Arch Linux

manmachine

Member

From: Athens

Registered: 2010-10-28

Posts: 62

Website

A question for lxde and xfce4 users

I'm using gnome for the most part, i've tried both lxde and xfce4 and they do feel lighter to use but there's one stumbling block if i am to keep using either one...

I have manually setup a large part of my application menu under gnome, with many custom apps/commands set up with submenus.
Both lxde and xfce4 display an 'Other' submenu and throw all my custom menu entries in there randomly!

How one gets his application menu to be consistent across DE's in general? Or across gnome-xfce4-lxde in particular?
Thanks

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

Many DE's these days follow standards set out in http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/ where the menu items are populated based on whatever *.desktop files are in the system. Some DE's use slightly different categories, but if your custom/apps and commands all have an associated .desktop file and you place those .desktop files in /usr/share/applications then you should get a similar menu (possibly slight different category listings) in each DE.

---

Philosophy is looking for a black cat in a dark room. Metaphysics is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there. Religion is looking for a black cat in a dark room that isn't there and shouting "I found it!". Science is looking for a black cat in a dark room with a flashlight.

xdemo

Member

From: Bristol, UK

Registered: 2010-06-10

Posts: 42

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

I use xfce4

As far as i'm aware, menu entries are added from *.desktop files in either:

/usr/share/applications/
~/.local/share/applications

I'm not too sure but i also think gnome gets its menu structure from those folders.
If you copy/paste an existing *.desktop file and modify the command/icon to use... change the line:

Categories=Application;Network;

To put your menu shortcut into the "Network" tab etc.

---

Linux 2.6.38-ck x86_64 / xfce

manmachine

Member

From: Athens

Registered: 2010-10-28

Posts: 62

Website

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

I thought that there must be a standard as well, so i was somewhat surprised to see this mess. I suppose either gnome or lxde/xfce4 don't quite follow the standard to the letter. All my custom launchers have a .desktop file, and are apparently located in ~/.config/menus. However i didn't create them manually, and i am not accustomed to the spec, i used the gui in gnome (right-click -> edit menus). All apps are displayed in the other DE, it's the category/submenu that's lost. somewhere.

Edit:
Plenty of .desktop files at ~/.local/share/applications/ as well, as previous poster suggested (i stopped looking when i found the ones in ~/.config/menus). And the "categories=" entry is blank. Maybe it's because i created my own top level menu.

Last edited by manmachine (2010-10-28 16:32:27)

anonymous_user

Member

Registered: 2009-08-28

Posts: 3,059

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

@manmachine - The three DEs do follow the freedesktop standard however they have different category names in the menu. Gnome and LXDE may have:

Accessories
Graphics
Internet
Office
Programming
Sound & Video
System Tools
Preferences

And Xfce may have:

Preferences
Accessories
Development
Graphics
Multimedia
Network
Office
System

Tux the penguin

Member

From: Tomorrow

Registered: 2010-05-25

Posts: 196

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

In the .desktop files, if you open them with a text editor, some may have a line like this near the end

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;

If you add in XFCE4; or LXDE; then it should work. It worked for me when I used LXDE.

---

I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
MSI CR600 / 3GB Memory / 320GB HDD / Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00 GHz | Archlinux x86_64

manmachine

Member

From: Athens

Registered: 2010-10-28

Posts: 62

Website

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

Well i just had some time to play with the .desktop files and no luck so far.

1. Using alacarte (the gnome menu editor), i created a new "test" launcher under Graphics which is already an available category in all DEs.
result: displays fine in Graphics submenu when in gnome, but is displayed in "Other" in lxde.

2. Manually editing a .desktop file and specifying for example Categories=AudioVideo;
result: the launcher is still displayed in "Other" submenu in lxde.

Unfortunately alacarte seems sloppy and/or buggy as hell and has created a real mess in ~.config/menus/ with countless xml files so i'd rather clean up the mess and get rid of alacarte than try to figure out how gnome gets the submenus 'right'.

I may do this manually when i have the time, but if someone uses or knows of a good freedesktop-standards-compliant menu editor i may give it a test drive.
Thanks everyone.

manmachine

Member

From: Athens

Registered: 2010-10-28

Posts: 62

Website

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

For what it's worth, i just run into this bit from an xfce4 forum/blog, which probably explains this issue:

"The Xfce menu has also been updated to really comply with the freedesktop.org standard (perhaps you noticed that the menu in previous versions was structured a bit oddly). Unfortunately, no menu editor is included and, with menu merging not being supported yet, using an alternative menu editor like Alacarte won't work either."

rwd

Member

Registered: 2009-02-08

Posts: 664

Re: A question for lxde and xfce4 users

http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/customize-menu