman – Wow thank you. Not to worry I have Mint 12 backed up on 3 HD’s. I like to hack and play. 🙂
Thanks again.
@ malligt:
MintUpdate is not visible, that’s right, but it is always started when you log in. I’m not quite sure but I think it will appear automatic when new updates are available.
But I think you are right, it should be there all time. 🙂
Very impressed with the fixes. This has gone from not being so stable to working for the most part. Still some issues with aesthetics concerning button graphics coming up missing etc.., compiz weird outs, but I can see the work that has been done to address some of the other issues and all I can say is.. That is some very quick fixes you’ve performed there. Very good. I think once the kinks are worked out, this will prove to be a very viable and stable release. Moving in the right direction.
The mint-menu port works on Mate now, and that is a very nice thing to see.
Nice work LM devs. A ways to go, but not all that far out compared to the release rc.
After update MATE desktop is not start correctly. No menus are available at all. Just a wallpaper there 🙁
@82 tux-sven
According me you are not right. I tested it.
When I started my notebook I made login into Gnome 3. I saw that there were updates. Then I made logout and login into Mate. But there was not any update icon at palel.
I have tested it several times.
@tux-Sven
Earlier, when I logged into Mint 12, GNOME, desktop, the Mint Update Manager was blue in color, telling me there were updates available.
I logged out of the GNOME desktop, and logged back into MATE. There was no Mint Update Manager Icon that ever appeared in the bottom panel to tell me what I already had just seen from GNOME.
When I went to Mint Menu / Update Manager / enter my password, etc. to get my updates, then the icon appeared and functioned as you’d see it in Mint 11.
Mint Update and MU Manager is Clem’s baby. Any Mint Debian user can tell you at length of all the efforts Clem made to have it work so very nicely, so I really don’t expect this problem to be around very long, once Clem is made aware of it.
Hope this clears this up for you.
One problem with MATE is that any packages in the Ubuntu repositories that only work with GNOME 2 and not GNOME 3 have now been removed by Ubuntu for all new releases. An example is the ‘hardware-monitor’ applet. I assume all GNOME 2 panel applets will be unavailable, for a start. How will this problem be addressed?
Thanks, linux 12 works Great Did notice a performance increase and also power down menu works great now. Can run update manager and then power off, instead off not able to select power down menu at all.
Great Job. Thanks Keep the great updates Coming. Fixed My Computer Don’t notice theme problems any more.
@Mike Freeman – no go: “repositories unavailable or internet connection bad.” Oh well, it was worth a try. One good thing was after installing compiz 1.0.9.6. again, the fusion-icon works on autostart. However, it pushes CPU load up from 2%-4% to 23%-32% all 4 CPU’s in MATE and in Gnome 3 it makes the top bar disappear, (not good when that is my only bar), cairo-dock saved me. 🙂
So I guess I’ll forgoe my wobbly windows and keep the CPU’s at 2% util a software guru invents a fix. Thanks for the help though.
@Bobby (#59)You can fix the font appearance by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting “Change Desktop Background” from the menu. When the “Appearance Preferences” menu opens select the “Fonts” tab and then click the “Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)” option. Once that’s done, click the “Details” button and in the resulting window, select “slight”. You’re done. Your fonts should look much better.
In previous versions of Mint that used Gnome 2 this was already set by default but this is MATE and it’s still very much a beta DE yet. All the Mint “defaults” are not set yet.
hi, i use a cdma wireless modem, by hawiei… and somtimes it does not get detected…. anyone with the same problem??
@Bill: That’s an odd error. I just tried it, and I was able to access the repositories just fine. That said, just as I feared, there were dependency problems. Compiz 0.8.6 expected a Gnome library that doesn’t exist anymore. So, sadly, it won’t work that way anyway. But that DOES work for Mint 11, if you ever switch back to that.
@Mike – yeah and just try to find a libemeraldengine0 file anywhere on earth to compile emerald theme manager, good luck with that one. The world is moving on, sometimes it sucks. Take care my friend.
