Hey everyone! I have Linux Mint Cinnamon installed on my laptop, but after it unexpectedly died due to battery issues, it's now booting into what I think is Ubuntu. I managed to find an option to select Mint from the login menu, but I'm wondering why this happened. How can I prevent it from happening again? Also, is there a way to get the Ubuntu screenshot tool to work on Mint, as I really like how it allows me to select part of the screen directly with the Print Screen button instead of going into a separate menu?
3 Answers
It sounds like you're running into a session selection issue. Since Mint is based on Ubuntu, you may have ended up in a GNOME session instead of your standard Mint session. When you restarted, check if there's an option on the login screen for selecting the desktop environment (you might find a gear icon or session dropdown there). It’s possible that this wasn’t visible before, which can happen sometimes after an update or a new installation. Just be sure to select Mint from that menu next time you log in!
Did you happen to install any GNOME packages or applications? Installing certain packages might lead your system to default to a GNOME session. If you want that screenshot tool you mentioned, you could try installing 'gnome-screenshot' directly in Mint. Just remember that it might pull some GNOME dependencies along with it. That being said, there are also other screenshot tools available on Mint that might suit your needs!
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t realize installing apps could change my session options. I'll check out the other tools you suggested!
It's interesting how these distributions work together. Linux Mint runs on Ubuntu, so in case something goes awry with your Mint environment, your system might show an option to boot into Ubuntu since it's the base. Keep in mind that if any of your installations adjust core packages, it may affect your booting options as well. If you didn't ever install Ubuntu intentionally, you might just be seeing Mint's session options that aren't well documented!
I had a similar experience! Sometimes, if you have both desktop environments available, it can default to the last one you used. Just keep an eye on that session selector when you log in.