Linux Mint 16 Petra 32bit vs mint 17 Quaia
 

I have two computers running on the Mint16 Petra 32bit system. I like the opening desktop screen very much, and I am finding it very easy to find my way around.
Just the past few days, I bit the bullet and wiped out my Windows 7in favour of Linux Mint 17 Qiana, 64 bit version. I do not like the new format.
What do I miss: Well first in the bottom corner of my desktop screen in the Petra, I have tab "MENU", this brings up an array of selections to choose from.
PLACES, System, Applications, and then the little familiar "Quit" Everything seems to be right there at my fingertips. In Qiana it seems I have to play hide and go seek to find any of these functions, like the "Terminal" Nowhere to be found in Qiana, I accidently opened something that had a terminal button, but don't ask me to gofind it now..

This gives you a picture of what I am facing. I'm a senior (74yrs Young) is there a simple way to bring the Petra desktop into the Qiana, and carry on so all my computers are running basically the same options.

Thanks in advance. I appreciate so very much the help I have had over the past several months since I started Linux.

There are 4 desktop versions did you download the right version?
http://www.linuxmint.com/

I'm guessing you have different desktop managers - run this on each system from a terminal. On your Mint17 try hitting the "Windows" button (bottom left - flag in a circle) and type term.It's not too hard to add another desktop manager and select it at logon - how-to here once we know which to use.

To build in what EDDY1 said, in Linux, the desktops are not part of the OS. This is one of the big differences between Linux and other operating systems.

They float on top of the OS (for lack of a better analogy). You can have multiple desktops installed on one system, though most distro installation routines come with only one by default, leaving you to install additional ones if you wish. Mint offers several different installation packages, each with a different desktop. (Slackware is an exception to the common practice; it comes with six different environments and asks you to choose which one to make default at time of installation--you can change that choice later if you wish).

I have three desktop environments on the computer I'm using right now; at time of login, I can choose which one I wish to use. The appearance of the interface changes, but the functionality of the underlying OS and programs does not.

This article may help. The "X" it refers to is the X Server, the software that allows a graphical interface to communicate to the underlying OS.

From your description, it seems you want the Linux Mint Mate and probably downloaded Cinnamon although from your description of what you now have, it would be hard to determine.

Thanks, this is what I found...First I found the terminal in each system, copied and pasted echo $DESKTOP_SESSION, and both systems just tell me I have loaded the default.

Mint 16, bottom left corner has a little "SUN" circle and when I place the curser over the sun it just tells me I have Linux Mint 16 Petra. In mint 17 I have no "Windows" button at all. I had to hunt for the terminal..

When I downloaded the original Mint 16 Petra, I am quite sure I selected the XDE 32 bit and in the 17 XDE 64 bit.

I will now go back to the Mint 17 Qiana and see if I can find the Desktop Manager options and play with that and see if I can find the same happy face that I am enjoying on my first two computers.. I guess, as a newbie one has to learn by trial and error.

Thanks to all that offered suggestions, I have checked each one out carefully.

Sorry about that - different distros do things differently. Rather than give you a bunch of commands to use, here is a script I found that seems to cover everything. Run these commands from a terminal on each system - the third one should give you a single line output. Once done, you only need to re-run the third command if interested (and yes, you do need the dot-slash at the beginning of the third command).

At login screen there should be an arrow after selecting user but before entering password click on it there should be a list.

Ignoring the Linux Mint aspect for the moment your description is of the MATE desktop. There is no XDE desktop but there are KDE, XFCE,and LXDE.

Looking at the LinuxMint 16 Petra download page it was made available with Cinnamon, KDE, LXDE, and MATE.

It appears to me that you have the MATE desktop with the normal MATE menu instead of the standard, for Linux Mint, Mint Menu. If this is the case someone, if not you, has changed the default settings.

On your Mint 16 Petra version can you please Open Applications > System Tools > MATE system Monitor. The > means go to that selection shown. If MATE System Monitor exist open it and tell us what details it has listed under the System tab. Check the screenshots to see what I mean.

The first screenshot shows the normal MATE menu option of Applications Places System which is close to what you describe.

Thank you again for your help. I have taken a screen shot, hope I can get it attached:

LinuxMint 16 (Petra)
Kernal Linux 3.11.0-12 generic
Mate 1.6.1

Now if I can just get this format in my next Mint 17 I will be a happy camper.

Open the software center or Synaptic and search for mate.

I think the package you need is called mint-mate-meta. It's a "meta" package that will call the rest of the files you need to run Mate. It will not install every single Mate package, but, if you find yourself wanting additional individual ones, you can obtain them from the software center.

That should install what you need. Then log out and, in the session chooser on the login screen (top right of the username/password dialog), select Mate and log back in.

Some things work, I have my familiar menu etc.for which I am very happy. But I now have inherited a new problem.

When I try to open any file, Photos, documents etc, I just get a quick flash of something but nothing opens.

Also, On the panel bar at the bottom, Starting left corner, I have my little "Sun" circle, menu, welcome screen, Linuxquestions.org, and now here is the problem, I have four "Start File Manager" boxes, with a fifth file manager flashing 10 sec on 10 sec off.

I have logged out, and back in. nothing changed. I have shut the computer down completely, and started fresh, but these still come back.

One other item that has been ongoing before these last mint-mate-meta downloads. When I shut the computer down, The screen changes to the Little Linux Logo, on a blank screen, however I still have to manually shut the computer power off to get a complete shut down.

Sorry to come up with more troubles, but I have no idea what to do to get this fixed.

Thanks.

Hi Harris,

Hmm your computer not shutting down when you want it to. Did that also happen with your old Windows 7? Or did it shutdown as it was supposed to do there?

Odd thing which you describe about the multitude of file manager windows opening up when booting the computer. It appears you're not the only one. https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate...ager/issues/19 Some say the bug is fixed, others including you still get it. Seems to pretty random. I've started out Mint 17 with Cinnamon and added the MATE, KDE and XFCE desktops later through the Software Manager. I don't have the problems you are describing.

Sadly I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to tinkering around in Linux to filter out a working solution for you. Hopefully someone else will have a fix for you :)

Good luck.

Erwin

Re: Windows 7....Did that also happen with your old Windows 7.......No it shut down in the normal way.. My reason for changing to Linux, I had some ???? Don't know what, came on board, changed my home page to a MSN Canada, and there was no way I could find to reverse back to My "Google" home page. That is when I said, Enough is enough..

What I am thinking I may be best to burn a new disc with the Mint-Mate setup, and then re-install from scratch.. That way I will clean the slate and start on a new page.

Thanks for your contribution.

Well I am on a new page.. I burnt the new DVD for the "Mate", and I completely installed the new package.. I did not want to go through it all only to find that there was still a bug, and I still had to start over. As my main functions so far was Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, I did not have a whole bunch of material to reload.

As it now appears, I am happy with my new format, and again I wish to thank everyone that share your thoughts to try and get me on the right track.

THANK YOU.