Blank Applications Display
 

Running Mint-MATE,18.3, 4GB RAM. All of a sudden, in bottom panel,clicking on Menu button, when opens, displays left side(Places and Systedm items), but Applications is totall blank. However, clicking on the Favorites, displays the Favorites. When I Rclick on the Menu button, then Lclick on Edit Menus there is a brief flash on my screen, but nothing else.I have run everything I thought pertinent in Control Panel, and also in CompiWiz, all to no avail.I even did a reboot ,clicking on Recovery, but still same problem. Please let me know how to repair this, short of a clean reinstall, which I plan to do in very near future, when Mint 19 comes out.
I'd appreciate any, and all suggestions. Thank you.

According to man mintmenu, you can restore the mintMenu settings to their default by:

mintmenu reset

Log out and back in afterwards.

It would be worth a go to see if that solves the issue (if it doesn't, I have another potential solution).

Thanks so much for thequick reply(as always). It did NOT work.Same problem.

I would have preferred if my reply had been useful rather than quick. ;)

The next approach is to delete ~/.config/menus/mate-applications.menu, then log out and log in again.

Wow, you are quick to answer, thanks again. I'm assuming you are meaning for me to place in terminal "delete ~/.config/menus/mate-applications.menu" , exactly like I'm showing in quotes?

The Linux file delete command is rm. Also we will make a copy of the original file in case it does not get recreated successfully:

I have done that in a long-winded fashion (a mv could have replaced the cp and rm), and included the directory list commands, in order to show you what's going on.

Then log out and log in again.

For info the tilde character (~) represents your home directory e.g. /home/tosim

Right about now, am feeling like I am a newbie. In the panel, I no longer can even see left side(of menu), nor the Favorites. In fact I had to open terminal from Ctrl/Alt/T. Am attaching screen shot (had to use Alt+F2 to get it) to show you where I must have screwed up in terminal.

Did you log out and log back in again?

If so, it hasn't worked. Let's get it back to how it was before:

Then log out and log back in again.

I have to go out now for an hour or so. If no-one picks up the thread then I'll report in when I get back, including explanations of why some of the commands in the image you posted were incorrect.

I had not logged out and in again, as awaiting your instructions. Will try now, and, hopefully, see you in an hour or so. Again, thanks a million.

Have got it back, "to a fashion". It displays like it was in XFCE,i.e.,very basic-upon Lclicking Menu, popup listing "Accessories, Games, Graphics, etc." shows, and by clicking any of them, menu(for what I clicked), now expands, and displays enclosed items. In other words, no left side showing Terminal,Software Mgr.,etc, and no Favorites. I can settle with this like it is until Mint19 shows up. However, I would prefer what I originally had. Just hate to bother you so much over this.

Update:Using my file mgr, Double Commander, I went to folder "config/menus/mate-applications.menu" deleted it, and also deleted mate-applications.menu mate-applications.menu.bak,
logged out, and restarted.Still, as I described above "to a fashion".
Looking back at the screenshot I took of terminal, I realize some of my mistakes, but please inform me all the ones you found. I think, after cd to home/config/menus,I should have added /mate-applications.menu, and then ran
rm mate-applications.menu
This the new mate-applications.menu info::;
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE Menu
PUBLIC '-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN'
'http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/menu-1.0.dtd'>
<Menu>
<Name>Applications</Name>
<MergeFile type="parent">/etc/xdg/menus/mate-applications.menu</MergeFile>
</Menu>

You're not bothering me at all. I'm more concerned that your menu is not functioning well. If you don't mind bearing with me, let's see if we can resolve this.

Can you please post screenshots of the menu when you left click on it, and also when you expand any of the categories?

I tried to do that earlier but whenever I went to take screenshot, menu closed out. Tried it several times.

Mint MATE's screenshot program mate-screenshot should allow you to enter a time delay before it takes the photo. Set it to grab the whole desktop window, set the delay to 10 seconds, click on Take Screenshot, then open the menu.

Blank Application Display
 

I forgot about the delay, guess because I've been using Shutter for years. ss attached

Thanks. Ok, that isn't great. Let's try to get it back to how it was.

Please post the output from the following sequence of commands (copy each line from the text below by highlighting it and pressing ctrl-c, then go into the Terminal window and press shift-ctrl-v):

Here it is

Thanks. For terminal output like that, you shouldn't need to take a screenshot (that's only useful if you're trying to show something graphical). Instead you can paste the output from your terminal to the LQ reply box (to copy text from the terminal, highlight it then press shift-ctrl-c).

When pasting output or code here, you should post it within CODE tags - you can insert these using the # button on LQ's advanced edit menu.

You'll notice that you didn't enter the "ls -la" command which was in the list of commands that I requested.

Anyway, that file looks good.

Let's go back and try the command:

Then log out and log in back again and let me know if the menu has changed.

No here is ss of what show
#

Blank Applications
 

Sorry about that, guess the ss didn't load

That's the edit context menu (right click on the Menu button->Edit menu).

Could you post a screenshot of the normal menu when you left click on the menu button?

Sorry for delay. Am having problem getting that ss.

Blank Application Display
 

It just will not stay open,trying both mate take snapshot, and shutter; both set with 20second delay. This is best I can do, other than suggest you go up my earlier reply-with the update-wherein I stated it was like an XFCE display-just listing the 8 items which each can be expanded.

So it hasn't changed. Ok. I'll have a think about what to do next.

I realize this is not what you asked for, but I just cannot get it.

Please lket me express my deep gratitude for all your help.

That's fine - I'll just have to figure out why Mint Menu is doing that. It almost looks like a fallback mode.

No worries about the help. If I didn't want to help out, I wouldn't be here. :)

Would you mind if I call it quits for today, and come back tomorrow AM ? I am on USA Mountain-AZ time, if that helps any, and will come online about 0700. Thanks again.

Not at all. Talk to you tomorrow. You never know, someone might have posted a solution on here before then.

Nothing new here, except that it is now Sunday morning.

:D

Look, I've been unable to find a solution and, as no-one else has come up with one either, I would recommend that you start a thread on the Linux Mint forum. Include the earlier image of the Mint menu having separate System, Places and Applications buttons on the main panel. Let us know if you get any feedback.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/

Blank Applications Display
 

Will do as you suggest. Thank you again so very much for your help. I'm pretty sure Mint19 will be out within the next few months, and as I planned a fresh install, all will be great again.

Yup, it should be out in June or thereabouts. It shouldn't be that much of a difference from Mint 18 than 18 was from 17 (when systemd replaced upstart as the init system). I'm looking forward to it though.