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Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Mint + Cairo -- best Linux ever?
mikewilson English 18 riv-dogg [Read]
29 May 2014 à 16:22

mikewilson, Sunday 04 March 2012 à 15:20


Subscription date : 04 March 2012
Messages : 1
I've been using various Linux versions & distros for most of 20 years, since installing Slackware from a mountain of floppies back in the early 90s. I'm now running Linux Mint with Cairo dock 2.4.0 and I think this is the best setup I have used.

I like to use keyboard shortcuts, so gratitude to SQP on the "Problems at use" forum for pointing me to compizconfig-settings-manager to get those working once I stopped using Mint's pretty good but slightly flaky Cinnamon. I hadn't even realised I was running compiz.

matttbe, Monday 05 March 2012 à 12:23


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573


I don't know if Linux Mint is the best distribution (which is based on Ubuntu with a few differences (it's installed with a few applications that you can't install in a few countries and this is why you can't have these packages on Ubuntu...) ) but Mint + Cairo is certainly a good idea

fabounet, Monday 05 March 2012 à 13:38


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
especially with the MintMenu applet

Guest, Monday 29 October 2012 à 17:48

I've just installed Cairo onto my Mint PC. It seems to be working ok but I have this horrible black background around the dock. A tool tip message came up advising I use Compiz to remove this black background but Compiz is not installed wtih Mint. Does anyone know how I get rid of this?

matttbe, Monday 29 October 2012 à 18:48


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Which session are you using? Mate?
I guess you're using a fork of Metacity (with maybe only another name... ). About this bug, you can have a look here but I'm not sure that this command will work:
gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager true


Google helps me and I added one line for Mate, can you confirm that it works?
Mate without Compiz (with Metacity's fork, aka Marco): Install mate-conf-editor and launch mateconf-editor. Now in the mateconf-editor, go to Apps / Marco / General / enable this key: "compositing_manager".

Guest, Tuesday 30 October 2012 à 14:32

Hi, thanks for the quick answer. I'm using MATE, I tried the above but doesn't seem to work. I don't seem to be able to install the mate-conf-editor. I did log in using the "GNOME with Cairo" session and that works well, but I cant get rid of the black background using the MATE session. I', no Linux expert so I'm probably missing something here.

Taffman, Tuesday 30 October 2012 à 15:55


Subscription date : 30 October 2012
Messages : 3
Just managed to fix this, all I needed to do was go into Cairo configuration, then Add-Ons, enable Composite-Manager and toggle to yes.

fabounet, Tuesday 30 October 2012 à 17:23


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
héhé, the dock auto-solved the problem, we've almost achieved an IA

Taffman, Tuesday 30 October 2012 à 18:41


Subscription date : 30 October 2012
Messages : 3
I spoke too soon, Whenever I restart the PC, the dock loses the Composite-Manager and I have to re-toggle it to "Yes" each time I log in. Is this a dock bug?
Also the Mint menu has suddenly stopped working, very strange?

matttbe, Wednesday 31 October 2012 à 01:47


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
I don't seem to be able to install the mate-conf-editor
Does it work with this command launched from a terminal?
sudo apt-get install mate-conf-editor -y

Taffman, Wednesday 31 October 2012 à 11:07


Subscription date : 30 October 2012
Messages : 3
My apologies, it was installed, just didn't know what I was looking for
I've now enabled the "compositing_manager" key and the dock now loads transparently as expected. Thanks for this.

A few things I've noticed:

  1. The Mint Menu doesn't work but Applications Menu does.
  2. Mint "Panel" is still present, would have thought that with Cairo loaded, the Mint Panel would be hidden, but as the Mint Menu doesn't work thats a blessing in disguise I have currently moved the Mint "Panel" to the top of screen and enabled auto hide.


Thanks for the excellent support provided here.

matttbe, Friday 02 November 2012 à 21:38


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
The Mint Menu doesn't work but Applications Menu does.
Which MintMenu? From the Mint project or our extras/third-party plugin?

Mint "Panel" is still present, would have thought that with Cairo loaded, the Mint Panel would be hidden, but as the Mint Menu doesn't work thats a blessing in disguise I have currently moved the Mint "Panel" to the top of screen and enabled auto hide.
It's maybe a 'mate' panel. You can remove it or you can use mateconf-editor to remove the key to launch this panel at startup.

fabounet, Thursday 08 November 2012 à 17:13


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
, the dock loses the Composite-Manager

it's not the dock that loses the composite, but the Window manager that doesn't composite

The Mint Menu doesn't work but Applications Menu does.

