Distribution
Mint 21.3
Package version
Cinnamon 6.6.7
Graphics hardware in use
No response
Frequency
Always
Bug description
Clicking Restart or Shutdown from the Cinnamon session menu has no effect. No confirmation dialog appears, no action is taken, and nothing is logged in the system journal. The issue persists after reinstalling cinnamon, cinnamon-session, cinnamon-common, cinnamon-core, and dbus packages. Rebooting via sudo reboot or via dbus-send works correctly, confirming the system itself is healthy.
Steps to reproduce
Steps to Reproduce:
Fresh install of Linux Mint (fully updated)
Click the session menu in the Cinnamon panel
Click Restart or Shutdown
Nothing happens — no dialog, no action, no error
Expected behavior
Clicking Restart or Shutdown should either immediately reboot/shutdown or present a confirmation dialog.
Additional information
I did work with Claude to try to resolve this issue. This is Claude's
boot-journal.txt
installed-packages.txt
xsession-errors.txt
summary of what was done. I hope it helps.
boot-journal.txt
installed-packages.txt
xsession-errors.txt
Diagnostic Information:
Polkit is running and healthy:
systemctl status polkit → active (running)
DBus is fully installed and healthy:
dbus, dbus-user-session, dbus-x11 all ii status in dpkg
Session is local and active:
loginctl show-session → Remote=no, Active=yes, Type=x11
journalctl shows nothing logged when clicking restart — request is silently swallowed before reaching polkit or systemd.
Direct dbus call works and reboots successfully:
dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.login1 /org/freedesktop/login1 org.freedesktop.login1.Manager.Reboot boolean:true
This confirms the system and polkit are functioning correctly and the issue is isolated to Cinnamon's session menu not sending the dbus signal.
No third party applets installed:
~/.local/share/cinnamon/applets/ → empty
Packages reinstalled during troubleshooting without effect:
cinnamon
cinnamon-session
cinnamon-common
cinnamon-core
dbus
dbus-user-session
dbus-x11
Distribution
Mint 21.3
Package version
Cinnamon 6.6.7
Graphics hardware in use
No response
Frequency
Always
Bug description
Clicking Restart or Shutdown from the Cinnamon session menu has no effect. No confirmation dialog appears, no action is taken, and nothing is logged in the system journal. The issue persists after reinstalling cinnamon, cinnamon-session, cinnamon-common, cinnamon-core, and dbus packages. Rebooting via sudo reboot or via dbus-send works correctly, confirming the system itself is healthy.
Steps to reproduce
Steps to Reproduce:
Fresh install of Linux Mint (fully updated)
Click the session menu in the Cinnamon panel
Click Restart or Shutdown
Nothing happens — no dialog, no action, no error
Expected behavior
Clicking Restart or Shutdown should either immediately reboot/shutdown or present a confirmation dialog.
Additional information
I did work with Claude to try to resolve this issue. This is Claude's
boot-journal.txt
installed-packages.txt
xsession-errors.txt
summary of what was done. I hope it helps.
boot-journal.txt
installed-packages.txt
xsession-errors.txt
Diagnostic Information:
Polkit is running and healthy:
systemctl status polkit → active (running)
DBus is fully installed and healthy:
dbus, dbus-user-session, dbus-x11 all ii status in dpkg
Session is local and active:
loginctl show-session → Remote=no, Active=yes, Type=x11
journalctl shows nothing logged when clicking restart — request is silently swallowed before reaching polkit or systemd.
Direct dbus call works and reboots successfully:
dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.login1 /org/freedesktop/login1 org.freedesktop.login1.Manager.Reboot boolean:true
This confirms the system and polkit are functioning correctly and the issue is isolated to Cinnamon's session menu not sending the dbus signal.
No third party applets installed:
~/.local/share/cinnamon/applets/ → empty
Packages reinstalled during troubleshooting without effect:
cinnamon
cinnamon-session
cinnamon-common
cinnamon-core
dbus
dbus-user-session
dbus-x11