(SOLVED) Fluxbox menu: missing many /usr/share/menu entries

[bodiless]

This is a new debian testing installation and I am using fluxbox as my WM.

My problem is that most installed applications are missing from my menu (e.g. libreoffice, kile et.).

I have checked the /usr/share/menu directory and indeed there are no entries for the missing apps. Other apps however, e.g. thunar, have an entry here and they appear as expected in my menu.

I use a more or less a standard menu configuration and my .fluxbox/menu file has an entry of

Code: Select all

[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)

Also, the update-menus command works but without solving the problem.

Is it possible that in the current debian testing some apps like libreoffice are not writing a menu entry any more in /usr/share/menu?

Am I missing something else?

Thanks

[arochester]

What does your fluxbox-menu file look like? Can you Copy and Paste it here?

What do you use to edit your fluxbox-menu?

Have you seen e.g. http://www.techtimejourney.net/creating ... xbox-menu/

[bodiless]

Here is how it looks like:

Code: Select all

[begin] (fluxbox)
[include] (/home/nikos/nikolaos/nikolaos_home/config_files/fluxbox_above)
[separator]
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)
[separator]
[include] (/home/nikos/nikolaos/nikolaos_home/config_files/fluxbox_below)
[end]

The fluxbox_above and fluxbox_below are custom menu entries for programs that are not creating a menu entry in /usr/share/menu and which I add manually. Here is how the fluxbox_above looks like:

Code: Select all

[begin] (Fluxbox)

   [submenu] (/usr/local) {/usr/share/pxmaps/wine.xpm}
      [exec] (Bluetooth) {/usr/bin/blueman-applet} </usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/blueman.png>
      [exec] (Dropbox) {/usr/bin/dropbox start} </usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/kipi-dropbox.png>
      [exec] (Googleearth) {/usr/bin/google-earth} <~/nikolaos/nikolaos_home/pixmaps/googleearth.png>
      [exec] (openCPN) {opencpn} <~/nikolaos/nikolaos_home/pixmaps/opencpn.png>
      [exec] (RStudio) {/usr/bin/rstudio} </usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/rstudio.png>
      [exec] (Scidb) {scidb-beta} </usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/scidb.png>
      [exec] (Skype) {skype} </usr/share/pixmaps/skype.png>
      [exec] (VirtualBox) {/usr/bin/VirtualBox} </usr/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/virtualbox.png>
   [end]
[#end]

I have been using this configuration for many years for all my boxes without any problem. I have to say though that my other boxes run debian jessie and the problem occurred with this new laptop for which I needed to go with testing.

I am pretty sure that the problem must be with programs not writing a menu entry in /usr/share/menu because when I log in with xfce the menu is complete, which is normal as all these programs have a .desktop entry in /usr/share/applications/

Can people running debian testing check if they have menu entries for the following programs in /usr/share/menu?

libreoffice; kile; mousepad; nano; file-roler; icedove; iceweasel; inkscape ...

All of them are installed but have not created a menu entry and do not appear in my fluxbox menu

If you have them then something is wrong with my installation and I don't get them for what ever reason. The strange think is that many other installed programs perform as expected. For example I get a menu entry for gimp; rednotebook; thunar; rox-filer; xboard

Thanks

[Bulkley]

Can people running debian testing check if they have menu entries for the following programs in /usr/share/menu?

libreoffice; kile; mousepad; nano; file-roler; icedove; iceweasel; inkscape ...

/usr/share/menu is not showing libreoffice, nano, icedove, iceweasel. The others I don't have.

I use Openbox which has a similar problem with Debian menu entries. I got around it by installing the LXDE menu which works much better. I can't remember how I did it or what source I used but you can Google it.

[bodiless]

I use Openbox which has a similar problem with Debian menu entries.

Hey Bulkley, thanks for the reply. Do you also use debian testing? I wonder if the problem is specific to debian strech and if I should file a bug.

[bodiless]

I have found the following discussion:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=741573

It seems that programs will stop creating menu entries in /usr/share/menu in favour of .desktop files.

In the above discussion someone was mentioning the archlinux-xdg-menu tool which generates menus for WMs using the Free Desktop menu standard. Its not available for debian but there might be a way to use it. I will try it when I'll find some time and let you know

[debiman]

https://github.com/trizen/fbmenugen

[bodiless]

Thanks debiman for pointing this out.

I was able to create a nice menu using fbmenugen.

Just for completeness of the thread here is how I accomplished it with my jessie and strech box.

Jessie:
1. Place fbmenugen in my $PATH
3. Place schema.pl in /home/user/.config/fbmenugen/
4. $ cpan install Linux::DesktopFiles
5. $ cpan install Data::Dump

For my Strech box the above cpan install Linux::DesktopFiles command was not working and was giving me a permission error so I had to additionally do:
1. $ curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - App::cpanminus
2. $ ~/perl5/bin/cpanm --local-lib=~/perl5 local::lib && eval $(perl -I ~/perl5/lib/perl5/ -Mlocal::lib)

This created a perl directory in my home folder but after that both cpan commands worked just fine. I need to keep this perl directory otherwise regenerating the menu does not work.

I know, not a perfect solution but ... acceptable.

Thanks to all who helped.

Cheers