@Bill: True. I’m not sure why Emerald never got the attention it really deserves. It’s the most amazing piece of eye candy on my computer. So much smoother and more configurable than Metacity. Would it be too much to hope for to ask for Compiz 0.8.6 and Emerald to be included in MATE? 🙂
Ok, I’m really liking MATE so far. Find a way to add in all of the Indicator Applet packages that existed in Mint 11, and MATE would be great! I’ve been using this updated version off and on all day today, and it has been really very solid! With the exception of the missing applets, especially the Indicators, I would be quite comfortable in the MATE environment on a day-to-day basis. It’s already out-performing Gnome 3 in my book! Great work guys!
I am also really liking Mate after the fixes. its fast and functional for me. The only issues I see at the moment are:
resize indicators on lower right corners of the panels
mintupdate icon not present in notification area at startup
bluetooth icon not present in notification area at startup
mint menu appearance not stable (compiz issue same as in mint 11)
It started after I installed compiz and fusion. The headers and/or
places and system sections change from theme to white with each
startup.
I have Mate looking exactly like mint 11. So now im torn between using Mate and gnomeshell which, except for the lack of customization, I like also. Great job Mint team.
I forgot to mention trying to drag the scroll bar in mint menu shuts down the menu
Update manager not showing on startup is definitely an issue for me too. I started off not worrying about using MATE but having worked with it aft the bugfixes I’m really liking it!
I got an idea about the Compiz problems. I think it could be caused of the lack of emerald. I would like to install the emerald theme and make a test but I can’t find a fitting package (gtk3). Im not quite shure of making my own package either. Any ideas?
Well I lied the fix worked, But Power-down menu is still not working after update manager. Linux Mint fails to load menu, i can click it and it doesn’t load menu options to power off. When I click on shutdown menu it just sits at desktop, and I cant even turn computer off at switch user page.
Thanks for the fix… and Linux mint 12 is good… thank u very much for the work.
No I tried installing the “Ultimate Edition 3.0 Theme Pack” which should contain “emerald” but I still can’t see emerald as an Window-decoration option in Fusion-icon-menu. 🙁
http://www.themelinux.com/ultimate-edition-themes/#theme30
Clem
If I were to submit an ISO. to you of Linux Mint built upon Debian Squeeze would you consider releasing it ?
I put it together last night ands runs off Kernel 2.6.39 and its very stable.
I feel to offer such an ISO. would go some way to satisfying those like myself that do not wish to migrate to GNOME 3
Installed the updates this morning and they seem to work o.o.
just for information, gnome shell extensions website is now open : https://extensions.gnome.org/
We’ll soon be able to see thousands of extensions… too many maybe…
@tux-sven the libraries for emerald are no longer in the repositories. I have emerald installed on Xfce, Gnome2 and I have all the files but do not know how to install 1 by 1. But I’m sure fusion would really like its sister emerald.
@ Kirk M-88 : Thanks for the tip. Yes fonts are looking better now.
MATE is improving day-by-day. To me it seems to be stable. (as I don’nt use compiz etc.) One suggestion would be, yes we don’nt like Gnome-3. But there are some qualities in it which I would like to be adopted in MATE if possible. If possible Clem, please call some feedback on it also, that will be very interesting!
You should have listened to us before! The first RC was not enough. We needed a second RC AT LEAST to address so many different issues. What was the bloody hurry to release final? It was (is) still clearly far from final.
Definitely a step in the right direction. When MATE == Gnome 2.32 + Compiz (that INCLUDES Enhanced Desktop Zoom and FULL Gnome panel compatibility with applets like DocbarX), I’ll switch to that version from Mint 10.
I await developments to that end with interest.
And as an aside:
Your current “Final” (and I use the term extremely loosely) is Alpha code at best. With these fixes, it has finally entered very early pre-Beta.
@Bill, tux-sven try this site:http://ubuntugenius.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/ubuntu-11-04-fix-enable-emerald-themes-for-compiz-fusion-window-borders-title-bars/ to see if that helps with compiz and MATE.it lists all the dependencies.
