Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.04 LTS, Missing "Extensions" and "desklets" etc

[cybermaxpower]

I’ve encountered an issue in Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.04 where the remote repositories for Applets, Desklets, and Extensions are not loading. The ‘Download’ section remains blank, forcing me to do a manual installation from https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/."

[rubi1200]

I tried this from the terminal:

cinnamon-settings applets

The GUI will open and keep the terminal open too.

Go to Downloads and while it did seem to be downloading at the end the screen was blank.

There were a whole bunch of python related errors in the terminal.

Unfortunately, I do not know how to troubleshoot that further but I hope this at least gets things moving in a direction to find the resolution.

[cybermaxpower]

Thanks for checking that, rubi1200. It’s helpful to know it’s triggering Python errors.

To help anyone else looking at this, I’ll try to capture the specific output. I’ll run cinnamon-settings applets again and copy/paste the exact Python traceback/error messages here later today. It might be a missing dependency or something, like yourself I also don’t know Python.

Again thank you

[cybermaxpower]

Here is the desklets output

:~$ cinnamon-settings desklets
/usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/cinnamon-settings.py:458: DeprecationWarning: Gtk.Window.set_wmclass is deprecated
  self.window.set_wmclass(wm_class, wm_class)
Loading Desklets module
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py", line 1060, in on_page_shown
    self.build_list()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py", line 1034, in build_list
    row = DownloadSpicesRow(uuid, data, self.spices, size_groups)
  File "/usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py", line 770, in __init__
    score_label = Gtk.Label(self.score)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/gi/overrides/__init__.py", line 357, in new_init
    return super_init_func(self, **new_kwargs)
TypeError: Must be string, not int

the same thing happens with Applets and Extensions.

[cybermaxpower]

found a fix thanks to google gemini

The error you are seeing, TypeError: Must be string, not int, is a known bug in certain versions of the Cinnamon Desktop environment (specifically affecting cinnamon-settings). It occurs because the code expects the “score” (the rating) of a desklet to be a string, but it is receiving an integer from the Spice server.

Since this is a bug in the system files, you can fix it by manually editing the Python script to ensure the value is converted to a string.

How to Fix the TypeError

You will need to edit /usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py with root privileges.

1. Open your terminal and create a backup of the file first:

   Bash

   sudo cp /usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py /usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py.bak
   
   

2. Open the file in a text editor (like Nano):

   Bash

   sudo nano /usr/share/cinnamon/cinnamon-settings/bin/ExtensionCore.py
   
   

3. Find the problematic line. According to your traceback, it is line 770. In Nano, you can press Ctrl + W, type score_label = Gtk.Label(self.score), and hit Enter.

4. Modify the line. You need to wrap self.score in a str() function to convert it to a string.

   • Change this: score_label = Gtk.Label(self.score)

   • To this: score_label = Gtk.Label(label=str(self.score))

5. Save and Exit.

   • Press Ctrl + O then Enter to save.

   • Press Ctrl + X to exit.

[rubi1200]

Wow, I was about to post that another AI helper came up with more or less the same answer.

Great minds think alike? Perhaps not minds but large datasets.

I was also going to suggest we ping the Ubuntu Cinnamon Lead for his take on this.

@itzswirlz when you have time, can you please take a look?

Meantime, I will test this fix and see if I get the same end result.

Thanks for sharing with the community.

[rubi1200]

@cybermaxpower Happy to confirm that this fix works.

Tested on a fresh install of Ubuntu Cinnamon 26.04 in a virtual machine.

Party time

[cybermaxpower]

That’s awesome news! Thanks so much for taking the time to test it on a fresh install—that’s incredibly helpful to know.

[rubi1200]

Some additional information that may be of interest for those viewing this topic.

According to inxi -S the Cinnamon version on Ubuntu is 6.4.13

On a fresh install of Debian Trixie with the Cinnamon desktop the version is 6.4.10

Interestingly, opening applets, desklets or extensions does not repeat the issue.

Clicking on Downloads adds the lists and images just fine without the need for any fixes.

[eeickmeyer]

@rubi1200

@itzswirlz when you have time, can you please take a look?

I think he’s busy with school finals, and I’m part of the Cinnamon team (the package uploader), so I’ll see what I can do. The issue is that we’re relying on a hobbled infrastructure at the moment.

[itzswirlz]

As @eeickmeyer said I am busy with finals, but rest assured I have put it on my TODO list, so I’ll eventually get around to it. If you don’t see any activity from me after ~May 18, just ping me.

[rubi1200]

Appreciate the help and support.

Good luck with your exams!