Update: this is no longer necessary in Mint 20.02

I like having my volume control in the bottom right corner of the screen so I can quickly and easily throw the mouse to the corner and scroll for volume control. I also like using multiple screens, each with their own panel. Unfortunately, Cinnamon only allows one instance of the volume control applet.

In the past I’ve used the “Volume control 150%” applet for my second screen, but this runs into a problem with Firefox whereby the volume suddenly jumps to 100%.

To run multiple Cinnamon volume controls:

sudo cp -r /usr/share/cinnamon/applets/sound@cinnamon.org /usr/share/cinnamon/applets/sound3@cinnamon.org

sudo nano /usr/share/cinnamon/applets/sound2@cinnamon.org/metadata.json


Change the UUID from sound@cinnamon.org to sound2.cinnamon.org and change the name to Sound2

You can now add the “Sound2” applet to the your other Cinnamon panel. Or the same one. Add more. Go nuts.

I wrote a few months ago about diving into the Linux Mint Cinnamon theme files to change the default icon size in the Cinnamon menu. Having recently decided to do a “fresh” install (/home partition intact) of Mint 20 beta, which at time of writing is coming out of beta soon). One of the first things I did was dive back into the theme file to change the menu icons to my preferred size, but the file looked completely unfamiliar.

After a few minutes of searching I gave up and started poking around. I was extremely happy to find the controls have now been moved into the GUI. Just right click the Cinnamon menu, configure and click the menu tab.

This may seem like a small thing, but for me this is huge. I spent years using gnome, and each update usually took away various settings (screensaver settings, I’m looking at you) in the name of making things “easier”.

This change of pace in Cinnamon is a breath of fresh air, and one less thing I need to refer to notes in order to change to my liking. Good work, Mint Team.