Customize the MATE Desktop Environment using the Mate Tweak 3.3.6 on Ubuntu & Linux Mint Systems. How to Install Mate Tweak 3.3.6 on Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17.1/17.
The Mate Tweak is an open-source configuration/tweaking tool similar to Unity Tweak Tool for Ubuntu systems. The Ubuntu Mate developers have forked the mintDesktop software into Mate Tweak Tool for configuring Ubuntu Mate and Linux Mint.
Users can customize MATE Desktop Environment, via Mate Tweak. They can customize what is displayed on the MATE Desktop, layout and windows behavior.
The latest version, Mate Tweak 3.3.6 can be installed Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Linux Mint 17.1, Linux Mint 17, using MATE as the default desktop environment.
Install Mate Tweak 3.3.6 On Ubuntu & Linux Mint Systems
Mate Tweak 3.3.6 can be installed on Ubuntu and Linux Mint systems via PPA. Open Terminal and run the following commands to install the mate-tweak package:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mate-tweak
To uninstall and remove Mate Tweak from Ubuntu and Linux Mint systems, run the following command:
sudo apt-get remove mate-tweak
Indicators are enabled by default in Ubuntu MATE 14.04 but for Ubuntu MATE 14.10 and 15.04 some configuration is required. The big caveat is that most of the Canonical created indicators dropped GTK2 sometime ago therefore the usefulness of these GTK2 indicators is limited. That said, it does provide a way have a really nice sound indicator.
The indicators here have some small patches applied that add MATE compatibility.
Install MATE indicator container
Make sure you are using Ubuntu Utopic 14.10 or 15.04.
sudo apt-get install mate-indicator-applet
Right click a MATE panel and add ‘Indicator Applet Complete’ to it.
Install GTK2 indicators
Do not install the recommended packages as it will pull in all manner of cruft you simply do not require for Ubuntu MATE.
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends indicator-application-gtk2 indicator-sound-gtk2
Remove the MATE volume control applet from the autostart.
sudo mv -v /etc/xdg/autostart/mate-volume-control-applet.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/mate-volume-control-applet.disabled
Log out off your session and then log in again.