Wiki » First step with MATE

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Synopsis: This page is written with absolute beginners in mind to help them find the tools they need when using their desktop for the first time. It may also help to choose which desktop environment to use. MATE is a fork of GNOME 2 and is named after the South American beverage mate. After the GNOME 3 release (in 2011), many users refused to accept the new interface design of GNOME and called for the development of GNOME 2 to be continued. The MATE project was born, it comes also with a set of tools which are integrated and with advanced functionalities. More information in the MATE official website

Where are the configuration tools?

After the first reboot following the installation, your desktop looks like the screenshot below. To display the menu, click on the Mageia icon at the top left (marker 6). The green marks are for Mageia tools and the red ones for MATE tools.

The optional cairo-dock (here at the bottom)

1: Mageia mgaapplet, it is only visible when there is software to download. The red colour means updates are available for your Mageia release, for security reasons we advise you to accept them, to do so, click on the red icon and give your user password. The blue colour means a new Mageia version is available and prompts you to do a net install of it. You can ignore it as long as your Mageia release is supported and do the update installation by any other way of your choice.

2: Mageia net applet, it is visible if you are connected to a network. It gives you network information when the mouse is hovering over it. A left click gives access to the Net Center tool. A right click displays a menu to manage the network.

3: The Mageia Control Center (MCC) is where all the Mageia tools are brought together. The applets marker 1 and marker 2 use MCC. See here for more information about MCC. MCC is the same for all the Desktop Environments. The first thing to do after an installation is to open MCC and to configure the media sources see here

4: The tool Install & Remove Software is also part of MCC. See here for more information about the Software Management,or here.

5: MCC is so important that you have also an access from the task bar

6: Access to the menu.

7: If you click on System -> Administration, a submenu (marker 7) is displayed, it contains tools given by MATE to set your Desktop Environment.

8: If you click on System -> Preferences, another tools submenu is displayed.

9: Control Centre brings together all the MATE tools and allows you to set the desktop and windows appearance and behaviour. This MATE Control Centre has nothing to do with MCC.

A light and eye-candy dock can be added thanks to the cairo-dock package available in the Mageia repositories.

You will notice there is no volume tray icon in panel although sound works. This is because mate-media packages are not installed by default. You should install either mate-media-pulse (PulseAudio backend) or mate-media-gstreamer (Gstreamer backend) to get a working volume tray applet.

Some mate utilities, e.g. mate-screenshot, are provided by mate-utils package, please install mate-utils package to access these mate utilities.

What are the configuration tools for?

Here are the tools you can use to set up the main features and/or devices:

Note: When several tools are available to do the same action, they are in fact writing in the same configuration file, so there is no risk of conflict, use your preferred tool

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Setting	MATE	Mageia
Windows appearance	System -> Preferences -> Appearance System -> Control Centre	--
Workspace appearance (the desktop out of the windows)	System -> Preferences -> Main Menu System -> Preferences -> Pop-Up Notifications System -> Control Centre Right click on the panel Right click on the Desktop Install the Cairo dock	--
Windows behaviour	System -> Preferences -> Windows System -> Control Centre	--
Workspace behaviour	System -> Control Centre Right click on the Desktop Install the Cairo dock	--
Desktop background	System -> Preferences -> ChBg System -> Control Centre Right click on the Desktop	--
Screensaver	System -> Preferences -> Screensaver System -> Control Centre	--
Display settings	System -> Preferences -> Monitors System -> Administration -> Monitors System -> Control Centre	MCC / hardware / Set up the graphical server
Accessibility	System -> Preferences -> Assistive Technologies System -> Control Centre	--
Localization	System -> Preferences -> Regional Settings System -> Control Centre	MCC / System / Manage localization for your system
Preferred applications	System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications	--
Software Management	--	MCC / Software Management Applications -> System tools -> Install & Remove Software System -> Administration -> Install & Remove Software
Power Management (For Laptops)	System -> Preferences -> Power Management System -> Administration -> Power Management System -> Control Centre	--
Mouse and Keyboard	System -> Preferences -> Keyboard System -> Preferences -> Keyboard layout System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts System -> Administration -> Keyboard System -> Preferences -> Mouse System -> Administration -> Mouse System -> Control Centre	MCC / hardware / Configure Mouse and Keyboard
Printer	System -> Administration -> Print settings	MCC / hardware / Configure printing and scanning
Drives and Media (Storage, Multimedia, Cameras, Input Devices...)	--	MCC / hardware
Network, Sharing, Internet, Disk management, Security, Boot ...	System -> Administration -> Disk Usage Analyser	MCC