XFCE Menu Bar Location

[smolnar]

I am running Linux Mint because several o my applications run on the distro without any library problems.

However, I prefer the XFCE desktop. Now on Rebecca there is no option to place the menu bar at the top of the screen. How can I get the bar to move to the top of the screen? I tried searching the web and couldn't find anything.

Thanks in advance.

[all41]

This is counter-intuitive

right-click on panel select Panel/Panel Preferences
un-check the lock panel box
for Mode select Deskbar. the panel is vertical now click on the panel and move it all the way left on screen
Go back to Mode and select Horizontal--now the panel locates to the top of screen.
Lock the panel

[raptir]

You shouldn't need to go through the process of changing it to a deskbar. I am able to move the panel to the top by just unlocking the panel and then dragging it to the top of the screen.

[smolnar]

Thinks for the reply. You were correct, it was counter-intuitive.

[all41]

by just unlocking the panel and then dragging it to the top of the screen.

roger that--

it seems I am having a short term 10 or 15 second lockup when unlocking the XFCE panel

[richyrich]

@ all41 , that is usually a sign that one of your launchers is misbehaving, or becoming zombified !
Task Manager may show you one of the panel applets/launchers eating tons of resources, kill it and re-make/remove/re-install it . .

[all41]

Hi richyrich, tnx for read
Yes, it feels like something to do with synergy keyboard/mouse sharing.
With dedicated kb/mouse it is not locking up as I unlock the panel.

[herbr]

I;m having a problem moving the panel to the top of the screen - it displays a red X and I have unlocked it.
This is on mint xfce 17.1, does that make a difference?

herbr

[karlchen]

Hello, herbr.

You should go back to the beginning of this thread and read each post carefully.
Everything in this thread is about moving the menu bar (bottom panel) to the top on Linux Mint 17.1 xfce. Linux Mint 17.1 has got the nickname "rebecca".

Cheers,
Karl

[herbr]

Karl, I don't see any mention of 17.1 EXCEPT in my post.

In any case none of the suggested solutions work.
Any other ideas?

herbr

[karlchen]

Hello, herbr.

In the very first post smolnar talks about xfce desktop on Rebecca, and as stated before Rebecca is the nickname of Mint 17.1, i.e. Linux Mint 17.1 xfce and Linux Mint Rebecca xfce are the same thing.

Cheers,
Karl

[herbr]

Sorry, I just overlooked that.

Can you explain why I get a red X when I click on the Panel and no matter where I move it, the panel remains at the bottom.
I do not see the same results as others have.

herbr

[herbr]

I found the answer elsewhere.
I was trying to "grab" the panel in the center. I should have used the "handles" on the end(s) to drag it.

Thanks anyway.

herbr

[kendo9992]

I would like to use Linux Mint 18 xfce on an Elonex Webbook. This notebook uses a 1024x600 screen and Mint starts up with a higher resolution so that the taskbar panel at the bottom is off the screen. I cannot get to the taskbar to move it to the top nor access any of the menus to reset the resolution. I tried ctrl-alt-t tro get to a terminal and issued the command 'xrandr -s 1024x600' but the screen then shows multiple interlaced screens which are unreadable. Is there a way to get it to start up from disk with the menu at the top or to set the default resolution to 1024x600 (e.g. by adding to the grub boot line}? I have managed to get an old Mepis distro to start up at 1024x600 but I would prefer to use the latest Mint.

[MtnDewManiac]

I would like to use Linux Mint 18 xfce on an Elonex Webbook. This notebook uses a 1024x600 screen and Mint starts up with a higher resolution so that the taskbar panel at the bottom is off the screen. I cannot get to the taskbar to move it to the top nor access any of the menus to reset the resolution. I tried ctrl-alt-t tro get to a terminal and issued the command 'xrandr -s 1024x600' but the screen then shows multiple interlaced screens which are unreadable. Is there a way to get it to start up from disk with the menu at the top or to set the default resolution to 1024x600 (e.g. by adding to the grub boot line}? I have managed to get an old Mepis distro to start up at 1024x600 but I would prefer to use the latest Mint.

I do not know if this will help, even temporarily, because I have the impression that Xfce's GUI display application will only offer the resolutions and refresh rates that xorg(?) discovers. But you can try pressing your "menu" button (on my laptop it looked like a white window divided into quarters by a black cross ("+) before I covered it with a linux penguin sticker ) and then typing "display" and pressing your Enter key. Hopefully, you will be able to select 1024x600 resolution and (I am guessing) 60 Hz refresh rate. IF those options are available, choosing them will at least allow you to see your panel. At that point, moving your panel becomes a simple thing - simply right-click on it and uncheck "Lock Panel" (if it is locked), then place your mouse cursor somewhere on the panel, hold your left mouse button down, and drag the panel where you wish.

If the Xfce Display app does NOT offer you the correct choices for your display, the actual fault probably does not lie with Xfce. But you would not be the first to encounter such an issue and there are multiple threads which could serve to offer guidance:

Code: Select all

https://www.google.com/#q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fforum.xfce.org+resolution

From the quick look I gave a couple of the results of that search, it looks like you can manually set a few things in your xorg.conf file to help.

