Configuring Dual Monitors in Linux Mint

Condobloke said:
.cinnamon has properties showing 69.5 MB

when I open .cinnamon and select configs it shows properties of 113 kb
Click to expand...
I would try that instead of doing a tar of .conf. Just copy .cinnamon directory to external storage and see if that works. Since it's that small no need to create an archive of it, I would have tried it for you in a vm but I don't have a vm installed with Linux Mint on it right now.
 


Ok....done....I have copied and pasted the entire .cinnamon into a folder created for just that....in a drive that I can access from the lmde 6 install (its properties show 69.5 MB....so therefore correct)

I will reboot go to lmde 6 and copy and paste or drag and drop the info into the similar place in lmde6's /home

I guess it would make sense to delete the current .cinnamon in lmde6 before I do that ?
 
Condobloke said:
I guess it would make sense to delete the current .cinnamon in lmde6 before I do that ?
Click to expand...
Yeah just delete the entire folder first before copying the other one or else you might have chance that when copying the folder it will just copy the files and folders that are different and leave the existing ones.
 
Condobloke said:
Ok....done....I have copied and pasted the entire .cinnamon into a folder created for just that....in a drive that I can access from the lmde 6 install (its properties show 69.5 MB....so therefore correct)

I will reboot go to lmde 6 and copy and paste or drag and drop the info into the similar place in lmde6's /home

I guess it would make sense to delete the current .cinnamon in lmde6 before I do that ?
Click to expand...
It would be wiser to back up the current .cinnamon rather than just deleting it, in case your project doesn't quite turn out as intended.

I noticed a directory called: [email protected] in post #15. The configs there may differ for two machines.
 
osprey said:
It would be wiser to back up the current .cinnamon rather than deleting it, in case your project doesn't quite turn out as intended.
Click to expand...
That is possible but it's a create automatically if it doesn't exist. So if it doesn't work out, the copied .cinnamon directory can be delete while you are logged in. Then you can log out and then log back in again and the .cinnamon folder with be recreated with your new profile. That's how I've experience it with other desktop environments if I want to reset it to the default settings of that particular DE.
 
I am having fun difficulty in locating the proper spot in lmde 6....debian is somewhat different to ubuntu base, of course.
 
Condobloke said:
I am having fun difficulty in locating the proper spot in lmde 6....debian is somewhat different to ubuntu base, of course.
Click to expand...
I'll install a LMDE vm, if you haven't located it by the time I have it install I will help you look.
 
I opened the drive I saved the lm21.3 stuff to....the folder is there and its properties says 69.5 .....but there is nothing there...opened it as root...same !
 
I found it.....ticked show hidden folder etc
 
This is [email protected] (in lmde6)



1720869058479.png
 
pay no attention to the screenie on the right hand side
 
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Screenshot from 2024-07-13 21-16-22.png
 
So, I take a chance and delete the entire page.....and then drop the 69.5 MB in there......

I dont have much to lose....I took a timeshift snapshot at 2PM today
 
Well, that was ...um....different.

Absolute failure.

Not even a menu icon on either panel.

I could do nothing with it...could not access Timeshift etc

So booted the usb stick...accessed T'shift there....it restored ok......

I am back in LM 21.3 now

I think I will give that idea a miss...it clearly does not transpose from one OS to the other, easily or nicely !!

Thank you @f33dm3bits and @osprey ....I am most grateful for your combined help and advice.
 
Condobloke said:
I think I will give that idea a miss...it clearly does not transpose from one OS to the other, easily or nicely !!
Click to expand...
It was worth a try. It probably has to do something with LM being Ubuntu based and LMDE being Debian based and different configuration file locations being used and different versions, but it was worth a try. I would think if you did that from a current LM to a new LM install or from a current LMDE to a new LMDE install that it would work.
 
Yes, I think it would probably work from LM21.3 to LM22....I really do think that linuxmint.com...in other words Clem, should make a series of commands so that sending DE settings from one version to the next is made simple.

It would add even more polish to a good distro
 
I am rather late to the party.

Brian was close at #31 - close but no cigar.

You don't need any tars, you don't need to worry about differences between LM which has Ubuntu base or LMDE which has Debian base. You don't need to copy most of or all of ~/.config

All you need to do is to find a file called

2.json

EDITED - it may have a different numeral before .json , see #40 below.

