How to Install MATE 1.8 complete desktop environment in OpenSUSE 13.1

[justauser7]

Hello,

After hours of looking around I don't seem to find an easy way to install the complete MATE 1.8 DE on openSUSE 13.1. I've added the X11:MATE:Current repo per instructions here: https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:MATE/Install. But there doesn't seem to be a meta package like mate-core or mate-desktop-environment that would install the core set of applications to provide a basic functional MATE desktop.

zypper install mate-desktop only installs that one package and doesn't automatically include any core ones like like the mate window manager, control center, power manager etc...

Do I have to install every MATE package by manually selecting them in Yast > Software Management?

By the way I'm running OpenSUSE 13.1 KDE.

Thanks!

[ianlamin]

I am also installing MATE (stable -1.6) currently using this blog: http://hacklog.in/opensuse-13-1-rc1-...op-experiment/
If you want to use 13.1 repo instead of tumbleweed (as mentioned there) then use this:

sudo zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/MATE:/STABLE:/1.6/openSUSE_13.1/ "MATE 1.6 (openSUSE_13.1)"

Then

sudo zypper ref "MATE 1.6 (openSUSE_13.1)"
sudo zypper in -t pattern mate-desktop-environment

Rest, do as he described it there and post results.

[ianlamin]

and ~/.xinitrc doesn't exist. We have to create it by ourselves. Use "sudo zypper in nano" to install nano editor as its easy. Then "sudo nano ~/.xinitrc" will let you create the file and you can write and save what he mentioned there.
I installed it successfully, it running okay, have to correct the fonts though as they are unreadble as kde.
goodluck.

[wolfi323]

Then "sudo nano ~/.xinitrc" will let you create the file and you can write and save what he mentioned there.

DON'T use sudo for that!

~/.xinitrd is a _user_ configuration file in your _user_'s home directory. No need to create that as root.
It should be owned by your user anyway.

And I would say, you don't even have to create that ~/.xinitrc at all.

On openSUSE, $WINDOWMANAGER is normally set by the xdm init script.
Just setting the default windowmanager in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager (DEFAULT_WM="mate") should suffice, and would affect _all_ users.

[ianlamin]

DON'T use sudo for that!

~/.xinitrd is a _user_ configuration file in your _user_'s home directory. No need to create that as root.
It should be owned by your user anyway.

And I would say, you don't even have to create that ~/.xinitrc at all.

On openSUSE, $WINDOWMANAGER is normally set by the xdm init script.
Just setting the default windowmanager in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager (DEFAULT_WM="mate") should suffice, and would affect _all_ users.

You are wrong that changing /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager gonna make it right. I tried this and it threw me in x-server mode.
Then in x minimal mode itself, I had to edit back DEFAULT_WM="twm" and then recreate the ~/.xinitrc file, this time without sudo, like you said.

And, I have Intel HD video, mate created tearing while video playbacks. So, I had to do make a file "etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf" and write this:

Section "Device"  Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
  Driver      "intel"
  Option      "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

sources for this solution:
https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=6270.0
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ear-free_video

[wolfi323]

You are wrong that changing /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager gonna make it right.

Well, how are you starting X then?

My /etc/init.d/xdm has this:

test -z "$DEFAULT_WM" && DEFAULT_WM=twm



if test -z "$WINDOWMANAGER" ; then
    SAVEPATH=$PATH
    PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/openwin/bin
    desktop=/usr/share/xsessions/${DEFAULT_WM}.desktop

    if test -s "$desktop" ; then
        while read -r line; do
            case ${line} in
            Exec=*) WINDOWMANAGER="$(command -v ${line#Exec=})"
                    break
            esac
        done < $desktop
    fi
    if test -n "$DEFAULT_WM" -a -z "$WINDOWMANAGER" ; then
        WINDOWMANAGER="$(command -v ${DEFAULT_WM##*/})"
    fi
    PATH=$SAVEPATH
    unset SAVEPATH desktop
fi
unset DEFAULT_WM
export WINDOWMANAGER

Which obviously gets the name of the session's .desktop file (in /usr/share/xsessions/) from $DEFAULT_WM and sets $WINDOWMANAGER according to the "Exec=" line in that file.

If you do set $WINDOWMANAGER somewhere else already, this is not done of course.

If $DEFAULT_WM is undefined, it is set to "twm", so maybe you had a typo somewhere?

