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How to Configure and Optimize Mate Desktop on Arch Linux



With Xorg installed, we can then proceed to install the MATE desktop environment. Simply run the command below. This is going to take some time, and it would be a good time to unwind with a cup fo coffee.


The MATE desktop is lightweight, and very customizable. It definitely fits in very well with the Arch Linux mentality of keeping it simple. In this video, the viewer is shown how to install the MATE desktop on Arch Linux.




How to Install Mate Desktop in Arch Linux




If you're looking to do a fresh installation of a Linux system, it's easy to pick an option that comes with the MATE desktop ready to go. For distributions that you can just download and use it immediately, you have three options: Linux Mint with MATE, the Ubuntu MATE spin, and the Fedora MATE spin.


If you already have a Linux distribution installed and would just like to add MATE to it, here's how you can do it on various distributions. Please note that this method will install the MATE desktop environment as well as any applications that are usually bundled with it, so you'll suddenly have various "duplicate" applications. For example, you might have two text editors -- one from your old desktop environment, and one from MATE.


openSUSE users can easily get the MATE desktop environment by simply following this link [No Longer Available]. It will download a file that the YaST2 META Installer will recognize and take care of the rest. Do note that for the link to work, you have to be running openSUSE 13.1. Once installed, restart and choose the new desktop environment on the login screen.


These commands will install the MATE desktop environment, some other related packages to get certain functionality to work, and will enable compositing and new window centering. Similar to Fedora's implementation of the MATE desktop, Arch Linux's implementation will also be very "pure", in line with its ideology that unmodified upstream software is best.


MATE is a very nice desktop that is being continually developed with more and more refinements. If you've always been interested in installing this desktop environment, you now have plenty of ways to do so. If you are running any other distribution than the ones listed here, you can check out this page and find the instructions for your distribution.


$ sudo sh -c 'echo "[mate-unstable-dual]" >> /etc/pacman.conf'sudo sh -c 'echo "SigLevel = Optional TrustAll" >> /etc/pacman.conf'sudo sh -c 'echo "Server = flexiondotorg/mate-unstable-dual/1.9/$arch" >> /etc/pacman.conf'


There are several desktop environments and window managers available for Manjaro, each with their own unique style, interface, and features. Furthermore, it is possible to install multiple environments if desired, which can be selected at the login screen at any time. Users are not restricted to whatever comes pre-installed with a particular flavour of Manjaro.


And so on. Most desktop environments will also come with their own preferred applications, in addition to various widgets, addons, and extensions to provide extra features. As such, upon entering the commands provided below in your terminal to download and install a desktop environment, you may be prompted to choose from a selection of components provided for it. To install a full desktop environment - complete with its own preferred file manager, applications, and so on


Xfce or XFCE, pronounced as four individual letters, is a lightweight and versatile desktop environment that utilises a classic drop-down/pop-up menu to access applications. It is also compatible with Compiz. A little time and effort will also be required to properly customise the desktop to suit personal taste. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running Xfce uses about 390MB of memory. As of version 18, Manjaro has moved to the gtk3 version of Xfce.


The KDE community offers Plasma, a feature-rich and versatile desktop environment that provides several different styles of menu to access applications. Its default window manager is kwin, but is also compatible with Compiz. An excellent built-in interface to easily access and install new themes, widgets, etc, from the internet is also worth mentioning. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running KDE uses about 455MB of memory.


GNOME 3 is an intuitive desktop environment that utilises a tablet or smartphone style interface to access applications. It is not compatible with compiz. Although GNOME is very easy to learn and use, it has limited customisation options and it can be difficult to configure. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running GNOME uses about 447MB of memory.


The Budgie Desktop is a modern desktop designed to keep out the way of the user. It features heavy integration with the GNOME stack in order for an enhanced experience. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running Budgie uses about 632MB of memory.


