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2013-02-22

5. Two different sessions


I decided to make my first two-different-sessions install.
Add Mate to already installed Cinnamon, that is.

I tried to install Mate through Synaptic – repository package is 'mint-meta-mate'. No cookie. Synaptic refused to write over one specific file (which name I can't remember), but it was Mint's identity file. Impossible to have two of those, wrote Clem himself somewhere.
Well
- me noob, not finding solution, abandoning ze plan (though, I had impression that it is possible to install without this troublesome file... never found out how).
WHINE: 80% of what you find with Google is a crap. Sifting through it can be sometimes a bit too much... Two hours tend to be limit for me – after what I try to find other solution, well, like ignore, delete, format or simple cursing.
But, hallelujah, this time I already had new sneaky plan – to download Mate piecemeal from repository and install it as Mate and not as mint-mate metapackage.
Explaining: Mate is separate/independent DE used by Linux Mint (and already many others). Mints' own DE is Cinnamon. When Mint makes Linux Mint Mate then the original Mate is a bit tweaked and package will be 'mint-meta-mate' (or, if ISO, Linux Mint Mate). If You get Mate from source, in original form, then it doesn't have any Mint's fingerprints on it.
Who didn't catch the difference (DE compared to distro)– other DE-s can be installed as sessions, from inside your existing DE, no ISO-s needed. You install it, log out and have new choice in log-in sessions. Nothing appears in grub boot menu. Comfy, no bootin' every time.
And – no need to add drivers, flash, fonts etc again – those are system-wide.
Well, main menu will be fucked-up - more about this in next chapter.

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