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#1 2013-05-29 04:39:49

John_Jason_Jordan
Member
From: USA, left coast
Registered: 2011-11-13
Posts: 107

Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

I have been running Xfce on my Fedora laptop for a couple of years without much issue. I just installed Mint 14 Xfce version on my desktop computer and I'm having numerous issues. The version is 4.10. All updates have been applied. This computer ran Ubuntu Lucid Gnome for several years until I recently did a fresh install of Xubuntu 12.04. However, Xubuntu 12.04 has a problem with the video causing X to lock up, although otherwise I had no problem. I decided to run Mint 14 Xfce from the live DVD for awhile. After it ran successfully for several days without locking up X I went ahead and installed it, wiping out Xubuntu 12.04. Here are some problems that I need help with:

1) The screensaver is a mess. At first there was no Screensaver option in the Settings utility. Then my friend Mr. Google told me that Xfce no longer came with Xscreensaver but used Gnome screensaver instead. I decided to install Xscreensaver, after which I had an option (icon) for the screensaver in Settings. I selected my favorite screensaver (GL Matrix, which worked fine on Lucid and Xubuntu 12.04), but now when it kicks in the screen just flashes as though it is having video display issues. Compositing is turned on, but I may not have done it properly or there may be other settings that I need to change. I think there is something about Gnome screensaver is already running and causing issues with Xscreensaver, but I can't figure out how to solve the problem.

2) The panel on my Fedora laptop looks like this:

https://www.box.com/s/9bivv0fmmnyoe2j6stuv

Note that it is on the left side of the screen. I am trying to duplicate that panel on the Mint desktop computer, but the settings options are different. The main problem is that the labels for Places and Launcher are vertical rather than horizontal, and the window buttons are either vertical, or if I tell it to turn off the text the icons are enormous. I also added the weather plugin to the panel and the text is vertical, plus the icon is enormous. I would show a screenshot of what the Mint desktop panel looks like, but the screenshot utility on the Mint desktop sends the file to somewhre unknown; I cannot find it.

Any help gratefully accepted!


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#2 2013-05-29 17:59:04

andrzejr
Member
Registered: 2012-04-06
Posts: 48

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

> The main problem is that the labels for Places and Launcher are vertical rather than horizontal[...]

Panel Preferences->Display->Mode: Deskbar
Panel Preferences->Display->Row Size: ~28px
Panel Preferences->Display->Number of rows: 3~4

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#3 2013-05-30 02:38:16

John_Jason_Jordan
Member
From: USA, left coast
Registered: 2011-11-13
Posts: 107

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

andrzejr wrote:

> The main problem is that the labels for Places and Launcher are vertical rather than horizontal[...]

Panel Preferences->Display->Mode: Deskbar
Panel Preferences->Display->Row Size: ~28px
Panel Preferences->Display->Number of rows: 3~4

Thanks a million. Problems completely solved, except for the prompt color in the terminal. I received an e-mail from a user here with instructions for the color, but the instructions didn't work. I'll join the Mint forums and ask there. How do you think it will go when the first post by a new user there is how to get rid of the Mint colors? smile


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#4 2013-06-01 13:35:13

John_Jason_Jordan
Member
From: USA, left coast
Registered: 2011-11-13
Posts: 107

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

Still having problems with the screensaver.

At first there was no Screensaver icon in Settings Manager. After hours of googling I discovered that you had to install Xscreensaver in order for Mint Xfce to display the Screensaver settings option. I installed Xscreensaver and then I had a Screensaver setting icon. But apparently Xfce now comes with the Gnome screensaver by default, so after installing Xscreensaver I had two screensavers. I couldn't make any changes without shutting down Gnome screensaver and starting Xscreensaver. And when I did so and selected a screensaver from the choices, it was messed up. After experimenting I discovered that about half the screensavers in the choices list did not display properly.

At the moment I have uninstalled Xscreensaver so I am back to just having the Gnome screensaver running, and no Screensaver icon in Settings Manager. Can someone please tell me how to change my screensaver settings with this default installation?


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#5 2013-06-19 12:48:28

Demora
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Registered: 2013-06-19
Posts: 3

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

Hello,

XFCE on Mint 14 has indeed a lot of bugs.

I've enjoyed XFCE for quite a long time on various distros, including Manjaro. I've also had Mint 14 for about 2 months and have a serious issue with XFCE: when deleting a file I sometimes only get the "remove permanently" option and not "remove". If I use it anyway it does not delete the selected file but the whole folder !

It is very unforntunate because I love both Mint and XFCE but the 2 of them obviously don't cope with each other.

Last edited by Demora (2013-06-19 17:54:51)

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#6 2013-06-19 17:02:39

MountainDewManiac
Member
From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez
Registered: 2013-03-24
Posts: 1,115

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

Also running Mint 14 Xfce here. Love it, no problems - but I added the Xfce 4.10 and 4.12 PPAs to my sources list, so some of the numerous updates that I got via them would have fixed bugs and added features to Xfce and Xfce-related components/apps.