@crzen – Been down that road and sucessfully installed emerald in ubuntu 11.04 both gnome and xfce, but that was when you could install the library libemeraldengine0 from the repo. It’s gone now. Thanks though. Oh and that site states: “You can forget about trying to run Emerald in Gnome-Shell.” It’s dead Jim.
@Bill get it here:http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/libemeraldengine0
@crzen – yes I found it, but it will not “make” at that final step it is missing some gtk2 .h files. probably because it is gtk3 now
Compiz 0.8.6 + emrald 0.8.8 + Mate is stable
sudo apt-get purge compiz compiz-plugins-extra compiz-plugins-main
sudo apt-get purge compizconfig-settings-manager
sudo apt-get purge libemeraldengine0 emerald
libgnome-window-settings1
wget http://mirror.pnl.gov/ubuntu//pool/main/g/gnome-control-center/libgnome-window-settings1_2.32.1-0ubuntu15_i386.deb
libprotobuf6
wget http://mirror.pnl.gov/ubuntu//pool/main/p/protobuf/libprotobuf6_2.3.0-4ubuntu2_i386.deb
sudo dpkg install *.deb
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/guido-iodice/compiz-0.8.6-natty/ubuntu natty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/guido-iodice/compiz-0.8.6-natty/ubuntu natty main
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupported compiz-gnome compiz-plugins compizconfig-backend-gconf compizconfig-settings-manager libcompizconfig0 libdecoration0 python-compizconfig emerald
http://compiz-themes.org/?xcontentmode=103
emerald –replace
compiz –replace
A lot faster. Am trying for a while until deciding between MATE and xfce.
This version of Mint, Mint 12 is semi-product. I am Mint user since Mint 5 version, and I can’t remember that we had so many problems in any of previous releases. Everyday I hear that people complain about something, check forums. I am still on Mint 11 and I believe I will stay with this release as long as it is supported.
@Coach
yes you’re right, but this release is not a usual one as the pre-mature Gnome Shell and MATE were introduced in mint. This is not Mint fault.
@Martial,
I know Man, but I didn’t ask for Gnome 3. I was more than happy with Gnome 2, and how Mint 11 worked and still works on my PC. Cheers.
@ coach:
Remember this release had lot more challenges than ever before. It’s an unusual situation when the whole DE that Mint relays on is changing so dramatically. Clem has done as good as it’s possible at the moment. Don’t blame him. I’m sure it will be good finally.
Perhaps he was needed to do in this way to get all valuable response. We also know that Clem is listening to his users more than anyone else.
Remember: It’s FREE to use Mint 12, it’s also FREE to use Mint 10 or Mint 11! You didn’t pay much for it, did you?
@Coach
Yes sad for Gnome2 but i’m confident. MATE is doing it’s job but i don’t know (think) if it will have a long life (pb with libraries not supported anymore from Gnome project, GTK3 migration etc…). Gnome3 will be ok… one day… Or XFCE will quickly reach the usability and eye-candy of Gnome 2 as devs and users who miss Gnome2 will probably spend time improving XFCE.
Installed the patches as above. I don’t see any change in the way things work – and they do work 😉 Granted I’m not trying to stress the system – Claws, Firefox, gthumb, Pysol, Wine 1.3, glabels, Nautilus, Abiword and Libre Ofc Writer mainly. I changed the background to “Flow” and the theme to Mint-Z-Mate (still get the GTK+ theme engine error but no problems). I have an auto-hide panel on the left with links to a few favorite programs. I have very low resource usage so I guess nothing’s too far out of line. I do note however that Nautilus pretty much insists in listing files in reverse alphabetical order – keeps changing back to that.
It has been suggested elsewhere that Gnome have an official fork at this point with one branch running in the Mate direction and the other continuing to make the desktop look like my Android tablet! Obviously I’m in the first camp! I don’t like the increased emphasis on eyecandy – just want to get something done.
