[SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

nbtrap · 2011-04-22 19:25:07

KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus. Can't figure this one out.

Edit:

Solution is in post #11.

Last edited by nbtrap (2011-10-08 20:44:22)

lagagnon · 2011-04-22 23:40:28

Find the associated KDE application ".desktop" file, e.g. knotes.desktop. They should all be in the same directory. Then look at the .desktop file and see where the "Icon=" is looking for an icon and find where that file is. Perhaps you just need to add that icon directory to your "PATH".

nbtrap · 2011-04-22 23:54:56

Thank you, but I wasn't referring to launcher icons. I mean that the entries in the menus of KDE applications do not have icons next to them.

Last edited by nbtrap (2011-04-22 23:57:44)

humilleitor · 2011-04-24 01:28:41

I have the same issue since (no exaggerating) years ago. I've several times tried to google the problem, and even posted in forums, but never got any results.

Everything started with Skype: I realized that, when running skype in Xfce, the program menus had no icons, whereas in other desktops (same or different OS) the icons were there. Now, recently I've noticed that also the Virtualbox gui (which is qt-based) also does not have icons in the menus when run under Xfce.

Only once it worked: I logged out, then logged in changing the "session type" in don't know which way, and voila, menus had icons under XFce. But on next computer reboot it didn't work again, and no matter how much I play with the session type, it doesn't work any more.

This is frustrating. If someone has some clue, I'd strongly appreciate it.

nbtrap · 2011-04-24 04:48:37

Do you mean ALL applications' menus or just Qt applications' menus? Everything was fine on my end except that my Qt applications' menus had no icons.

humilleitor · 2011-05-07 08:16:37

I mean just Qt applications' menus. In my desktop, actually those are Skype, Virtualbox, Google-Earth and Qt-4-settings.

Did you manage to find some solution?

humilleitor · 2011-05-07 08:40:17

Apropos, there was a similar (or identical) bug reported here:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/19116?o … 277&status[0]=
But this bug now is closed because it's supposedly solved, or apparently not a bug. According to Andrea Scarpino (one of the responsibles for dealing with the bug) it's a matter of properly configuring the .Xdefaults file.
However, the bug reports two problems: one, regarding the wrong mouse icons; another one, regarding the the lack of icons in QT apps menus. But Scarpino only addresses the first problem, not the second one, which continues to happen and for which no solution is hinted.
And, yet, even if it's a matter of "properly configuring" our .Xdefaults file, shouldn't this (or something to the similar effect) be done automagically the first time we open certain Qt application in a Gnome or Xfce environment?

flan_suse · 2011-05-10 16:03:08

I noticed the same thing too after upgrading to Xfce 4.8, though I'm not quite sure what caused this regression. On Xfce 4.6, I had icons in the menus of my Qt applications (VLC, Vidalia, Opera, and others). I noticed sometime after my upgrade to Xfce 4.8, the icons from all the Qt menus had disappeared.

I searched all over the web, but could not find any solutions. The bug report linked above says to modify ~/.Xdefaults, but the hack is only for solving the cursor issue. What would need to be modified in .Xdefaults to correct the lack of icons in the menus?

laurentis · 2011-05-10 17:02:47

I had a similar problem when I switched to Xfce from Gnome2 back in february. (missing icons in menus)
Somehow, I managed to fix the problem by cleaning things up manually.

I would suggest:

- Remove the local *.menu files under ~/.config/menus and restart the xfce session. (keep a backup somewhere, just in case)
- If the menu icons are still missing go look at the *.desktop files under ~/.local/share/applications. These files are overriding the .desktop files found under /usr/share/applications. It's useful for example if you want to hide some items from the menus, or change the category or icon of an application. If some of these files are for Qt applications, just move them out of the way.

humilleitor · 2011-05-10 20:55:56

Thank you Laurentis, but I don't have any ~/.config/menus directory nor any ~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop files.

The issue I'm talking about in this post is different. The problem is not the lack of icons for certain applications in the panel main menu (which is what I believe your solution applies to). The problem is that Qt applications, once opened, don't show icons in their respective menus.

