linux mint 13 cinnamon specific instructions
 

I need a book that is directed specificly at Linux mint 13 cinnamon.

My trouble is that if i get a general book things are not as they are said to be ... file names are different commands are slightly different, directories are different, things are all there you just have to find them and i never do. I have 'Ubuntu pocket guide' and i'm reading something called 'Linux Basics Tutorial Guide For Beginners-AboutDebian Linux Guide' which is on line. Both are great but they do not specificly point to Linux mint 13 and so they are not exactly the same.

Maybe something is wrong with me but I can't figure it out. Everything i try to follow I have to figure out for my specific distribution. I don't know how to learn from this so please ??? is there a resource out there that will work for me ????


Thanks,
Nate

Those books point to Linux in general, because these OSs belong to one great family - Linux. These are things that are similiar to most Linux distros because of standards/norms such as LSB and POSIX.

However, there would really be differences to these distros depending on things like the purpose of the OS and the target users. What you could do is check the distros's website, research on the default installation, such as desktop environment, then search for the specifics for that software.

I understand your melancholy, I'm also new to using Linux for the desktop, and I assure you, learning doesn't end on the world of Linux. :)

I thank you for that. I know learning does not end with anything actually. I'm looking for a beginning. I have an older linux mint instruction and even it is not for me.

I know everything is similar but when i look at an instruction and it don't work cause it's not pointing to my directory. I don't know what to do or where to find the proper directory. I love linux but I have never succeeded to get it going .

I have it on my computer but i can't REALLY use it for everything. I want to make it my dominant computer. I want people to walk in and ask me questions after looking at my display but right now I can't answer them and I have no success in finding help in any book or on line info.

thanks,
Nate

I see. That goes for me as well. The truth is, until now, I think Linux has not yet grown to be a fully matured desktop OS. I know a lot of experienced users out there would rebut me, and I know they will be right because I believe it is just me being a newbie. Anyway, what I usually do when I encounter a problem, which usually roots from more than 1 problem, is to solve these problems 1 by 1. Although, I'm not sure if that helps. :D Cheers to us newbs!

Unfortunately, no such book exists.

If you are going to use more general books, it is good to stick to ones about Ubuntu since Linux Mint is based on it. Most things that work in Ubuntu also work in Mint. More specifically, if you need help with Mint 13, find instructions for Ubuntu 12.04. While Debian is the foundation on which Ubuntu is built (and Mint as well), it is already too far upstream to be really helpful in dealing with Mint.

There is nothing wrong with not understanding something or not being able to figure it out. I have those moments all the time. What I've found most helpful is to identify small tasks I can learn and master those first, and then expand from there. For example, when I was trying to learn how to use the Terminal, I started by learning how to navigate to any folder I wanted. That meant Googling what commands I needed to know. I also needed to learn how the Linux file system is organized. When I got stuck, I would go to the Ubuntu Forums (I was learning on Ubuntu at the time) and ask as many questions as I needed to understand.

I think we'll be able to help you the most if you would tell us what specific task(s) you are trying to learn, and describe what problems you're having with it. That way, we can give you specific suggestions to try. I am a Mint 13 Cinnamon user myself, so I may be able to help. If not, you can also check out the Linux Mint Forums and ask your questions there.

Everything I have seen or looked at tells me that I have Linux Mint 13 cinnamon but the the graphics i see in the instructions are not the same. I think your right about starting one thing at a time and I think that should be the simplest thing too.

I know something about the terminal. However it's different than any instructions I have seen yet. (for the mint) I hope i'm not rambling! So starting one at a time and simple!

The Menu on my screen is not the same as the menu in the documentation, for instance on page 23 of the documentation "introduction to linux mint"

"To open the menu click on the “Menu” button at the bottom-left corner of your screen or
press CTRL+SUPER_L (“Super_L” is the left Windows key on your keyboard)."




does not open the menu. I'm sure i'm typing the keys wrong but i have tried combinations and get no menu. and if i click on the menu icon in the bottom left corner iget a column of menu not a big block as the picture says and things are not organized the same ...

So that should be simple enough, and it's one thing at a time. How do i get the menu to come up?
The first picture is the way its supposed to come up after i click the menu icon according to the web pages.
the second picture is the way it looks on my computer. this is why I'm thinking its not the same linux mint????

Thanks,
Nate

Hey Nate,

A picture is worth a thousand words... Your two attached pics really help me see what's going on.

If you are positive that you've installed Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon Edition, then based on the pic of your desktop, I'd say that you are NOT running Cinnamon as of right now. It looks like you're in Gnome Classic fall-back mode. Cinnamon requires 3D graphics acceleration to work and if your video card is not set up right, it will default to Gnome Classic.