@crzen – VICTORY!!!! I now have Emerald Theme Manager working in MATE quite nicely. 🙂 What a job that was hunting down the gdktypes.h file and dropping it into gdk-2.0/gdk/ Sweet!
@Mike Freeman – I have Emerald working. 🙂
Here is a picture of Emerald & Mate on my desktop.
https://backup.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=916f648c919474b09f6d
Mate works nice after update, including here the proprietary ATI driver (not from Mint, but from AMD site). However I never succeed to run in proper condition Gnome 3 with that driver, for instance the reset of display from time to time or when changing something on the screen (I know that there are problems with ATI driver). For now I have Linux Mint 12 working under Mate desktop. It’s OK. Thanks to the Mint team!
@Bill nice looking desktop. write up a detailed howto and post it in the forums.It might help others… like me!
@crzen – Thanks. But I’m basically just a hacker. I’m afraid if I wrote something up the whole community would come down on my head.
However, I would answer anyone privately with the understanding that you’d better BACK-UP FIRST. 🙂
Dopo qualche aggiustamento mate funziona come gnome2 su katya, cioè bene, compresi gli effetti di compiz. Ed è veloce e reattivo.
@ Bill:
Congratulations. Was my assume correct, did the continuing crashes of Compiz disappear? Did CPU usage go down? :O
Please find a way to tell us the how-to. You can make it very clear: “AT YOUR OWN RISK! I WILL TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY!”
I am very interested myself.. if it worked that fine. 🙂
@tux-sven – I can tell you what I did but as you can see in MATE:
https://backup.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=916f648c919474b09f6d
look at conky and see that the cpu’s are running from 26%-44%.
But when I log out and back into Gnome3:
https://backup.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=916f648d9a9da4b9a99e
the cpu’s are running from 8%-20%.
There are no more crashes of compiz and as you can see from both DE’s the RAM is at 556 in Gnome3 and 683 in MATE.
Now if that cpu and ram use doesn’t bother you, I can tell you how I got emerald working.
I’m sorry Mr. Moderator, I have a feeling this forum should be only for MATE feedback. I’ve been here less than a week, so if someone could start a new topic or point me in the right direction, perhaps some of us could go over there to discuss Compiz and Emerald, and MATE and get out of your way. Thanks for understanding.
Again with MATE – The menu editor (alacarte): I can edit but no change in menu (in MATE). The changes were only in Gnome 3.
I also applied the update and it seemed to speed my computer and fix the issue with the themes, cpu looks okay so far also. thanks for this =)
@Bill: Awesome! Message me in the Community part of the site, and let me know exactly what you did! Eventually I will want to do the same!
I have a large collection of metacity/gtk themes.
After the fix, installed them all, everything is working. I have gnome compositing enabled, no compiz.
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2 GB RAM
ATI RADEON 4xxx series
Well I did all the updates and Mate was going great again.
But…
When I did Panel Properties – Background – Solid color – Transparent
the system became unresponsive again. I was using the Clearlooks Theme.
Can anyone else confirm this happening to them or is it just me ?
Also I have enabled the Nvidia proprietary Drivers a while back.
(post-release updates)
That seemed to speed things up till now.
@Bill:
Please send me also (Community part of site) step-by-step instruction.
I would appreciate it sooo much!!!
@Tomast: Reproduced here with Clearlooks and transparent panel background, it lags a bit while making the change, but everything is fine then.
Thanks everybody for participating in this test. The update will now be sent to the main repositories for other users to enjoy.
Many thanks.
Didn’t have the time to read through all responses, but I think I found a bug. Clean install + Updates: tried mate, and the “set as desktop background”, in nautilus didn’t work. Tried with a couple of images and the background remains the same.
@z3r0:
Regarding your Mate issue and possibly related to it, I tried setting the desktop background from an image displayed in Firefox but that didn’t work so I downloaded the image and pointed the “set as desktop background” to the saved image location I used. That worked.
Dear Mint Team, I am happy with MATE desktop. Can we get Mint12 with MATE only DVD ISO or Install Mint12 only with MATE excluding Gnome3? Thanks
I find that updating MATE or removing altogether as per the tips and tricks guide http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=86813 causes the log-in sound to fail in all versions (Gnome, Gnome Classic, Mate).