Good luck,
MDM

[kendo9992]

Thank you for your advice ByeByeXP. At this stage I am just using the DVD. Using your instructions I was able to get to the Display and other options. A major step forward. The default resolution is shown as 1280x768 (refresh rate 0.0Hz!). However, when I selected the 1024x600 option I got four screens side by side interlaced and had to turn it off. After rebooting I tried 1024x768 - same result. 720x480, 640x480 ditto. I tried to find additional drivers to see if the graphics chip would then be better supported but I got "No proprietary drivers are in use". With a bit of work I was able set up the panel at the top of the screen using just the visible area and could see the network icon. However I could not get the wifi to connect. Without working wifi and the correct display I am going to see if a newer version of Mepis would be a better bet as the version 8 does give wifi and correct screen.

[MtnDewManiac]

There is a way to set your resolution in the grub(2?) menu - and other options, too (I have a nice background image with mine). I do not know exactly how to set the resolution, but a simple web search ("grub 1024x600" (without quotes) might do it) should provide lots of answers. As for within Mint (Xfce) itself, this is also easily changed. But it might be both easier and permanent in an installed setup (as opposed to running the live .ISO environment).

Regards,
MDM

[kendo9992]

Yes it would be better to use Mint installed to disk and edit files so that they are preserved when rebooting. With this intention, I attempted to install Mint 18 xfce next to the installed Mepis. First the install failed due to a faulty DVD. I checked the md5 of the source ISO against the website value and it was wrong so I downloaded a fresh copy. That showed the same md5 checksum as the first. A third download, from a different mirror produced the same md5 as the others. Something was wrong somewhere but I decided to try reinstalling anyway. The installation hung so I tried a Mint 15 DVD I had and this ran to completion. However, Mint would not boot though Mepis did - once. After shutting down, I tried to get to the Mint recovery and got a kernel panic. Mepis now also stops with a kernel panic. I will try later to wipe the disk and attempt a clean installation. Assuming that succeeds, I will then be able to try out the commands pointed to by your posts. If I succeed in getting Mint to work on the Webbook, I shall provide details for reference.

[MtnDewManiac]

Yes it would be better to use Mint installed to disk and edit files so that they are preserved when rebooting. With this intention, I attempted to install Mint 18 xfce next to the installed Mepis. First the install failed due to a faulty DVD. I checked the md5 of the source ISO against the website value and it was wrong so I downloaded a fresh copy. That showed the same md5 checksum as the first. A third download, from a different mirror produced the same md5 as the others. Something was wrong somewhere but I decided to try reinstalling anyway. The installation hung so I tried a Mint 15 DVD I had and this ran to completion.

Maybe your DVD drive is failing? Regardless, all that seems tedious. You don't actually need to burn the .ISO to a DVD (or even place it on USB media) - you can just download it to another partition/drive, do a couple things, and it'll appear in your grub menu as if it were any other installed distro. Then you can boot to it, use it in its "live" form, and install it (just not in such a way that it overwrites the partition you have placed the .ISO on, lol). See:
viewtopic.php?p=846103?p=846103#p846103
That does not skip the need to somehow get a correct bit-for-bit copy of the .ISO in the first place, of course. I do not know what to suggest there; try downloading it via torrent, perhaps?

However, Mint would not boot though Mepis did - once. After shutting down, I tried to get to the Mint recovery and got a kernel panic. Mepis now also stops with a kernel panic.

Or maybe you have greater problems than a (possibly) failing DVD drive? Do you have a way to run an integrity check on your hard drive? If this is a laptop, might it be overheating (I have yet to see one more than a year old that didn't have a lot of... stuff inside, in the vents, in the convoluted heatpipe assembly that has such tiny passages, et cetera. And the vast majority of laptops seem to have cooling/ventilation that is marginal at best anyway.

I will try later to wipe the disk and attempt a clean installation.

If it IS a laptop of some sort, past experience has taught me that, if you do have heat issues, you might never manage a distro installation unless/until you correct the issue. It took me days, maybe over a week to install Mint 14 on my old one - and I only succeeded because it spent most of the installation period in the freezer (which still took three or four attempts). I think that the CPU might go into "full-speed mode" during a distro installation and stay there, but I could be mistaken. I know that particular laptop functioned - more or less, sort of, most of the time - up until the point when I tried to install a new distro on it. Which was terribly inconvenient, since it only had the one to begin with and I'd just pooched it by trying to overwrite it.

Good luck. Before I did anything, I'd check your CPU core temperatures - and if they seem fine, set it to its maximum frequency, start a task that really uses it, wait about ten minutes, and check them again. Then I would check your hard drive. Then I would think about trying to install a distro onto it.

Regards,
MDM

[kendo9992]

Well the whole-disk installation of Mint 18 appeared to complete but I had problems booting - "attempt to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'" and "must load kernel first" but a second attempt got me through to login and run. The screen was a barely usable 640x480 but with the task bar visible at the bottom of the screen I was able to get wifi working, did all of the updates and rebooted - "uncompression error", "--system halted". I am sure that the hard disk is at fault though processor temperature may also be a problem. If I get an alternative drive, I feel confident that the display can be sorted out by editing files in an installed system. Thanks for the support.