Say, for example, I open Skype. Then I click in its own "main menu" and a small drop-down menu opens up with the different choices I have (options, about, quit, connect, etc.), right? Well, then: it's these choices which don't show icons alongside with the text.
And the same happens with Virtualbox, Qt4-qtconfig, and any other qt application that I may have in my computer (except Opera). However, if I open the same applications under a non-xfce session (say for example Openbox), everything works ok and the options under the drop-down menus show icons.

Any new hints?

random_hero · 2011-05-28 14:10:42

The fix is…

gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /desktop/gnome/interface/buttons_have_icons true
gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons true

humilleitor · 2011-05-28 20:57:23

Excellent! You're my hero, Random_hero. Now it works.

And now... do you think you could expand on that fix? Why a fix is necessary? Why on Xfce qt-menus-don't-have-icons by default? Is it an upstream bug? Why Xfce users have to fix this? Does it happen in every Xfce desktop, or only in some?

This way, if we know a bit more, we might help others.

Last edited by humilleitor (2011-05-28 21:00:04)

ConnorBehan · 2011-05-28 22:07:36

That is strange indeed... that gconf would fix something KDE apps. To get some more data you can try what I think is "the Xfce method"... go to Appearance > Settings and check the boxes under "Menus and Buttons".

If I had to guess, I'd say that the gconf variable and the Xfce "Appearance dialog" both have a callback that edits the user's gtkrc to enable/disable menu images. Perhaps the "Launch KDE services on startup" option tells Xfce that it should try to enable/disable them in Qt as well. And perhaps gconf has a similar compatibility layer.

humilleitor · 2011-05-28 22:20:42

That's interesting.
I've just enabled the "launch kde services on startup" (for another user in my system) that I had disabled, but it doesn't help: QT apps keep showing no icons alongside text in their menus.
As to the checkboxes "menus and buttons", I've always had them enabled, but never had icons in QT apps' menus.
So far, only the gconftool-2 fix has worked for me.
??

random_hero · 2011-05-29 00:18:17

I don't really know the answer why it works. But around gnome 2.28, disabling menu icons became the default so this issue would have cropped up around that time. Personally I like the menu icons and this has been bugging me for some time. For me it was skype and vlc, both qt apps. It's funny that kde/qt apps are looking at gconf database for this setting, since xfce also has the same setting in the Appearance/Settings dialog. Maybe it's a freedesktop.org standard thing or maybe the qt toolkit is just gnome-only-aware.

humilleitor · 2011-05-29 00:29:18

Hmm... I've also tried LXDE and Openbox, and QT apps' menu icons worked well in those. For me, it has only been an issue in Xfce.

Well, I don't understand much about these things, but I'd rather say it's a bug, or at least a flaw, in Xfce. I'm happy to know the fix now, but IMHO users shouldn't need to fix this. It's not a big deal, but gee!, menu icons are really useful.

flan_suse · 2011-05-30 13:52:26

humilleitor wrote:

Hmm... I've also tried LXDE and Openbox, and QT apps' menu icons worked well in those. For me, it has only been an issue in Xfce.
Well, I don't understand much about these things, but I'd rather say it's a bug, or at least a flaw, in Xfce. I'm happy to know the fix now, but IMHO users shouldn't need to fix this. It's not a big deal, but gee!, menu icons are really useful.

Same here. I noticed this does not happen on GNOME or LXDE, only the latest Xfce. Why? I have no clue. After using Linux as a desktop OS for a while, your mind starts to go numb after dealing with these random quirks. I'll try the above gconf solution and report back if it works for me as well.

humilleitor · 2011-05-30 14:31:40

Yep. Please do. It may help others, and we might even call some attention upon this issue.

flan_suse · 2011-05-30 21:54:18

humilleitor wrote:

Yep. Please do. It may help others, and we might even call some attention upon this issue.

Tried the above commands and it does indeed work! I hope a later update of Xfce or whatever doesn't undo this again. Icons on buttons and menus create an appealing desktop without taking away functionality. I'd even argue icons are beneficial, since they give a visual hint, instead of just raw text labels.

