Very Computer

Hello,

I have Red Hat linux 7.0, and Gnome 1.2 (1.2.1 I think, but I'm not sure
where to find the definitive version number). I've been trying to add
some things to the main menu and I noticed something funny. When I bring
up GNOME Menu Editor as root, it shows a bunch of menu items that don't
actually appear on my menu, and, as near as I can tell, don't even exist
as applications on my machine (they don't run if I type the given
command in an xterm). Further more, some applications that do appear in
the main menu don't appear in the menu editor. It appears that the main
menu configuration that is loaded into the menu editor comes from the
/usr/share/gnome/apps directory, because everything in apps/ matches
what is in the editor. But this is clearly not where the items that
actually show up in the menu reside.

If I want to to use the editor to organize my main menu, I have to bring
it into line with what actually appears on the menu. For example:
AbiWord appears under Programs|Applications when I open the menu from
the footprint on the panel, but it is nowhere to be found in the menu
editor. I can add AbiWord in the menu editor and it will appear on the
menu, but as a duplicate; the original AbiWord is still there, so then I
have to delete the original. To go through the entire menu editor adding
and deleting things just to get the editor in line with my current menu
configuration will be a tedious pain in the butt.

Can anyone explain what is going on here? Is this a bug, or am I
overlooking something? Is there a way to get the menu editor to reflect
what I actually see on my menu without essentially rebuilding the menu
from scratch?

Thank you,

Eric Peterson

Hi - I have pretty much the same set up as you and have just been
putting together a Gnome desktop for another user.

I have fiddled about here and I can't find the error you are talking
about but you can add to your menu like this:

1.  Right click on menu
2.  Select 'Add Launcher'
3.  A little dialogue box pops up - put in a name and path (e.g.
/usr/bin/emacs)
4.  Tip - under 'type' it says URL by default - change this to
application

That will do it.  You can select delete to remove the shortcut only if
you change your mind.

Tip - choose to add drawers to the main panel and you can group your
shortcuts by category (e.g. have /usr/bin/rp3, a browser and editor
all in one etc.)

Hope this helps.  MB

Somehow this problem has also happened to me too. I'm using RedHat 7.1
now, I do not know if I still have the problem because I do not want to
mess with the GNOME menu again. I've tried a lot of ways to get around
the problem when I was still running RH7, but all failed. A bug may be?

Hoping someone would enlighten us.

Nev
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nevolution Sci-fi & Mecha Model Making | http://nev.hello.to/
The Model Making Ring                  |
http://modelmakingring.hello.to/

MB,

I must have something different. The only way I get an "Add Launcher"
option is if I right-click on an existing menu item, but in this case
"Add Launcher" means "add a launcher for the selected item to the
panel," not "add a new item to the menu." If I right click on a
submenu's header, then I get the option "Add new item to this menu," and
that is fine.

But this doesn't really address my question. I don't have a problem
adding and removing things from the menu, my problem is with adding and
removing to the menu using the GNOME Menu Editor, which can be launched
from Programs|Settings|Menu Editor. When I open Menu Editor, the
configuration it shows me is not the configuration that the menu is
actually using.

Here is something interesting. When I add an item to the menu by
right-clicking on a submenu's header and selecting "Add a new item to
this menu," the item is added and it appears on the menu as expected,
but it does not appear in the menu editor. This renders the menu editor
pretty much useless, unless someone can tell me otherwise.

The other thing is that I can't tell where the links (the
[menu-item].desktop files) are stored when created by the above method.
Using the menu editor, the menu is represented by the directory and file
structure under /usr/share/gnome/apps, just like Windows' menus are
represented by \Windows\Start Menu--nice and neat and all in one place.
But the right-click-on-a-menu-to-add method seems to store the link
somewhere else; I wish I knew where.

Ofcourse maybe I should just pretend I never saw GNOME Menu Editor and
just manage my menus with the right-click method and not care what is
going on behind the scenes.

Thanks,

Eric Peterson

Hi,

Ok, I've figured some things out. There are three different directories
of links that are combined to make the actual main menu. First is the
basic menu which is loaded from /usr/share/gnome/apps. This seems to be
just bare bones apps and utilities. That is combined with
/etc/X11/applnk, which has new items added by updates through GnoRPM and
by right-clicking on the menu and selecting "Add a new item to this
menu." Then there is the Favorites menu, which is different for each
user and is loaded from $HOME/.gnome/apps.

GNOME Menu Editor only deals with the main menu items located in
/usr/share/gnome/apps and the Favorites menu items in $HOME/.gnome/apps;
it does not load or allow you to manipulate menu items stored in
/usr/X11/applnk. This is annoying and makes the GNOME Menu Editor an
incomplete tool, if not near useless.

An interesting/odd thing I noticed is that if I right-click and select
"Add a new item to this menu" on the Favorites menu, my new addition is
saved in $HOME/.gnome/apps and is therefore reflected in the GNOME Menu
Editor, but using the right-click-and-add method on any other menu
results in an entry that is saved in /etc/X11/applnk and therefore not
reflected in the menu editor.

Now, about the items that appear in GNOME Menu Editor but do not show up
on the main menu.
These are all items that were apparently pre-entered on the menu but
never installed on my machine. The reason they don't appear on the main
menu is that on the advanced tab for all of these items, the command
line to execute the program is entered in the "Try this begore using"
box. What this apparently does is to check for the existence of the
program before deciding whether or not to show the link on the menu.
Therefore, menu items with invalid command lines (such as those for
nonexistent programs) do not show up on the main menu.

Whew. I think I understand what is going on now, but I'm still
disappointed in the GNOME Menu Editor. I'd still like to know if anyone
can explain why this works like it does or if there is any hope of
getting the menu editor to recognize all elements of the main menu.

Thanks,

Eric Peterson