Install Linux Mint (USP) Main Menu in Ubuntu

If you ever used or seen some screenshots of Linux Mint, I'm sure you noticed how amazing it's menu is. I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to install it in Ubuntu. Sure, you could install Gnome Main Menu ( sudo apt-get install gnome-main-menu ) but I don't find it to be nowhere near as useful as the Linux Mint main menu.

Note: mintMenu is based on a fork of USP (Ubuntu System Panel), but the two are not the same thing, mintMenu being a lot nicer.

Here is how Gnome Main Menu looks like:

And here is the Linux Mint menu:

One of the things I like the most in the Linux Mint menu is the filter and to get this option in the Gnome Main Menu you'd have to click the "Control Center" menu item which is too many clicks away.


I also like the customization Linux Mint menu offers (right click the menu and then select Preferences): you can choose to display or not to display the recently used items (while those are always displayed in the Gnome Main Menu) but not only that; you can also toggle on/off the side pane, chose the icon size, colors, number of favourite items and so on. Basically everything is customizable.



You can also click the header of a section to make it go away, and have just a button for it on the left pane:

Of course, you can also change the Linux Mint icon and use an Ubuntu logo instead of it and even set the key to bring down the menu, directly from within the Linux Mint menu preferences:

Another great feature is the "favourite" applications - but both menus come with that - which you can use to put all your frequently used apps so you don't need to place icons on the gnome panel, etc.


Convinced? Here is how to install this great menu in Ubuntu.

Install Linux Mint (USP) menu in Ubuntu

To install the Linux Mint menu in Ubuntu, all you have to do is paste this in a terminal to download and install it:

wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mint-translations/mint-translations_2010.02.02_all.deb
wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mint-common/mint-common_1.0.5_all.deb
wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/m/mintmenu/mintmenu_4.9.9_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

Then, to add the Linux Mint menu to a Gnome panel, right click a panel and select "Add to panel", then search for "mintMenu" and add it.


Update: You can now install Linux Mint Main Menu (MintMenu) From an Ubuntu PPA

Message from Testking: Passing 70-294 certifications is not a dream now. Download the 642-373 dumps and 650-393 practice test to nail down real success.