mintMenu 3.1 released in Romeo

[clem]

Hi,

mintMenu 3.1 was released in Romeo. The latest version of the popular mint menu for Gnome comes packed with new features.

Changes:

- New configuration tool
- New "recent documents" plugin
- Less memory leaks (hopefully no memory leaks anymore)
- No delay after installing/removing applications
- drag and drop support to organize favorites
- easy "uninstall" feature (right click on an application and click uninstall to remove the corresponding package)
- a lot of other stuff that I can't think of right now...

How to install it:

- Make sure to have the Romeo repository in your sources.list
- Remove mintMenu from your panel.
- Open a terminal and type:
- apt remove mintmenu
- sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu
- rm -rf ~/.linuxmint/mintMenu
- gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/mintMenu
- Upgrade to the newest mintmenu (apt update; apt install mintmenu)
- Add mintMenu to your panel again

Translations:

mintMenu 3.1 supports unicode and special characters. We want it to support as many languages as possible, so if you happen to speak anything else than English, please help us translate it.

Read this thread and participate in the translation effort: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=8672

Bugs and feedback:

This is going to be part of Elyssa, and a major component of the desktop so don't hesitate to report bugs or feedback by replying to this thread.

Status:

As far as the interface goes this application has reached code-freeze. Additional work may be done to the underlying code to speed things up in relation to displaying category contents.

Clem.

[timw06]

Installed flawlessly by following your instructions and downloading the file from linuxmint.com/repository/

The menu icon looks a lot better than it did before (it fits in the top panel now and not just at the bottom). It is also good that the annoyance of having to put spaces before custom titles has also been removed. I also like the settings GUI and the uninstall / autostart features.

However, it would look better if the line between the app categories and the actual apps was removed - it's a bit of an eyesore!

[Zwopper]

Works very nice.
Great job! (As usual!)

[AlsaPhil]

works very good. was playing with every function without problem.
changing the look too.
bravo Clem and Lars

[didier]

Wonderful!!!! You will do a great job

[ronb1964]

I've followed the direction twice and my menu is not working right. I have this error:

"Couldn't load plugin: applications"

Then under that is this:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu_frontend.py", line 231, in PopulatePlugins
MyPlugin = X.pluginclass( self, self.toggle )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 204, in __init__
mymenu = Menu( mainitems )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 79, in __init__
self.directory = xdg.Menu.parse( menu )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 64, in xdgParsePatched
xdg.Menu.__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(xdg.Menu.tmp["Root"])

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 859, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
tmp["cache"].addMenuEntries(menu.AppDirs)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1022, in addMenuEntries
self.__addFiles(dir, "", prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1025, in __addFiles
for item in os.listdir(os.path.join(dir,subdir)):

OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/ron/.local/share/applications/wine'

Any ideas?

[adredz]

I also like the settings GUI and the uninstall / autostart features.

any screenshots pls?


Well done clem and lars!Keep it UP!

tagay,
adredz

[clem]

ronb1964: permission problem on /home/ron/.local/share/applications/wine, chown it back to you or remove it.

Clem

[newW2]

Great job Lars.

[cmost]

Great job Clem! This is very nice and ultramodern (and this version fixes the aforementioned problem with the icon in the previous version.) It would be nice if a future version provided an option to specify the icon size in the 'preferences' dialog. Also, you might consider cutting the 'recent' section in half and adding the 'uspuser' plugin. Just a suggestion. See my screenshot.

*** EDIT *** Sorry if I confused anyone...my screenshot shows USP (Ubuntu System Panel) of which MintMenu is forked. They're not identical. (Sorry if I stepped on your toes Clem!)

[danysl]

I tried installing this new menu, but now I don't get the full mintmenu when I click on it.

Copied all the text that came up on there, this is what I get.:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu_frontend.py", line 231, in PopulatePlugins
MyPlugin = X.pluginclass( self, self.toggle )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 204, in __init__
mymenu = Menu( mainitems )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 79, in __init__
self.directory = xdg.Menu.parse( menu )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 64, in xdgParsePatched
xdg.Menu.__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(xdg.Menu.tmp["Root"])

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 859, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
tmp["cache"].addMenuEntries(menu.AppDirs)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1022, in addMenuEntries
self.__addFiles(dir, "", prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1028, in __addFiles
menuentry = MenuEntry(os.path.join(subdir,item), dir, prefix)

File "posixpath.py", line 65, in join
path += '/' + b

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 38-41: invalid data
Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu_frontend.py", line 231, in PopulatePlugins
MyPlugin = X.pluginclass( self, self.toggle )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 204, in __init__
mymenu = Menu( mainitems )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 79, in __init__
self.directory = xdg.Menu.parse( menu )

File "/usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/plugins/applications.py", line 64, in xdgParsePatched
xdg.Menu.__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(xdg.Menu.tmp["Root"])

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 856, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
__genmenuNotOnlyAllocated(submenu)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 859, in __genmenuNotOnlyAllocated
tmp["cache"].addMenuEntries(menu.AppDirs)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1022, in addMenuEntries
self.__addFiles(dir, "", prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1036, in __addFiles
self.__addFiles(dir, os.path.join(subdir,item), prefix, legacy)

File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/xdg/Menu.py", line 1028, in __addFiles
menuentry = MenuEntry(os.path.join(subdir,item), dir, prefix)

File "posixpath.py", line 65, in join
path += '/' + b

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 38-41: invalid data

Any Ideas?

