Debian 10 Buster Cinnamon Desktop Update

[newb2debian]

I recently installed Debian 10 Buster with only the Cinnamon desktop. When using Debian, Cinnamon has been crashing for whatever reason and I don't know why. Is there a way to update the Cinnamon desktop to the newest version? If there is, could anyone explain how? If by command line, what's the command? Thanks.

[ruwolf]

How do you know, that it is Cinnamon error?
Look at logs for source of error, e.g. in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[Head_on_a_Stick]

If by command line, what's the command?

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# apt install systemd-coredump

[wait for crash]

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coredumpctl

See the man page for more.

[newb2debian]

Although I appreciate your responses for troubleshooting, my question was, and still is, "Is there a way to update the Cinnamon desktop to the newest version? If there is, could anyone explain how? If by command line, what's the command?" Thanks.

[ruwolf]

Is there a way to update the Cinnamon desktop to the newest version? If there is, could anyone explain how? If by command line, what's the command?

Yes and no.
You can install any libre software to your Debian, but not in standard way in stable distribution.
There is Debian policy which requires, that every package should be tested in unstable and testing releases: wiki.debian.org: Debian Releases
In other words, Debian is made more for stability and security than for cutting edge versions of software.

[stevepusser]

There's no current backport of the Cinnamon desktop for Buster, but I think it's only about 20 source packages or so that you need to put into a repo like at the openSUSE Build Service for them to build and host--then you only need a couple of lines to add the repo and its key.

The sources for the Cinnamon packages at Github have a debian folder that can be used for package builds, assuming you want something newer than upstream Debian may have. https://repology.org/project/cinnamon/versions

(I did do the 4.0.9 on a Stretch base for MX Linux you see in that link, so I'm not just blowing smoke.)

[stevepusser]

I finished the XFCE 4.14 backport for Buster and Stretch on the OBS: https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 3&start=20

Based on a problem I just fixed for our featherpad 0.11.1 build, I think I can also fix that orage update problem tomorrow so it goes smoothly.

I have the source files now for Cinnamon 4.2.X from the Mint repos, so I can start a repo for that now. There's one package that needs an extra tweak to build on the OBS, I think it's cjs, but I'm also pretty sure I can remember that tweak.

[stevepusser]

I've finished the base of Cinnamon 4.2.3 for Stretch, Buster, Bullseye, and Sid:

https://build.opensuse.org/project/show ... nnamon-4.2

I've still got about twenty more packages to add, but they are either addons for Nemo like nemo-fileroller and nemo-dropbox, and IDK if Debian even packages those, or they are X-Apps like Pix, Xreader, or Xviewer.

[stevepusser]

Cinnamon 4.2.4 in the repo now, currently for Buster only, now sourced from upstream Debian. The Buster build works really well on my laptop.

I'll get the Stretch builds finished tomorrow.

[newb2debian]

I know it's been a few months since I originally posted, but, I recently installed Debian 10.3.0 and I was finally able to get a coredump:

1) Cinnamon crashed and asked to be restarted (the first two lines).
2) Cinnamon completely logged me out of the desktop and I had to log back in (the last 2 lines).

For brevity I redacted the dates and times although it just happened not more than 15 minutes ago...

PID UID GID SIG COREFILE EXE
1394 1000 1000 7 present /usr/lib/tracker/tracker-miner-fs
1364 1000 1000 7 present /usr/bin/cinnamon
937 0 0 6 present /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg
1408 1000 1000 7 present /usr/lib/tracker/tracker-store

I'm not sure if this helps but it sure would be nice if Cinnamon would stop doing what it's doing. Any ideas? Thanks.

[stevepusser]

What version of Cinnamon do you have installed?

[newb2debian]

$ cinnamon --version
Cinnamon 3.8.8

[stevepusser]

You could try upgrading to the 4.2 version in my OBS repo to see if that makes any difference.

[newb2debian]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Interestingly, as another test, I installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 4, Debbie, to see how that would go. After a bit of using, it happened with this distribution also. The version of Cinnamon used in this distro is 4.4.8. I'm wondering if there is something occurring in the Cinnamon code? This has happened on different computers. Odd.

[xlepws]

You could try upgrading to the 4.2 version in my OBS repo to see if that makes any difference.

or you could install the latest cinnamon package available, i.e. v4.4.8-2 either by running

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apt -t sid install cinnamon

(with sid's dependencies) or

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apt install cinnamon/sid

(your release's dependencies), and see what happens