@Mike, crzen, tux-sven, Tonya, and anyone else. I am very busy today, but will try to recreate emerald in virtualbox MATE tonight and then go over to community (Never been there before) and write out steps.
Any tips on finding or using community?
Thanks.
@ Bill:
You could go to this forum and create a new tread called “Howto add Emerald to the MATE DE” or something like that. 🙂
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=206
Of course you have to create your own loging user and pswd first, but it’s easy and free of charge. 😉
Welcome and good luck!
Sorry, I meant “LOG-IN” user of course..
Thanks for the fix. One thing that was noticeable about MATE was that if you changed the desktop background one too many times in a row, the window decorations would revert to Raleigh. The other thing was that by switching themes, one risked crashing MATE (as you posted up top, the panel would disappear and it would go to 100% CPU utilization). In order to log back in, you might have to delete or rename ~/.mate* directories. Your fix seems to have solved those problems.
An issue with the “Mint-Z-Mate” theme is that scrollbars don’t have up and down arrows.
(Would you be able to convince whomever is the main MATE developer to replace that silly animated GIF logo in the “about MATE” dialog box with something that looks more professional?)
I followed the instruction for the fix and my system still locks up. The lock occurs when I use Banshee to listen to my music and open anything else. Can someone please help me with this problem before I decide to go back to Mint 11 until the problem is truly fixed.
MATE Updates “Break” Mint 12 Gnome
The log-in sound was lost in Gnome (and Gnome Classic) when I installed the MATE updates (level 2 updates). So I restored a backup and the sound was back. So I un-installed MATE as per this thread: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=86813 section
1i. Remove MATE altogether.
The log-in sound in Gnome classic was again gone. So I re-installed my backup and installed only the level 1 updates which had nothing to do with MATE and the sound remains.
Karl
@tux-sven – thank you I will go there as soon as I duplicate it one more time. It won’t work in Virtualbox, so tomorrow I will reinstall Mint12 and MATE updates on my real hard drive and try again, if I succeed a 2nd time, I will write down the steps in the community area.
:3
https://matsusoft.com.ar/uploads/perberos/2011/12/1323152075_49.png
Thanks for the update i have noticed no any problem with Mate cpu usage is normal so i don’t need this fix, i have noticed that Firefox 8.0 is using an lot of memory while starting and sometimes too much is swapping to memory or disk. I have 4 gb memory and sometimes firefox using 800 mb memory i have also reported this to the Mozilla team for investigation. But for this time Mint rocks and is very stable and Mate is ok i like this Mint very much and is mine standard and only distro.
I really hope that MATE improves and gains the same stability of its previous brother. I don’t like gnome 3… so keep going and, thank you!
Hi Clem,
Although I usualy work with Mint-Debian, I tried the new version Lucia in the Mate and Gnome-3 version. I installed Evolution in Mate. restored the data with an old tar.gz backup-file and got the warning th
Hi Clem,
Although I usualy work with MintDebian I tried the new edition Lucia in the Mate- and the Gnome-3 version. I installed Evolution in Mate, restored the data with an old tar.gz backup file and got the warning that the data could´nt be read. A moment later, however the Inbox was Ok, and the Addressbook could be read.
Installing Evolution in Mintdebian, and restoring the data with a backupfile produced with new data in Mate gave a normal tranfer of the items in the Inbox but the individual mails were unreadable, however.
Is this a normal phenomenon, or incompatibility between Ubuntu and Debian?