I haven't tried out Mate myself, but that's the way how it works with any other desktop environment. And Mate does contain an /usr/share/xsessions/mate.desktop file as well. Do you have that? I think it's included in the mate-session-manager package.

[ianlamin]

As mentioned here http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Intel_HD_Graphics and on archwiki page also that "tearfree" may have power consuming effect, so I added following parameters in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in file /etc/default/grub:

i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.semaphores=1 pcie_aspm=force

and then did:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

[justauser7]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses. But I was looking for a package for version 1.8 not 1.6. And looks like 1.8 does not have a meta package like mate-desktop-environment as of now in OpenSUSE 13.1.

I will start with a minimal X windows install and pull in packages. The problem is its easy (as has happened to me before) to skip some required packages which are core for a functional desktop and I've ended up with a broken desktop with no clue as to what ones I may have missed. But I will try and maybe post my results soon if I can get it working.

Meanwhile if someone has already had success starting with a minimal system and building it up from there, please do post your experience/instructions.

Cheers!

[wolfi323]

@ianlamin:
FYI, I did install MATE 1.6 now.
And after setting DEFAULT_WM="mate" in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager it did start fine here, without an ~/.xinitrc, even when using xdm.

OTOH, lightdm allows you to select the session you want to login to, just like kdm and gdm, so there's actually no need to either change /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager nor create ~/.xinitrc. Just choose MATE on the login screen...

Thanks for the responses. But I was looking for a package for version 1.8 not 1.6. And looks like 1.8 does not have a meta package like mate-desktop-environment as of now in OpenSUSE 13.1.

You're right, sorry for being off-topic.
TBH, I didn't notice the different version numbers at first when I replied.

Unfortunately you are right, there is no pattern available for X11:Mate:Current.
You could use YaST's repo view to select the packages.

The critical packages seem to be those:
mate-window-manager, mate-session-manager, mate-settings-daemon, mate-desktop, mate-panel, mate-notification-daemon, mate-keyring, mate-icon-theme, mate-dialogs, mate-control-center, mate-backgrounds
Those are installed by the mate-core pattern.

mate-desktop-environment contains those in addition:
mate-document-viewer, mate-file-archiver, mate-text-editor, mate-image-viewer, mate-power-manager, mate-screensaver, mate-calc, mate-utils, mate-applets, mate-character-map, mate-media, mate-terminal, mate-theme, mate-system-monitor, mate-indicator-applet, mate-menus.
Most of those are not really necessary to start/use Mate though.

You could of course also install 1.6 with the pattern, then change the repo URL (or remove 1.6 and add Current), and then do a "zypper dup --from X11:MATE:Current" (or whatever you named the repo).

[wolfi323]

You could of course also install 1.6 with the pattern, then change the repo URL (or remove 1.6 and add Current), and then do a "zypper dup --from X11:MATE:Current" (or whatever you named the repo).

FYI, I tried that now.
I installed Mate 1.6 using the pattern earlier (exactly like written in http://forums.opensuse.org/showthrea...38#post2642638), and now I just changed the repo URL, selected the repo in YaST and clicked on "Switch all system packages to the versions in this repository" (i.e. the same as "zypper dup --from X11:MATE:Current").

I had to solve a few conflicts, because some things got renamed, the old versions had to be uninstalled.
Those things were missing of course, but I got a functional desktop.

The things that got uninstalled without replacement were those:
mate-file-manager (now named "caja"), mate-image-viewer (now "eom"), mate-document-viewer ("atril")
So you might want to install them manually afterwards.

But as I said, those are not really critical, MATE itself worked and was useable, so it's no problem to install them afterwards.

If you really want to have _everything_ that MATE (and the repo) includes, then you don't have a need for a pattern anyway.
Just use YaST's repository view to see all packages from that repo and then just install all of them (right-click on the package list and select "All in this list"->"Install" or call the same function in the "Packages" menu)...

Of course I did not start with a minimal installation, but I think this would work the same, because the MATE pattern (or installing everything from the MATE repo) should take care of the necessary stuff.

One note though: I suppose the minimal install uses xdm as login manager, but this does not allow to choose the desktop session.
So you either should install and use a different login manager like lightdm, or set MATE as the default session in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager, as written earlier.

Again, there's no need for a ~/.xinitrc to start MATE, and I would not recommend it.