Cinnamon is a desktop environment based on GNOME 3 that utilises a large panel-style menu to access applications. It is not compatible with compiz. Despite being based on GNOME, it has more customisation options and therefore is easier to configure. Windows Vista or 7 users may find Cinnamon's interface comfortably familiar. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running Cinnamon uses about 665MB of memory.


LXDE is a super-lightweight desktop environment that is very similar to XFCE, with the exception that it is not compatible with Compiz. As with XFCE, LXDE is also a somewhat basic desktop environment, lacking some modern features that would be expected, such as a search-bar to find applications and files. However, due to comparatively low resource requirements, it is also an excellent choice for less powerful computers.


The LXQt Desktop Environment LXQt is a lightweight Qt desktop environment. It was formed from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running lxqt uses about 250MB of memory.


MATE is a desktop environment and the continuation of GNOME 2. Featuring an intuitive and attractive desktop environment while preserving a traditional desktop experience, its aim is to maintain and continue the latest GNOME 2 code base, frameworks, and core applications. A 64 bit installation of Manjaro running MATE uses about 378MB of memory.


IceWM is a Window Manager notable for perhaps being closer to a full desktop environment than Openbox or FluxBox. This includes providing a panel complete with menu, in addition to a workspace switcher. To install IceWM, enter the command:


By this time, you probably already know that Arch Linux comes with a minimal installation and lets you build your own system on top of it. From installing desktop environments to media codecs and your favorite applications, everything has to be done by you.


However as the PPA (and the packages within) are compatible with all Ubuntu flavours you can add the PPA to install the latest MATE desktop experience alongside whatever DEs you use at present (just, be careful).


I had the same problem: the Linux Mint 19.3 Mate panel / menu / "taskbar" did not load at startup / login / reboot / boot. I could tell the panel was not even running because the shortcut keys to the panel windows did not respond: "Alt + F2", "Alt + F1". Also, I could tell mate-panel worked fine because I created a launcher shortcut to "mate-panel" on my desktop that opened the panel and it functioned just fine.


For some reason, (something) had (somehow) disabled the autostart of mate-panel during login for my user. The parameter to not start the mate-panel had been set in the $HOME/.config/autostart/mate-panel.desktop file. This directory has links to programs and the contents of it tells Mint what programs to run on startup after my user logs in. The file had a parameter added to it that effectively disables it during autostart procedures after logon:


If you run into trouble while using an alternative desktop environment, you may wish to revert to the default environment. To ensure the default GNOME desktop environment is installed in Pop!_OS, install the pop-desktop package:


If multiple desktop environments are installed, GDM will display a gear icon, which will allow you to select the desktop environment you want to launch. You will need to either reboot or restart your display manager using sudo systemctl restart gdm before a newly-installed desktop environment will show up in the list of options.


UKUI is a lightweight desktop environment based on a pluggable framework for Linux and other UNIX-like distributions. It provides a simple experience for browsing, searching, and managing your computer. It is developed using GTK and Qt.


GNOME does not use a screensaver (only a lock screen), but other desktop environments may install the classic GNOME screensaver package as a dependency. If you're being prompted for a password twice after suspending or locking the screen, disable the second prompt with this command:


In this video we talk about drivers and about daring to experiment so you know what drivers you need for pc 1 and laptop 2. Test it out and write it down. We talk about nvidia, nvidia-lts and nvidia-dkms. We decide to install Cinnamon and not use the ALCI-DWM desktop...


We are moving the arcolinux-sddm-plasma-archpaint to the ALCI project. We show you how that can be done via Github. Lots of elements need to be changed. We do not want to keep any trace of ArcoLinux anywhere. We show you how we will change the current ArcoLinux...


ALCI is an ArcoLinux project. We would like to install packages from ArcoLinux. IF HOWEVER you are not planning to install anything from ArcoLInux repos you can remove one line of code. Edit this file /archiso/airootfs/etc/systemd/system/pacman-init.service and delete... 2ff7e9595c


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