Last edited by flan_suse (2011-05-30 21:54:42)

humilleitor · 2011-05-30 23:03:16

Cool! Thanks.
But just in case new updates break it down again, I'll keep those commands handy.
Certainly, once you get used to icons in menus, it's hard to go back. They're very intuitive.

nixIT · 2011-06-03 22:58:04

Not sure if this is related, but I too am running Xfce 4.8, and installed the shki-color scheme via this post:

http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6009

and some of my GTk apps (Brasero for example) doesn't have any icons. and when I installed the shiki color scheme, my chromiun browser lost it's icon.

Any word on how to fix this?

--nixIT

flan_suse · 2011-06-03 23:05:14

nixIT wrote:

...and some of my GTk apps (Brasero for example) doesn't have any icons. and when I installed the shiki color scheme, my chromiun browser lost it's icon.
Any word on how to fix this?

Have you tried the steps in post #11? It might also help with your problem, even though Chromium and Brasero are GTK, not Qt. Doesn't hurt to try.

nixIT · 2011-06-03 23:41:56

flan_suse wrote:

nixIT wrote:
...and some of my GTk apps (Brasero for example) doesn't have any icons. and when I installed the shiki color scheme, my chromiun browser lost it's icon.
Any word on how to fix this?
Have you tried the steps in post #11? It might also help with your problem, even though Chromium and Brasero are GTK, not Qt. Doesn't hurt to try.

Yes, I tried the steps, nothing.

Brasero and chrome do not have icons in the menu next to their name, and all images in Brasero display the "missing icon image" (red x).

I'm stumped. Could an icon file have been replaced when I installed the shiki themes?

--nixIT

flan_suse · 2011-06-04 02:11:22

nixIT wrote:

flan_suse wrote:
nixIT wrote:
...and some of my GTk apps (Brasero for example) doesn't have any icons. and when I installed the shiki color scheme, my chromiun browser lost it's icon.
Any word on how to fix this?
Have you tried the steps in post #11? It might also help with your problem, even though Chromium and Brasero are GTK, not Qt. Doesn't hurt to try.
Yes, I tried the steps, nothing.
Brasero and chrome do not have icons in the menu next to their name, and all images in Brasero display the "missing icon image" (red x).
I'm stumped. Could an icon file have been replaced when I installed the shiki themes?

Nevermind, then. I think I confused your issue with the "menus without icons" from the OP. If you view the above screenshot, you'll see that the problem is referring to icons within an application's menu (file, edit, help); not just the icon you see on your desktop or titlebar.

Last edited by flan_suse (2011-06-04 02:13:55)

wchouser3 · 2014-05-03 03:47:31

well, it's now 2014, and Xfce has yet to fix this problem so I added an entry to the "Troubleshooting" section of the Xfce page on the ArchWiki.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-22 19:25:07

[SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#2 2011-04-22 23:40:28

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#3 2011-04-22 23:54:56

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#4 2011-04-24 01:28:41

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#5 2011-04-24 04:48:37

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#6 2011-05-07 08:16:37

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#7 2011-05-07 08:40:17

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#8 2011-05-10 16:03:08

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#9 2011-05-10 17:02:47

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#10 2011-05-10 20:55:56

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#11 2011-05-28 14:10:42

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#12 2011-05-28 20:57:23

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#13 2011-05-28 22:07:36

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#14 2011-05-28 22:20:42

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#15 2011-05-29 00:18:17

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#16 2011-05-29 00:29:18

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#17 2011-05-30 13:52:26

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#18 2011-05-30 14:31:40

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#19 2011-05-30 21:54:18

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#20 2011-05-30 23:03:16

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#21 2011-06-03 22:58:04

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#22 2011-06-03 23:05:14

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#23 2011-06-03 23:41:56

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#24 2011-06-04 02:11:22

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

#25 2014-05-03 03:47:31

Re: [SOLVED] KDE apps running on XFCE have no icons in menus.

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