Mate Desktop questions

[Linux for blind general discussion]

You should have a NetworkManager applet on your panel. This should be to 
the left of the time and date toggle, but in my experience it doesn't 
like to tell you when you're on it. So my best recommendation would be 
to shift tab once you hit the time and date toggle and then press the 
enter key. A menu should pop up with wifi connections, along with a menu 
item called more that will give you more connections if yours is for 
some reason not at the top of the menu.


To be sure that the sound is unmuted, your best option is to run 
something like

alsactl store

in a terminal. This should happen automatically when you shut down the 
laptop, so it's baffling me why your sound is muted every time you boot. 
It's possible that the restore isn't working at boot time either, so you 
may want to stick

alsactl restore

into your boot sequence at some point as well.

~Kyle