I've taken a look at the Mint menu code, and I was shocked to see that the code now depends on the "mateapplet" python package, instead of the gnomeapplet...
That's why the Mate environment is just a horrible mess.
So now, the mintMenu applet can't work, because it acts as a gnome-applet, not a "mate-applet".

can you confirm that this is the version you're using ? I think you can find a mintmenu.py file somewhere in /usr (use thelocate command for that).

krustybaguette, Wednesday 05 February 2014 à 18:39


Subscription date : 05 February 2014
Messages : 1
mikewilson :
I've been using various Linux versions & distros for most of 20 years, since installing Slackware from a mountain of floppies back in the early 90s. I'm now running Linux Mint with Cairo dock 2.4.0 and I think this is the best setup I have used.

I like to use keyboard shortcuts, so gratitude to SQP on the "Problems at use" forum for pointing me to compizconfig-settings-manager to get those working once I stopped using Mint's pretty good but slightly flaky Cinnamon. I hadn't even realised I was running compiz.


It's an old thread but subject very pertinent to my situation. I run Linux Mint 13 - Maya with Cinnamon desktop. After a bunch of changes involving WINE and PlayOnLinux my WINE item disappeared and I've been unable to recover it. After a complete purge of WINE I've reinstalled and the WINE item is still AWOL.
That's where Cairo-dock enters the picture. After installing it I noticed early on that WINE and installed apps appeared in my Mint menu item. Hooray for Cairo. After a couple of hiccups I found the correct command to use so that Cairo with Open GL starts on bootup. I had to add the "-o" after cairo-dock.

I tried to add an icon (Keepass) to the dock by various right-click methods and it does not stay on the dock as a clickable launcher.

  • Right-click hilight/Keepass item/make it a launcher

  • Right-click/Cairo-dock/Add Main dock probably created another dock but I can't find it, but it did NOT add launcher to my main dock

  • Right-click/Cairo-dock/Configure yields the configuration dialog which looks interesting but no Keepass icon


Second issue I need to solve is to keep my cinnamon panel hidden. After I installed Cairo-dock I had added a couple of new items to the panel including Cairo-dock (before I figured out how to add to startup I tried adding it to panel and ended up with four-I guess that's some of cinnamon's flakiness)

So now I need to remove cinnamon or its panel because it's interfering with using Cairo-dock.

matttbe, Thursday 06 February 2014 à 08:51


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Hello,

I tried to add an icon (Keepass) to the dock by various right-click methods and it does not stay on the dock as a clickable launcher.

It's possible that Keepass uses non common name or something like that. Did you try to drag and drop Keepass launcher from the Applications Menu to the dock?

So now I need to remove cinnamon or its panel because it's interfering with using Cairo-dock.
I'm not using Cinnamon but did you try a right click on this panel? Or there is maybe an option in Cinnamon settings (or just something to autohide the panel?

fabounet, Friday 07 February 2014 à 14:36


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
to make a launcher, the best way is to drag it from the Applications Menu into the dock (between 2 other launchers for instance)

riv-dogg, Tuesday 27 May 2014 à 16:35


Subscription date : 27 May 2014
Messages : 3
First of all very new to Mint (16) and Cairo Dock, and fairly new to Linux in general - so please assume I will need spoonfeeding a bit.

I basically know what's what and can use the terminal. Have installed Mint 16 (Cinnamon) on my Dell 15z laptop - it has the nvidia card, but I don't think I have it working yet. Cairo Dock (3.3.2) is installed and working just fine, but 'mintmenu applet is non-responsive'. Have installed the latest applet and have installed mintmenu. I've read this thread carefully. but nothing is working. The icon appears on the dock, but does nothing. Can anyone help?

SQP, Wednesday 28 May 2014 à 22:29


Subscription date : 03 July 2010
Messages : 1081
It will be easier to know what's happening if you start cairo-dock from the console. You may have a lot of things to copy on the thread.

To get specific errors, hit return a few times in the console, and trigger your problem (reactivate the applet).
Maybe we'll read something useful like dependency missing.

Could you please start a new thread for your answer so we could track different problems and configs easier.

riv-dogg, Thursday 29 May 2014 à 16:22


Subscription date : 27 May 2014
Messages : 3
Thanks SQP - new thread started here. 'Mintmenu Applet non-functional in Cairo-Dock in LM16 with cinnamon.

http://glx-dock.org/bg_topic.php?t=7843

Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Mint + Cairo -- best Linux ever?
mikewilson English 18 riv-dogg [Read]
29 May 2014 à 16:22


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces Mint + Cairo -- best Linux ever? Top

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