Run Synaptic Package Manager. Type xscreensaver into Synaptic's search box. Mark it for installation, along with at least xscreensaver-data if it does not get automatically marked for installation when you mark xscreensaver. Look through the list and also mark other files that you wish to add (xscreensaver-gl, xscreensaver-gl-extra, xscreensaver-data-extra, xscreensaver-screensaver-webcollage, et cetera).

This may prompt you to allow Synaptic to uninstall some portions of the gnome-screensaver app, if it conflics with xscreensaver (I cannot remember) when you click the button in Synaptic to apply changes. In any event, after installing the above files, type gnome-screensaver into Synaptic's search box. Mark it for removal (or complete removal), along with other gnome-screensaver-related files that are installed (note that xscreensaver shows up in the list of results - do not accidentally remove it, and do not remove any of the xscreensaver data files, either). Apply changes again to remove gnome-screensaver.

I suggested adding xscreensaver before removing gnome-screensaver in case some component in your system depends on "any screensaver," meaning that one must be installed... If that is the case (not a clue), removing your only screensaver would most likely cause that component to be removed as well. IDK about screensaver apps, but I have read about that occuring when somone tried to remove their only web browser before installing a different one, so better safe than sorry.

After you are finished with Synaptic, close it. You can now configure your screensaver app - and the individual "hacks" (screensavers) normally; the option is under Settings in your menu.

As far as "how to change my screensaver settings with this default installation?" goes, you can't if you mean with gnome-screensaver as your screensaver app. This, believe it or not, is apparently not regarded as a bug by the developer of gnome-screensaver, lol (only by the countless people who have and probably will continue to mark it as a bug), since he not only marks those bug reports as "won't fix," he also posted in one of the threads that "any screensaver that requires configuring is inherently broken," or somesuch. A couple of issues I see with that is that some screensavers are meant to be user-configured by design - such as any screensaver that displays user-defined text or displays images from a directory of the user's choosing roll - and, since not every computer has top-shelf graphics, a user might naturally want to run a screensaver of their choosing but need to "dial down" the eye-candy a little bit.

But that's easy to fix, just use xscreensaver instead. big_smile

Regarding your issue with deleting files, I cannot help you with that because when I delete a file, I delete it (not move it to a "trash" directory), so I always use the delete (aka "permanently delete) option. And I have never experienced it deleting an entire directory or any file(s) other than the one(s) I am trying to delete. Works fine for me in Thunar (1.6.3, but also on previous versions) and PCManFM (1.0.1).

Regards,
MDM


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#7 2013-06-20 09:31:34

Demora
Member
Registered: 2013-06-19
Posts: 3

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

It took the community about a month to release the XFCE version of Mint 14 so I guess they don't just add PPAs but I will soon upgrade to Mint 15 so I will give these PPAs a try to see how it works.

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#8 2013-06-20 15:35:20

MountainDewManiac
Member
From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez
Registered: 2013-03-24
Posts: 1,115

Re: Issues with Mint 14 Xfce

No, they don't just add PPAs, lol. I would guess that they don't add them at all, although the versions of some of the components found within those PPAs might (assumption: some or all will, depending on how long ago those newer versions hit (some have been in there for a while, but others are more recent), when they declare the "freeze" and start trying to fix bugs and get everything to work well together as opposed to adding new things, and so on).

I suspect that anything that gets used that isn't in Ubuntu's (Xubuntu's?) repos would be compiled from source, but IDK.

Seems like the Xfce version won't be released until after the KDE version. I just checked Mint's "ISO Images" web page and saw that the June 18th versions of Olivia KDE were both rejected yesterday. There is of yet no KDE version that is "approved for RC release" - but perhaps today's i386 version ("95% tested") will make it that far.

I remain hopeful that a Mint 15 (Olivia) Xfce version will be released, sometime, but it would be reassuring to be able to see an .ISO listed on that webpage even if it is quickly marked as "rejected." I understand limited resources/man-hours, but neither Cinnamon nor MATE fit the need of a low-resource OS that is anything but low in the features department. I have installed Mint 14's Xfce on ~ten-year old computers and on new ones and it works well on all of them (and the computers' owners are happy with what they have).

Here is the address for Mint's ISO Images page:

http://community.linuxmint.com/iso

And here are the two Xfce PPAs if you or anyone else (running a compatible distro) wish to add them to your sources for daily use or experimentation (there is a way to "purge" PPAs and the versions of software that they provide if one later chooses, but I don't know how that works as I have not needed it):

https://launchpad.net/~xubuntu-dev/+archive/xfce-4.10
https://launchpad.net/~xubuntu-dev/+archive/xfce-4.12

These two PPAs state that they are compatible with (Ubuntu's) 12.04, 12.10, and 13.04, so they should work fine with Mint Xfce from 13 (LTS) to 15.

BtW, Mint 14 appears to be supported until April, 2014. "Quantal" must have been the last non-LTS version of Ubuntu that had a decent support-window (for a non-LTS, of course). This means that distros built on it (Mint 14) will have support for three months longer than distros built on "Raring" (Mint 15). I might end up sticking with 14. It's been very good to me so far, lol.

Apologies for rambling,
MDM


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