How to Install MintMenu in Ubuntu 11.10 (MATE DE)

Ubuntu introduced the Unity interface back in Ubuntu 10.10 release (for netbooks). In Ubuntu 11.04, Unity has been a default desktop environment for its graphical user interface, and will continue to the versions of Ubuntu, including the latest stable release Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.

Some people just don't get used to the new interface, so they have been trying to find alternatives. One of the alternatives is MATE, a new desktop environment forked from GNOME 2.

In this article, I will show you how to install MATE desktop environment in Ubuntu 11.10, and also the MintMenu, an intuitive and easy to use applications menu that have been available for GNOME 2 in previous versions of Ubuntu, but not too easy to install on the latest Ubuntu 11.10, since it is based on the new GNOME 3.

One thing you should know before installing is that MATE is still in early development and contains some bugs, although in my experience it is quiet stable (by installing patches) and I have been using it for daily use.

Without further ado, here it is.

Install MATE in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

First, you need to install MATE Desktop Environment to be able to use MintMenu in Ubuntu 11.10, because it is only availbale for MATE (at least for now).

To install MATE in Ubuntu 11.10, do the following in Terminal (one command at a time):

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/ubuntu oneiric main"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-core

Now you have MATE Desktop Environment installed on Ubuntu. There are some things you should do before you can actually use it without problems, though.

For the next steps, there are some installation files (.deb files) you need to download and install. To do this, you can add LinuxMint repository to your Ubuntu Software Souces list, but in this article I don't want to recommend it since it will cause problems on Ubuntu system (mostly distro recognition conflicts). Therefore I'd rather download .deb files manually from the Mint repo (Mint Lisa repo) and install them.

Important: How to Solve MATE Bugs

At the time I wrote this, MATE has two known issues/bugs (read on this wiki page).

Murrine Theme Bug
This is the most serious bug because it causes MATE panels disappear and also extra-high CPU load or even complete desktop freeze when you use a theme based on Murrine GTK 2 engine. To solve this, you need to install updates (patch) from Linux Mint repository. The files needed to be downloaded and installed are:
- gir1.2-gtk-2.0 (i386 or amd64)
- gtk2-engines-pixbuf (i386 or amd64)
- libgail18 (i386 or amd64)
- libgail-common (i386 or amd64)
- libgtk2.0-0 (i386 or amd64)
- libgtk2.0-bin (i386 or amd64)
- libgtk2.0-common (all)
Download only appropriate files for your system architecture (i386 or amd64) and the file with "all" architeture (the last one) from this Linux Mint page. After you downloaded the needed files, open up Terminal, then point (change working directory) to the download folder. For example, if you download the .deb files to "Downloads" folder in your Home directory, change the working directory to it by doing this in Terminal:
```
cd /home/[YourUserName]/Downloads
```
Change [YourUserName] with your actual user name.
Then, to install all the .deb files at once, do this in Terminal:
```
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
```
Done. Now you should be able to use any GTK theme on MATE without problems.
QT apps not styled/themed
This is not a serious bug, it only affects appearance of QT-based apps (for example: Clementine), that means QT apps cannot read GTK theme you use, so the apps will use default QT theme instead of following GTK theme. To solve this, simply install qt4-qtconfig package in Ubuntu by doing this in Terminal:
```
sudo apt-get install qt4-qtconfig
```
Then search and run the QT 4 Settings application you just installed (System => Preferences => QT 4 Settings), then set GUI style to GTK+ and save the change.
Done. Now your QT apps should follow your chosen GTK theme.

Install MintMenu in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Download .deb files from this Mint website. The files needed to be downloaded and installed are:

mint-common
mintmenu
mint-translations

After you downloaded the needed files, open Terminal, then point (change working directory) to the download folder. For example, if you download the .deb files to "Downloads" folder in your Home directory, to change the working directory do this in Terminal:

cd /home/[YourUserName]/Downloads

Change [YourUserName] with your actual user name.
Then, to install all the .deb files at once, do this in Terminal:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Done.

To use MATE desktop environment in Ubuntu 11.10 (after doing the above installation step), log out from your current session and log back in, choose MATE at login screen.

To put mintMenu on a MATE panel, do the usual step you have been familiar with GNOME 2 interface (right-click on a panel, click "Add to Panel..., point to mintMenu, then click Add button).

Enjoy your "new" real classic desktop in Ubuntu 11.10 :D

.

PS: As you may notice, I don't speak English very well, sorry about that.
I just hope you get what I was trying to say :D

Friday, February 24, 2012