I have SuSE 10.2 & Ubuntu 7 on my computers & like the look of Mepis 7 but find using multiple desktops on it completely baffling. Why on earth are they not shown at the bottom of the screen as in all other distributions? I am told to press the middle button on my mouse (in my case a wheel) to move from one to another but it does not work. If there is a window open on the desktop and I press the wheel it shows the current desktop but there is no way of moving to another one and the actual desktop in use seems entirely random. With no window open nothing happens on pressing the wheel.

There is no way I can move to Mepis with this shambles.

Mepis defaults to using KDE. Assuming you are using KDE then you can configure your Mepis desktop using kcontrol. Open a terminal and type in the command kcontrol.

To configure the desktops shown on the panel at the bottom of the screen click on Desktop -> Panels -> Multiple desktops. Set the number of desktops, etc to whatever you want and click on Apply.

To configure the mouse buttons click on Desktop -> Behavior. In the Mouse Button Actions section there is a drop down menu for each of the three mouse buttons. Select which menu you want for each mouse button and then click on Apply.

------------------
Steve Stites

You can add the pager to the panel to display multiple desktops

I thought Mepis 7.0 was built on Ubutu (Gnome)...

[my edit]

In 6.5, one could select "3D Desktop" - I used Synaptic to retrieve the option, but I can not find how to start 3D... even if I use the command-line. Any hints on this desktop selection?

Mepis7, switched from Ubuntu, returning to a Debian, I like having the large Debian library available...

I have not evoked Beryl, but just updated the latest ATI drivers 8.47. I understand beryl still works...

I presume with the Mepis8 release Warren will have more time, and Compiz-Fusion will have matured a bit longer enabling a return to the eye candy set-up that 6.5 had that you are missing in mepis7...

I agree the Eye Candy is missing, it is a great talking point to a non-Linux user...

JR

Yes, if you want the eye candy, use & show off 6.5.02 -- it still works well. Don't forget that it uses the Dapper (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) repositories, so it will have security support for at least another year. It also has the nVidia driver in the installer & KWeather in the Panel. I'm using 6.0 & 6.5.02 as my day-to-day desktops, while exploring 7.073uce as a VM host.

MEPIS has always tried to present a simple desktop for new Linux users, while having plenty of power available to satisfy experienced users. Multiple desktops & the especially the Pager to display them have always presented a conflict between these goals. In 2004.x & 3.x.y, the compromise was 2 (rather than the "normal" 4) desktops & the Pager. (AFAIAC, the worst of both worlds: a cluttered Panel w/ too few desktops to be particularly useful.) In 6.x it was one desktop & no Pager -- not needed w/ only one desktop. In 7 Warren has opted for 4 desktops, power, & no Pager, simplicity. IMO a brilliant solution to the conflict of goals.

BTW, in addition to the mouse wheel, Ctrl+Alt+Fn will also change desktops.