Arch Linux

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

[solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

Hi there.

I'd like to switch from Thunar to Pcmanfm but am not able to get Pcmanfm to show applications.

I installed gnome-menus - still nothing happens. When I click on applications Pcmanfm seems to search (mousepointer is a clock) but cannot find anything.

Do I have to do something with gnome-menus to get it working or copy some file(s)?

Thanks in advance

Last edited by ichi-no-eda (2012-06-04 14:16:32)

jdn06

Member

Registered: 2010-02-01

Posts: 67

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

I am not sure to understand your post. PcmanFM has nothing to do with launchers of applications from a menu. As Thunar, it is just a file manager, which can also launch application through a "open with" option.

To launch by a menu, it depends of other stuff. You say you switched from Thunar to PcmanFM, but have you a complete Desktop Manager, as XFCE? How did you manage your menu before this switch?

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

I'm sorry for not being clear.

Pcmanfm has a bookmark in the sidepane between trash and drives which reads 'Applications'. When you click on it pcmanfm is supposed to show installed applications. They can be launched from there too.

In the pcmanfm arch wiki it sais to install gnome-menus to achieve this. So I assume pcmanfm uses menu files to display and group applications.

I don't have a Desktop environment, only openbox as window manager and use the openbox menu to launch apps. But also xfce4-application-launcher.

I'd just like to enable pmanfm's feature to launch applications from within it.

Thanks

jdn06

Member

Registered: 2010-02-01

Posts: 67

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

Funny. I never noticed this shortcut in the side panel! So I am not sure to be the right person to help you

I am on Openbox too and it works for me on PcmanFM. gnome-menus & xfce4-panel are installed.
On Thunar, I don't see this feature, but I am not sure you meant it worked on it.

As AFAIK Openbox built-in menu doesn't use the /usr/share/applications desktop structure, do you have any other application which uses it (lxpanel, menu-xdg...) to see whether it is OK or not...

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

I do have xfce4-panel installed and when I enable it there's also a working xfce-menu on it. So this seems to be all right.

I already tried some stuff like adding 'export XDG_MENU_PREFIX=lxde-', 'export XDG_MENU_PREFIX=xfce-' or 'export XDG_MENU_PREFIX=xfce-applications.menu' to .xinitrc.

Or link lxde-applications.menu to applications.menu. Nothing worked.

I also have gnome-menus2 and lxmenu-data installed.

jdn06

Member

Registered: 2010-02-01

Posts: 67

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

I found a discussion focused on the way you launch PcmanFM:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=175&t=53986
But I think you have already read it as they also speak about exporting XDG_MENU_PREFIX

All I can say is that it works out of the box on my laptop.

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

Yeah already read this ...

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

Just noticed when pcmanfm is run as root it finds applications. So it seems to be a permission problem.

Now I only need to know where to set the right permissions:-)

ichi-no-eda

Member

Registered: 2011-08-28

Posts: 33

Re: [solved] Openbox + Pcmanfm + gnome-menus -> No Applications

Got the solution.

The problem was that in /home/myuser/.cache the folder 'menus' was owned by root. I changed that to my username and everything worked fine.

Cheers