This has been popping up on sites today, and people are installing from .deb files downloaded out of the Mint repo’s. Now, I like to keep my software up-to-date and thus don’t like installing loose .deb files without adding the repo where they came from.
Just a note of warning: this is meant for Ubuntu Lucid (Gnome) in combination with Linux Mint 9!

So here’s how you can install the Linux Mint menu by adding the Mint repo, and thus keeping up to date
First we want to add the Mint repo by creating a new file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ called mint.list:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list
Paste in the following line:
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ isadora main
Press Ctrl+X to close Nano and save the file.
Install the GPG key for the repo:
sudo apt-key adv –recv-key –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0FF405B2
Next run aptitude update, and install some Mint packages:
sudo aptitude update; sudo aptitude install mint-translations mint-common mintmenu
Now just add the Mint Menu to the Gnome panel:
Click to view larger image


To tweak it a bit more follow this (blatantly copied from this Ubuntu Forums post):
Ubuntuize it
If you right-click on the menu button and select “Preferences” you will see the menu with a whole bunch of stuff. On the first tab which is shown, named “Main Button” you can change how the button looks in the gnome pane. For me, I deleted the button text as I just wanted to have a logo, but of course the choice is yours.
As for the icon, if you want an ubuntu logo, here are the paths to copy in (NOTE: paths are based of Ubuntu 10.04)
If you’re using a light theme:
/usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-light/apps/24/start-here.svg
If you’re using a dark theme:
/usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-dark/apps/24/start-here.svg
Play around!
Have a good look around the preferences and what you can do. There is quite a lot you can play with.
You can choose what items you have in the “Favourites” section but right clicking on a menu item (from “All Applications”) and choose “Show in my favourites”. You can remove items from your favourites by right clicking on them and selected “Remove from favourites”.
Known Issue…
After you ave added it to the panel, you will notice that if you select “All Applications”, that there is nothing there, or that there are no sub-menus. No problem, all should be fine and working after a the next reboot.
So there you have it, the Mint Menu in Ubuntu. And remember, Mint is made off Ubuntu so everything is pretty much interchangeable, so don’t worry that you’re using a menu made for a different
distro.