Bookworm - Mate Trouble with Panels

[Todd Z]

I have Debian 12 installed with the Mate desktop from a net install iso. I am having trouble with it not displaying any open window buttons on the taskbar panels at the bottom or top of the screen. If I open an application then minimize it, it disappears without a trace. The only way to access a minimized window is by using <ALT TAB>.

Additionally, while trying to correct that problem I discovered that I can not add any applets (or what ever they should be called) to the screen panels at either the top or bottom of the screen. I can right click on the panel, choose "Add to panel" and a window pops up with a list of things to add. Choosing any of them, and clicking the +Add button does nothing. I've tried resetting the panels, but the problems persist. (Also the time and date, and networking icons are missing from the top panel, and Desktop switching is missing from the bottom panel, like in most default Mate desktops I've used.)

[pbear]

It has been a few years since I ran Mate as my main desktop, but I have Debian 12's version in virtual machine for reference. It doesn't have any of these issues, except add-to-panel places the icon at top of screen not bottom. The buttons for open apps are on bottom, though, and work fine. The buttons for Workspace switching are there and seem to be alive, but I've never used so have no convenient way to test.

If this is a new install, I suggest you start over.

[Todd Z]

Thanks for the reply. I could not remember if it was working correctly when I first installed (about a year ago.) This computer I started setting up a while ago, for a Linuxcnc machine I'm working on, then It sat and waited for me to finish up other parts of the project. I was recently working on the computer and software side of this CNC machine project and was trying to install Tigervnc (and mostly failed) and that must have messed it up. I uninstalled it and the panels started working again. (Including all of the panel applets I had tried to add when trying to get it working.) After a bit of deleting to get rid of all that extra stuff, everything appears to be back to normal.

Now to take another crack at trying to get a VNC desktop sharing server running (and working correctly.)

[pbear]

Glad you got it sorted. Please edit the first post (click pencil icon) to add [Solved] to the thread title. You edit the first post because that's the one indexed on the main Forum page.

By the way, you might want to look into some form of system backup (e.g., Clonezilla), or at least recovery (e.g., Timeshift). Be aware, the latter is for restoring in place, not a true backup.