Fix "Cinnamon Just Crashed" on Linux Mint 17.3

A recent update in Linux Mint included the nVidia 367 driver. Even though my HTPC was using integrated graphics, having the driver installed causes Cinnamon to crash with the error message:

Cinnamon just crashed. You are running in fallback mode.

A fix is to remove the nVidia 367 driver completely:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-367

Reboot and Cinnamon should be running okay again.

Run Script Automaticaly with LinuxMint Cinnamon

I worked out how to automatically run my Wacom tablet setup script in Xubuntu, but in Cinnamon none of those options worked.

Eventually I found the .config/autostart directory and modified an existing .desktop file to start the script. This is what I came up with (I assume the file can be called anything, I just called it xsetwacom.desktop):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=xsetwacom
Exec=/home/<username>/.xsetwacom.sh
Terminal=false
Icon=terminal
Comment=Set up the Wacom tablet rotation
Categories=Utility;Application;

(Then I found this post that describes how to do it graphically, which might be easier.)

Lock Screen Command in Gnome/Cinnamon

The correct lock screen command in Gnome (and hence Cinnamon) is:

gnome-screensaver-command --lock

This is useful in the context of remapping keyboard shortcuts. For some reason, lots of internet searches come up with the equivalent X-based command for locking the screen.

Mapping Keyboard Shortcuts in Cinnamon

Using gconf-editor, follow instructions at http://www.maphew.com/Linux/Use_WinKey_in_Ubuntu.html.

The example is to map Super+E (or Windows+E) to start nautilus, like Windows opens Windows Explorer. The important steps (in gconf-editor) are:

1. Go to /Apps/metacity/global_keybidings
2. Set run_command_1 to <Super>E
3. Go to /Apps/metacity/keybinding_commands
4. Set command_1 to /usr/bin/nautilus

Running Diablo II under wine in Linux Mint Cinnamon

Disabling or re-mapping Alt+Click
If you're playing Diablo II in wine, the default Alt+Click mapping in Cinnamon (which moves the underlying window) is kind of annoying. Since the desktop environment is based on Gnome (I guess), you can use the gconf-editor tool to edit the mappings.

Under Mint 13, the configuration editor isn't installed by default, so you might have to do this:

    sudo apt-get install gconf-editor
    gconf-editor

Then navigate to apps/metacity/general and edit the mouse_button_modifier key to something else (I used "Control" which seems to be fine).

Getting "pick up items with Alt held down" to work
Holding down Alt highlights items. If you can't pick up items with Alt held down, you may need to disable the window manager control of the wine window.

To do this, run winecfg, go to Graphics tab, and uncheck the "Allow the window manager to control the windows" option.

Alt+Click for item pick up now works. The downside is that the window won't appear in the taskbar any more, and when you minimise it you get a little icon in the bottom left-hand corner. But it works.

Note: While initially I did this and it seemed to helped, it might also cause keyboard interaction to stop working. I was playing around with the "Window focus mode" in Cinnamon -> Window Settings at the same time, so at the moment I've turned the window manager control back on in winecfg and it's okay.