Why not consider also making a Kde trinity (continuation of kde 3.5.x) edition of mint, it is quite mature and should be darn easy to configure to mint standards, and good job with mate, it is very much my default desktop, and lastly mint menu always seems to crash on some of my pcs whether it is linux mint 10 on a eeepc or on mate on an old dell inspiron
@tux-sven – I have not forgotten, I just haven’t been able to repeat the experiment. Mazigh’s method posted above works, although I had to change i386.deb to amd64.deb, had to uninstall all compiz 1.0.9 before installing 0.8.6 compiz and had to install fusion-icon 10. but the method works for emerald. But I haven’t been able to repeat my method. Keep getting an error. But I have it all working with compiz 1.0.9 so I know I did it once. Essentially, I downloaded libemeralengine) installed it and then I followed the steps for fixing emerald by compiling, with the git, then moved gdkconfig.h to gtk.2.0/gdk/ and it worked. But dang if I can repeat it.
on the road to perfection, it takes time and patience.
as in its an everyday walk, till the end. and if you endure and take the extremes with the road, you’ll find yourself in an esteemful victory and find out it was all worth it.
may Yahuwah Bless those that get this. in Yahuwshuwah, Peace Be.
Shaluwm
@ Bill
That’s all right. 🙂 There is a method, (Mazigh’s) available to fix it anyway. But I will wait for next MATE updates and see what happens first. You are welcome to Mint forum anyway, it’s a nice place to be. Lot of nice, and often competent, people there. 🙂
@ tux-sven – You must be one of those nice people. 🙂 thanks
It’s nice place where I look forward. Mint brings us more happy.
I’ve been unable to get LM12 DVD to boot to a workable Desktop on my IBM ThinkPad R40 with an ATI Radeon Mobility M6 LY video card, but was able to get it to work on a friends computer today and would like to know where I can find help in resolving this problem?
Everyone is waiting on me to check out Mint and determine if it works with the GPS and photo editing applications needed to perform our work and if so we will likely move to Mint from Ubuntu.
We are scattered around the world, therefore it is desirable for us to all run the same OS and apps to make problem resolutions easier.
Thanks to anyone who might lead us to a solution.
SO, FINALLY WHICH LINUX MINT 11 OR LISA I SHOULD DUAL BOOT ON MY PC COMFORTABLY ?
PLS…..
I liked linux mint.Please tell me how can i install MATE.I downloaded CD version of Linux mint 12.I What you mean by Gnome,Gnome classic and Gnome classic (with no effect). In gnome where is task panels.
@ JoeZ:
Have you changed in the BIOS so it gets the possibility to boot from a DVD?
Is the computer able to read DVD:s? (Not only CD:s?)
If it starts reading from the DVD, does it stop or what is happening?
As an alternative, You could also install the CD-version and upgrade it to the DVD-version from a button in “Mint Welcome” (Very easy)
/Sven
@ sibin:
Mate only exist in the DVD version. That means that you first have to upgrade to the DVD-version (Easy to do from the Mint-Welcome menu)
Make all available updates (from Mint-update) and reboot. At login window you could select MATE as an alternative DE to Gnome and Gnome Classic.
Note: You can’t run MATE from a live session, you must install Mint for be able to select MATE.
/Sven
@ RED HATT:
Both are good for Dual boot I think. It’s at the moment a little bit easier to run Mint 11 if you are used to and comes from MS Win.
(The easiest and most stable version today is however Mint 10, according to my opinion) 🙂
But I think Mint 12 will be fine, if we give it little more time to mature first.
I’ve tried Mint 12 replacing my Mint 11 installation. Looked good with a lot of problems. The worst was it did not keep my settings on dual monitors, Ati Driver/Compiz not working, bad sound on pulse audio- I replaced with alsa but then the multimedia keys did not work even if I had past the commands in python to do so. Now I moved to LMDE (linux Mint Devian Edition which I hope will be more satisfying.
@ panava:
Yes I do run LMDE myself. It’s stable and well performing. I don’t know what happens when Gnome 3 reaches LMDE with its full power…
Clem has been holding back all updates for a while now, probably because he don’t want to cause problems to the LMDE users.
I noted that in clearlooks (at least) it is still showing a black message box when i point the mouse pointer over the icons (e.g. over the firefox icon it must show a messagebox with ‘Firefox Web Browser…’, but i get a whole black rectangle instead… ).
you know i like my window buttons on the left. i don’t know, but it just seems right. i can just feel it.
