editing the xfce menu

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jsalpha2

Re: editing the xfce menu

Post by jsalpha2 »

I followed ander111's directions and installed LXME on Mint 14 XFCE. It worked perfectly. The only difference I found is the icon in step 5
"/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/mdm-xnest.pngeas" did not have eas on the end. Then I followed djfiander's instructions to change from the
custom menu to the default menu. Thanks to everyone.
MtnDewManiac
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Re: editing the xfce menu (A Bit Lengthy)

Post by MtnDewManiac »

ander111 wrote:Okay, I've found an easy way to edit XFCE's main menu using a little app called LXMenuEditor (LXME). It works just fine with XFCE's menu too!

Unfortunately, LXME ([url=http://lxmed.sourceforge.net/index.html]homepage here[/url]) isn't in Mint's official software selection, so you'll need to download and install it yourself. This is not hard! Rather than assuming anything about your experience level (a common problem on these forums, ahem), I'll explain how, step-by-step:
{Long step-by-step directions deleted}

Why not use menulibre instead? It works just as well (from some search results I've skimmed, it may work better; IDK personally one way or the other, but, specifically, I've read that, for some people, there is an issue that it does not identify apps in "categories" correctly). And the installation instructions amount to this:
1. Open a terminal window (click on "Terminal Window" from the main application menu)
2. Enter the following commands (enter your password when it is requested):

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:menulibre-dev/devel
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install menulibre
3. Close terminal window (type exit and press Enter).
4. Run menulibre (click on Menu Editor under System in the main application window).
5. Have fun :D .

LXME probably works fine for most people. But, as ander111 explained, you have to compile it yourself. While that's no big deal, it might be off-putting to some. And another consideration is that, since people do have to compile it, it still does not get added to their repos - meaning that LXME does NOT get automatically updated via Update Manager. Doing the above (following the directions to add menulibre), OtOH, does add it to the repos, because you're adding the official menulibre PPA (maintained by its developers) to your sources list. Therefore, when a new version is released, there is no need to download/compile it... As my brother would say, "One and done."

BtW, I've also read that some people have issues with alacarte in Xfce. I was curious and did some searching earlier. I saw a reference to an alacarte-xfce, presumably a version of alacarte that someone has modified to work with Xfce. Unfortunately, this is neither in our standard repos, nor does there seem to be a convenient PPA. It appears to be specific to archlinux - it's in the Arch User Repository - and IDK if it could be easily adapted to our Mint Xfce. OtOH, there seems to be some information in the comments section of AUR's alacart-xfce package that those wishing to use alacarte may (IDK) find helpful, including a link to the official Xfce web page, "Customize the Xfce menu." So I thought it might be helpful to list the link to that AUR web page:

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https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/alacarte-xfce/
Another web page that I found - it's in reference to Fedora 18, so, again, IDK if it has any relevance to us - discusses an issue with alacarte in Xfce and how to fix it:

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www.linuxadvocates.com/2013/05/add-alacarte-menu-editor-to-fedora-18.html
But, really, since Xfce, AfaIK, follows the freedesktop.org standards, any menu editor that also follows them should work. As we all know, should and does are not always interchangeable :roll: .

A menu editor that I read about on the SolydXK forum (from the same web search, lol) that I have not seen mentioned most definitely should work, because it is an Xfce-specific app - in fact, it's called XAME, which stands for XFCE Applications Menu Editor, and the text on its web page states, "Note: this program is designed specifically for XFCE, does NOT work for other DEs." Unfortunately, like LXME, XAME isn't in our repos, either, nor is there a PPA for it. However, there are both .deb and .bin packages on its homepage and users of Xubuntu "and its derivatives" (Mint Xfce?) are instructed to use the .deb. I just found out that we are only allowed to use IMG tags for images up to 320x240 pixels here, so I cannot include the screenshot, so here is a direct link:

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http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5562654/images/xame.png
And here is a link to its homepage:

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http://www.redsquirrel87.com/XAME.html
I hope that something in my ramble ends up being helpful to someone.

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
MtnDewManiac
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Re: editing the xfce menu

Post by MtnDewManiac »

BtW, I started to install Mozo from the repos both to see if it was capable of editing the stock Xfce menu app and because I've added the MATE menu to a second panel (via XfApplet) and wished to be able to edit it(*), but Synaptic wanted to install a bunch of other files including mate-desktop, mate-panel, libmateweather (go figure), et cetera - so I cancelled the installation.

(*)Does anyone know how to (easily?) change the Software Manager in the System section of the MATE menu to load Synaptic Package Manager instead of SM without having to install MATE and/or a lot of files from that DE? Should I start a new thread? (Probably :roll: .)

Regards,
MDM
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
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