So... the next step would be to install the correct video drivers for your video card. Which one do you have (exact make and model number would be helpful)? Look through your Menu and see if you can launch "Additional Drivers". It should have the recommended video drivers ready to be installed. Once your 3D acceleration is turned on, your Mint 13 should look the way Cinnamon should.

As I suspected, the reason your menu doesn't look like the one in the Mint manual is that your manual is showing you the Menu for Mint 13 MATE Edition, not the one for Cinnamon. MATE is still based on Gnome 2 (well, the Mint team forked Gnome 2 to make MATE because the Gnome team abandoned Gnome 2), while Cinnamon is based on Gnome 3. Having said that, you can actually change the default Cinnamon Menu to look like the MATE one, if you want (that's actually the way I have it on my desktop).

See if any of this helps and let's see what we can do next.

Just as a comparison, here's my Cinnamon desktop after some customization:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1598/cleanp.jpg http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3714/dirtyeb.jpg

And after even more customization:
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9193/cleanb.jpg http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/1014/dirtyv.jpg

This is an older pic of my desktop... notice how my Menu resembles the MATE version:
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9070/dirty.jpg

Ginsu:

Thanks, I suspected something like that though i had no clue about the 3d inability of my computer .... I have a good video card here ... I will check and see if i can find it. Pictures are great :>)!


Where do i look on my menu for the vid card that is installed and the driver ????? and where do get the right drivers for it?

I think this may be my video card "VIA Technologies, inc. KM400/KN400P4M800 [S# Unichrome] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])"

I hope someone sees this. otherwise i will have to start another thread.?

How did i find this information about my video card and monitor... forgetting is another problem i have. When I did it i went right too it and I think i did it in linux not windows but i'm not sure ... Sorry!



Thanks,
Nate

Hmm... it looks like your VIA video card doesn't play too nice with Cinnamon. There is supposed to be a driver compatible with the VIA KM400 already installed by default, called "openchrome".

Check out this thread and follow the directions there to edit your xorg.conf file to point your X system (the system that manages all the video in Linux) to use the openchrome driver.

FYI, the best video card that plays nice with Linux is nVidia.

Thanks, I will look at that information ...... but somewhere I do have an nvidia card... it's old but i think it will do the job...not sure. The problem is that i will have to retire a computer until I actuall get another card. I have an xp machine here that is dual boot some form of linux but it has never been usable. It has the card in it i think ... so first I will try to get this one working right. Am I correct that i might get it running but not very well? it's an on board video card this via.

thanks,
Nate

While I know this is not of immediate help I thought I should mention that, amongst other reasons, the not knowing how a desktop will look problem is why people will recommend that you learn to use the command line. Yes, Linux can generally be used without it nowadays (depending on the distribution) but learning how to do things on the command line means you can do them regardless of the desktop environment.
I really recommend that you learn to change directory, edit files and install packages on the command line -- it saves a lot of time and means that you can follow many more online tutorials without the problems that their menu is different to yours.

I'm trying to implement the instructions in that thread you recommended.

when i type into the terminal ....."gksu gedit /etc/x../xorg.conf..... i get a window called
" *xorg.conf (/etc/x11) - gedit"

the instructions say to type
Driver "openchrome"
into a section called "Device"

I have 2 tabs in this window one called (*xorg.conf) with nothing in it . Another called (Untitled Document1) also with nothing in it ......


Am I in the right place and if i am where do I find the section "Device"

Anything else you can say would be helpful.

Thanks,
Nate

273:

Though it may not look like it now the objective is to do exactly as you mentioned.
I am trying to get my Mint to actually look like it should first so that i'm confident that when i read an instruction i'm actually getting the instruction for the right linux. I was going nutz trying to follow instructions when they were not compatible with what was being displayed on my screen ...

Can you point me to any documention for mint 13 cinnamon which is for the terminal. I'm not completely unaware of the terminal but I have not used it a lot.

I started trying to use linux in 1995 or so . I have given up about 20 times. I have downloaded and tried to install many ver of linux and actually succeeded in getting several active linux on my computer but this time i have gotten further than ever and im not quitting even if i have to delete all my MS stuff to force myself to learn. My problem has always been not finding the instructions to be for what I actually was looking at. This time there seems to be a fix.

I could write a book on my experience, though i would not want to be the editor,

Thanks,
Nate

I don't know of anything specific to Mint 13 for the terminal but any terminal commands which worked with Linux Mint should still work as should most given for Ubuntu and Debian.
As to your current problem -- it looks like your machine is running without an xorg.conf which is common nowadays for Debian based systems. I'm afraid I don't know enough about your hardware to be able to help though, sorry.

273:
That's ok ! Ginsu543 is doing a pretty good job and i thank you for your effort.

thanks,
Nate