Problem with shared MATE configuration between two MATE versions

Hello,

I'm writing because I got some problems within my setup. First of all, please let me explain what I've done:

For an educational environment I've set up several NUCs running Ubuntu MATE 18.04, featuring MATE 1.20.

I'd like to use those NUCs as clients running sessions on some servers via Xvnc.

The servers run CentOS 7 and MATE 1.16 as desktop environment.

The servers as well as the NUCs are integrated into ID management and share home directories via NFS.

My problem now is: Whenever I log into my NUC and start a remote session on the server, I get some panel errors when loading IndicatorAppletCompleteFactory::IndicatorAppletComplete and MateMenuAppletFactory::MateMenuApplet, letting me choose to remove the applet from my configuration.

I guess these problems result from simultaneously running two MATE sessions, sharing one and the same configuration. Even worse, two different versions of MATE.

I'd appreciate any suggestion how to

  • choose panel applets which don't interfere between MATE 1.16 and MATE 1.20 or
  • setup different configuration locations for those MATE desktops.

Kind regards
electronux