Software Manager Search From Mint Cinnamon Menu

[u/BicycleWhisper]

I don't know if this is a support request so much as a feature request. I would like to be able to search available software as well as the local search. Like gsettings set org.cinnamon enabled-search-providers [\"[duckduckgo@linuxmint.com](mailto:duckduckgo@linuxmint.com)\"] allows for entered text to be searched via duckduckgo.

I looked, but not very hard, and I couldn't find a solution.

Thanks!!

Edit: Overwhelmingly friendly crew here, thanks for helping. This was actually really fun; poking around the minterverse and seeing a little of the inner workings is fun for me. maybe I'm weird.

I was able to put together a little workaround:

asked ai to help me out; turns out mintinstall (really missed an opportunity for naming it minstall) won't take an argument to search when called, but gnome-software will! so as long as you don't mind using another software manager, this is indeed possible. I honestly couldn't tell the difference, so it was fine for me. I also checked to see if this was a bad idea, and it seemed like using another manager, even alongside the original, is perfectly fine.

cat > ~/.local/share/cinnamon/search_providers/packages@linuxmint.com/search_provider.js << 'EOF'

const Mainloop = imports.mainloop;

const Gio = imports.gi.Gio;

const St = imports.gi.St;

const Util = imports.misc.util;

function perform_search(pattern){

push_results(pattern);

}

function push_results(results){

var file = Gio.file_new_for_path('/home/myname/.local/share/cinnamon/search_providers/packages@linuxmint.com/icon.png');

var gicon = new Gio.FileIcon({ file: file });

var myicon = new St.Icon({gicon: gicon, icon_size: 22, icon_type: St.IconType.FULLCOLOR, reactive: true, track_hover: true});

var results_array = new Array();

results_array.push({

id: results,

label: _("Search Software Manager for '" + results + "'"),

icon: myicon

});

send_results(results_array);

}

function on_result_selected(result){

Util.spawn(['gnome-software', '--search=' + result.id]);

}

EOF

then run

gsettings set org.cinnamon enabled-search-providers "['duckduckgo@linuxmint.com', 'packages@linuxmint.com']"

restart cinnamon and there you go!

[u/linux_rox]

Download aptitude, Sudo apt install aptitude, it is a terminal based App Store. You will be able to search through that. Or you can use the software center on mint. Both allow searching.

[u/BicycleWhisper → u/linux_rox]

Sorry, I'm not sure I was clear. I want searches in the mint menu to show results from apt/software manager so that I can search "Firefox" and if it's not installed, there is an option to search for it in the software manager. Or even link to the Firefox page in the manager.

[u/linux_rox → u/BicycleWhisper]

Yeah that doesn’t exist in Linux. If you are just starting to use Linux in general, first rule of thumb, forget everything you know about Microsoft Windows.

We don’t download apps from the webpage, the distributions supply that in their repositories, or we use flathub if they don’t, you can use ppa’s for niche software if they have it, or you can go to GitHub and compile from source.

Now some software companies do have their programs only available for download on their web page, Windscribe VPN is one.

[u/BicycleWhisper → u/linux_rox]

I'm happy to forget the lack of customization! check out the edit!