No control icons Sparky 5.1 Mate...

[tenfoot]

Until recently I was using Sparky v5.0 Mate without any issues but a possible update led to the computer screen freezing - see Computer frozen - no response to mouse or keyboard commands. https://sparkylinux.org/forum/index.php/topic,4201.0.html 

Despite the best efforts of the panel experts this issue was never resolved, so I did a new install of Sparky v5.1 Mate and applied all the updates to yesterday - the date of installation - and now have no control icons.  I have tried the Controls and Window Borders in each Theme but cannot resolve the issue.  I have also been into Synaptic and reinstalled all the files relating to Mate - again wihout any success.

The advice of those more knowledgeable that I would be very much appreciated.

[Wombat]

I'm not sure what window manager comes with SparkyMate. However, you could try hovering the mouse in the top right corner or using ALT F1 to bring up the menu if openbox is used.

Installing another window manager ...I see 'marco' is in synaptic...may be better along with another display manager such as lightdm to give you more options when logging in.

I encountered similar problems after installing sparkylxqt before going back to sparkykde.