Shaluwm
I just removed completely MATE out of my system and the performances of my computer increase 20 % . It’s enorm
by by
sayonara MATE
🙂
Can you guys try to improve MATE font rendering. Right now it makes my eyes hurt. Currently there is no battery icon for Mate. Can this be fixed as well.
i am a photographer and i use gimp a lot!! i was wondering if it is safe to switch to linux mint 12,,, anyone?? using mint 11 and debian now…
last night, i lost my rag, as Mint 12 just played up and crashed so badly it was unuseable. I wiped off Mint 12, and reinstalled Mint 11, but as I like the overall look and feel of Mint 12, it bugged me like you wouldn’t believe, so this morning, i reinstalled Mint 12. Finally, after all this time since the RC version was released, I’ve got a stable, fast, smooth reliable system up and running. It turns out, it was the graphics card driver. Cut a long story short, I’m running Mint 12 WITHOUT the recommended ati driver, OR the latest version downloaded from AMD website. I’m just using the driver that the installation provides, without updating it. Result? My system is rock solid stable, and fast. No more flickering screen or window decorations disappearing leaving me unable to type or select anything.
Mint 12 (Lisa) now rocks!! 🙂
@Mike Freeman, Tonya and others: I have made a tutorial/article on how I installed Emerald in Linux Mint 12 MATE, both 32 and 64 bit versions.
Here you may find it. http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/710
PS, tux-sven can help now too. 😉
Keyring issue in Mate:
I decided to go back to Mint 12 in all computers -from Mint Debian LMDE- after two annoying rolling upgrades that broke first (march 2011) my working nvidia-96 legacy video driver and later (october 2011) a policy kit (polkit) upgrade that beared me to reduced rights to all removable devices among other annoying issues. I solved both by hand reinstalling legacy drivers, editing configuration files but I got tired of tweaking and not just using my computers. Polkit issue was very annoying.
Linux Mint 12 with Mate is fine for me, without compiz form (Dell gx260, 2GHz, 2GB, nvidia quadro 280sd); with a load of 14-20% with Opera open (now while writing). 40-47% with compiz.
My Big problem is with keyring support: I cannot create-modify any keyring or add new key with Mate (yes with Gnome 2/3 in the same system/user.
I am getting (with Seahorse) a communication error with the gnome-keyring-daemon. Mate-keyring-daemon and gnome-keyring-daemon are both present and checked as startup applications, but after verifying with ps only mate-keyring-daemon is running.
I reinstalled all keyring, polkit and pam component6s.
I deleted my user keyring and ssh folders and rebuilt keys.
I must confess that in my main computer and did not make a ‘clean’ install. I let my /home as in debian (LMDE).
Any hint ? Thanks
also i recommend using the original pulseaudio with the amplifying ability. i like the louder sound ability. thanks and shaluwm.
@Terrence : Regarding font rendering please see post-94 Kirk M.
yes gimp works fine tho i only did a minor job.
tux-sven
It boots but can’t do anything from the Desktop other than lock up the computer. Looks like a problem with video card driver, but don’t seem to be able to find anyone willing to confirm this.
@ pl21224:
I am not sure what you are talking about. Are you trying to start LM 12 from an installation or from the Live-media? I don’t know so much about other graphic cards than Intel, which I use myself.
@ pl21224:
I have had the same experience with the gnome desktop and fits with unity. I’m using a nVidia Quadro NVS 285 video card and dual monitors and I have yet to find a good solution. There are some known issues with the drivers, just Google “nvida and gnome”.
Mate runs fine for me though using the “version current” driver. Good luck.
@ Clem : While using Banshee in MGSE, I am not able to exit it, there is no way to exit it from panel, you can only press stop button. Some educational application, like tuxmath, gcompris etc. are not running in MGSE but are running in MATE. In MGSE if you download a wallpaper first time you can add it. But second time if you want to add, it just does not happen, Open button becomes Ghost. You have to login again. Then again second time same thing happens. But no problem in MATE.