LarsonsWorld -- just another persons /dev/null

I don't really know where I am going anymore. At this point my Dell Inspiron 6000 is Cinnamon, Acer Aspire One is Xfce and my DIY media box is Mate.

Based on appearances, it doesn't look like I know what direction I am going to go in.

I have messed around with the panel quite a bit while playing with Cinnamon. First I moved it to the top of the screen and then I started removing and adding things. One of the results, I ended up with a green panel. Ugh.
While searching for a way to adjust the panels width, I happened upon this thread in the Linux Mint Forums. It led me to the cinnamon.css file. Although I haven't figured out a way to adjust the width yet, I have been able to change the background color.

I ran:
gksu gedit /usr/share/cinnamon/theme/cinnamon.css

I then went down to the #panel section:
#panel {
color: #ffffff;
background-color: #000000;
font-size: 8.5pt;
font-weight: normal;
height: 25px;
}
and changed the background color from #555555 to #000000. After restarting Cinnamon (alt+F2, type r and enter), shazam, my panel is all black.

Now I just need to figure out how to center everything in the panel and auto size it.

With LMDE Gnome 2, when you started Nautilus as a Super-User, the window background was red. I liked this. With Cinnamon, this isn't so. I can tell the difference as I have Nautilus set up for single clicking to open a file/folder. With Nautilus as a Super-User, I have to double click, so there is a difference. But, I still like the red background which was a nice alert.

I like a black background for my login screen. Prior to Update 4, all I had to do involved creating a, essentially, blank default_background.jpg file in the usr/share/backrounds/linuxmint folder. I did that with this update, but, strangely, I get a blue background. I may have to play around with creating a black jpg with GIMP to get the effect I wish.

I am having a hard time finding a place -- ie: forum -- to go to for Cinnamon. At this point I have all sorts of questions and I can'r really find a good single place to search.

~ Update 08 April 2012 -- 18:07 ~
Doh! There is one in the Linux Mint Forum -- http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewforum.php?f=208. Thanks to zerozero on the Linux Mint blog for pointing this out.

The panel is frustrating me a bit. I can't figure out how to resize it. On Gnome 2 I had it auto resize so it was centered on the top of the screen. Since I use multiple virtual desktops I don't have it tell me which windows are open and just have it tell me date, weather and the notification applet.

Also, I can't get the weather applet to work. Well, it works and shows up, I just can't figure out how the get the location to set. It's just blank. Argh.

~ Update: 08 April 2012 - 09:21 ~
Woo-hoo, got the weather applet working. I guess I just didn't install it right. Third times the charm. As a cyclist with no smart phone, I like being able to see the temp on the panel. I don't have to pull up the NWS website that way.

I use 'Alt+F2' almost always for starting a program. With Gnome 2.whatever, once you started typing, it would pay attention and suggest programs. As in, if I typed 'goo' it would suggest 'google-chrome.' I could just hit enter and Google Chrome started. On top of that, you could use the down arrow to select the last 10 commands you used. With Cinnamon, it doesn't suggest anything now is anything remembered. Now I always have to type out the full name or command. I find this a pain.

~ Update 07 April 2012 ~
Well, I have found that just using the Super-Key opens up the Menu and the curser is in the search box. You can then just start typing away and narrow down what program you wish to run.

When I first switched to Ubuntu, one of things that initially blew me away the virtual desktops. I took full advantage of them from the get go. It is such a simple thing that is made more apparent when I use someone elses Windows PC. I love them.

So, one of the first things I did after installing Cinnamon on my newly LMDE updated Dell was to figure out the virtual desktop deal. To add and remove virtual desktops you click on the 'Hot Corner' infinity emblem in the top left corner of the desktop.* This gives you a screen of all available desktops. On the right is a tab with a plus sign. Want more virtual desktops, click on it to your hearts content. To remove them, put the curser over a desktop and click on the 'X' in the top right corner.

Oh, one other thing I found today. I always used 'Ctrl+Alt+(Right Arrow or Left Arrow)' to move amongst desktops. With Cinnamon, if you select 'Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow' it gives you a screen with all the desktops. Use 'Ctrl+Alt+(Right Arrow or Left Arrow)' to select the desktop you want and then 'Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow' and it takes you there. It sounds more complicated that it really is.

Anyway, that is my first Linux Mint Debian with Cinnamon tip. There will be many more to come. I have a netbook and media server that will be changed over and need to make sure I have plenty of notes for when those days come.

* - It may be in the top right. I know, you are asking, well, what corner is it in? Well, the first thing I did after installing Cinnamon was to move the panel from the bottom to the top of the screen. Bam, the 'Hot Corner' was camoflaged for me. It took my checking out the Panel Settings, which led me to the Cinnamon Settings, where I found the Hot Corner settings, and once I moved that down to the bottom and clicked on it, I figured out what it was for. Trial by error or as they say RTFM.

I have no choice -- OK, I did. Clem and the rest on the Linux Mint team has put out Update 4 for LMDE. I have put this update on my Dell Inspiron 6000 to test and play with while keeping my Acer Aspire One old school.

With the server problems they have had, it took two days to finally download the 1471 -- 1119 updates plus 352 requirements -- files to update my Dell. I used the Mint Update Manager for this and once everything was downloaded, it spent a while updating everything -- and I mean everything, we are talking fourteen hundred and seventy one files -- and then I restarted the system.

It started right up. I quickly installed Cinnamon and restarted again.

Kudos to Clem and the rest of his team. I am impressed and have told you all as much.

Clem, as a LMDE user since early on, I just want to thank you and your team once again for your fine work.
For the system I used to try out the update on, I had 1119 updates with a total of 1471 files to download and install. Whoa! I threw caution to the wind and went with the update rather than waiting for the new spin to come out — granted, with your server issues it did take a couple days to get them all to down load, but they finally did all make it.
So, here I am on the other side with a major update that didn’t just frak the shit out of my system. Color me impressed.
Now, I just have to retrain myself on the intricacies of this new GUI. Damn you young kids and your progress … ;)
Anyway, thanks for the time and effort. In the next week or two I’ll send you another donation. I have no problem paying for good software!
Thank you Clem and the rest of your team!

So now I am learning this new Cinnamon thing and will try to keep an updated log of what happens.

~ update ~
One thing to be aware of, this is a huge download and will take lots of space on you /root partition. My /root partition is 7 GB of which I usually have 2+ GB of room. I ended up with a low disk space warning after the update was installed and apt-clean ect removed over 1.6 GB of files.