In the case of
  • LM 21 Cinnamon
  • LMDE 6 Cinnamon and
  • LM 22 'Wilma' Beta
that file can be found at

home/your-username/.config/cinnamon/spices/[email protected]/2.json

Choose the distro with the panel you like the most and copy its 2.json file to the others and reboot them.

You will be rewarded with the same panel of launchers on the target distros as you had on the source distro.

With perhaps a few exceptions

If the target distro does not yet have some of the apps matching the launches on the source, install them and reboot.

If some of the apps are based on Appimage or other distributed method (Snaps, Flatpaks) there will be an extra step or two,

The above can be applied for Linux Mint 21.1 Vera onwards. For earlier versions such as Vanessa and the U series, 2.json was stored in a different place and I can tell you.

Haven't got an extra monitor available currently to try with, there may be another file similar to 2.json available, or it may simply involve an extended version of 2.json that covers both monitors.

Cheers

Wizard
 
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wizardfromoz said:
Got it Brian, I will show you more on our tomorrow
Click to expand...

Qualifying my #38 above, which was a little wrong (is that like being partly pregnant?)

The file may not be called

2.json

It could be

x.json

Where x is a numeral, maybe 1,3, 5, 13 even - but often 2.

How do we find it? Here's one way. Pick one of your Cinnamon machines that has a number of launchers in its Panel.

1. Open Terminal and issue the following, and leave the Terminal open

Code: 
touch timestamp

This generates an empty file, you could name it fred if you wish, but timestamp works.

2. Choose a launcher that came from your repos, or was shipped installed, eg Timeshift, Gparted, Calculator, right-click and Unpin from Panel.

3. In Terminal, issue the following, and still leave the Terminal open

Code: 
find -newer timestamp

In my case on LM 21.3 'Virginia' Cinnamon, I get

Code: 
./.local/share/gvfs-metadata
./.local/share/gvfs-metadata/uuid-cbe40cb2-76b3-4f41-9eb9-3de04c068eae-7cb8f926.log
./.local/share/gvfs-metadata/uuid-cbe40cb2-76b3-4f41-9eb9-3de04c068eae
./.config/cinnamon/spices/[email protected]
./.config/cinnamon/spices/[email protected]/2.json

The bottom entry is the 2.json I was looking for.

In some cases you may just get the last two lines.

On different distros, the path may also be a little different.

If you like, following the path for your result, you can open Nemo File Manager, right-click the .json file and open with your Test Editor and take a look at the content. The part which shows your list of panel launchers will be in two (2) parts. You may have to scroll down a bit.

a. Default launchers, mine shows as

Code: 
"pinned-apps": {
        "type": "generic",
        "default": [
            "nemo.desktop",
            "firefox.desktop",
            "org.gnome.Terminal.desktop"
        ],

Most of you will get that, they are what ship with the install.

b. This is followed by my list of chosen launchers, in my case

Code: 
 "value": [
            "nemo.desktop",
            "alacarte-made-65b393f2-b506-11ee-8512-d1a971db8187.desktop",
            "firefox.desktop",
            "librewolf.desktop",
            "org.gnome.Terminal.desktop",
            "gparted.desktop",
            "synaptic.desktop",
            "gimp.desktop",
            "libreoffice-writer.desktop",
            "org.gnome.Screenshot.desktop",
            "shutter.desktop",
            "org.flameshot.Flameshot.desktop",
            "vlc.desktop",
            "ca.desrt.dconf-editor.desktop",
            "alacarte-made-ed727980-b505-11ee-8512-d1a971db8187.desktop",
            "kazam.desktop",
            "com.obsproject.Studio.desktop",
            "vokoscreenNG.desktop",
            "simplescreenrecorder.desktop",
            "sol.desktop",
            "timeshift-gtk.desktop",
            "gtkhash.desktop"
        ]

I'll explain about the alacarte entries elsewhere.

Step 5 to the above is to restore the launcher you removed.

Step 6 is to issue the following

Code: 
rm timestamp

to clean up. If you leave it there, in another session you may get a plethora of entries for files altered since the original timestamp file was created.

Cheers, and watch for the start of my series on "have panel will travel" or similar.

Wiz
 
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