Linux Mint Cinnamon Desktop Behavior Question

[fohat.digs]

I recently built a new computer and installed Mint 22.3

However, in a variety of situations involving both programs and applets I cannot get to aspects of configuration that I need.

While the downloading and installations seem to go off without a hitch, when I attempt to make changes and adjustments, the selections seem to be dead or grayed out. Sometimes entire dropdowns show numerous choices but they are all grayed out !

It makes me feel like I have crippled or trial versions of these programs that need something else to come alive. It doesn't happen all the time, or even most of the time. I have run "update" many times, including this morning, so it is not that.

Help!  Thanks

[Darthbaggins]

might have to add those attributes via Sudo apt-get in terminal.  What are you attempting to add?  almost sounds like permissions are out of spec or driver base isn't mounting. (been a while since I used Mint)

[lumicore]

Does it happen in specific apps only, or system-wide? Cinnamon sometimes greys things out if there’s a permissions/polkit issue, especially after fresh installs or hardware changes.

[alarmunreeve]

Would checking the driver first make sense here? The fact that the options are completely greyed out makes me wonder if it’s a permissions issue or something else.