[Zwopper]

Just a thought!
Maybe it would be possible to let the Places pane include the bookmarks from Nautilus!?

[rootkowski]

Hi!

You've done some good job (again) The installation went without any problems and the menu works faster than it used to.

I have though a little problem. I don't seem to be able to start wine apps from mint menu. if i put any other kind of menu on the panel it works. So it might be worth checking (it might be something on my system of course).

Is there a way to customize the icon?

Cheers

Edit: I was just going to turn off the computer when the menu reminded me that it doesn't work to quit. I click the Quit thingy and nothing happens.

[Zwopper]

Hi!
Edit: I was just going to turn off the computer when the menu reminded me that it doesn't work to quit. I click the Quit thingy and nothing happens.

Same problem here...
The system hangs on shutdown...

[cmost]

If you guys are having trouble with Mintmenu, but don't want to revert to a previous version, you could always try pure USP. USP is the original menu on which MintMenu is forked. It's developed by a couple of Ubuntu users (but, to be fair, work has stagnated of late.) In any case, it's latest version has many advanced features and it functions nearly identically to Mintmenu. You can even specify Mint's icon, etc. so it will be indistinguishable. I'm using it in my screenshot above. Here is the official how-to:

Please Note:- If you are running beryl you will need to set focus stealing to "None" to use USP.

Installation: All you need to do is make sure that you have Subversion, so that you can download SVN. Run this command:
sudo apt-get install subversion

Now cd to the directory that you want to download it to. For example, I like to use ~/Downloads/USP, so that's where I'll go:
cd ~/Downloads/USP
now run
svn checkout http://ubuntu-system-panel.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ubuntu-system-panel

This should download all the correct files that you need. Now, put in
cd ubuntu-system-panel
and then
./usp_update install fresh

That should install it for you, as well as clearing out the old version!
Before you finally get to add the applet to your panel, do this:
killall gnome-panel

Your Panel(s) will disappear for a few seconds then re-appear. Don't worry this is correct.
Now you can right click on any empty panel area, and select 'Add to Panel'. You should see 'Ubuntu System Panel' under the
'Miscellaneous' group.

Updating: Whenever you want to get the latest SVN version of USP, 'cd' to the directory that contains the SVN files (in the
above example it was ~/Downloads/SVN) and type
./usp_update update

This should display a log of all the changes that were made between the version that you have and the newest version. It will then
download all the files that you need and attempt to install them. You will most likely need to enter your password before USP is
updated.

Uninstallation: You can also uninstall USP by going to the directory that contains the SVN files (in the above example it was ~/Downloads/SVN)
and typing in
./usp_update uninstall

Here's a brief summary of available plugins (third party plugins available from other sources...see link following)
1. uspuser -- Displays some information about the user that is currently logged in. This includes your login photo, username, and when you logged in. You can also configure it so that it shows a photo which is different from your login photo. It can be used to show an animated .gif . If you are using USP on Feisty, make sure that you have a login photo selected for your user account (System-->Preferences-->Login Photo) or USP won't work.
2. system_management --- a small menu which contains buttons for "Install Software", "Control Center", "Lock Screen" and "Quit"
3. applications --- the meat of the program, its a way to quickly get to all your applications. The best part of it is that it has a quick search feature built-in. As soon as you start typing, the the application list will start narrowing down based on the search. It searches not only the listed name of the application, but also its description and its command (so, for instance, typing 'gco' will show the name of "Configuration Editor").
4. shortcuts --- provides a list of quick shortcuts to anything. To add a shortcut, you have to first pin the menu. The pin button is the iconless button in the sidepane. If your sidepane is hidden, minimize any plugin to bring it up. Once you have pinned the menu, drag an icon from anywhere into the shortcuts plugin. The first icon is a little hard to drag, since the area that you have to drag it into is very small. The area is right underneath the plugin title. If you are dragging in the right place, a thin black line will appear.
Note: If you drag an icon for a file from Nautilus (not a folder), it probably won't work. Right click on the shortcut, and then select edit. Now edit 'exec' field for the correct program needed to open it. For example, an HTML document will need you to replace the part of the command that says 'nautilus' with 'firefox', and for a pdf file you should replace 'nautilus' with 'evince'.
5. places --- provides quick shortcuts to either your Nautilus bookmarks, or a standard set of places.
6. computer --- this is the plugin with the title of "Settings". It allows easy access to a few useful system settings.
7. recent --- a list of either recent documents, or recent applications launched from USP. This plugin is not supported for Dapper.

Finally, see this thread for complete details as well as troubleshooting issues: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... ost2178646

[Kynan]

Great job Clem! This is very nice and ultramodern (and this version fixes the aforementioned problem with the icon in the previous version.) It would be nice if a future version provided an option to specify the icon size in the 'preferences' dialog. Also, you might consider cutting the 'recent' section in half and adding the 'uspuser' plugin. Just a suggestion. See my screenshot.

damn how come mine doesn't look that cool... it's got all the new features but it looks the same as the old one and nothing like yours, for starters i'm missing the users info and i don't have a drop down box for places and a sleek rounded button when clicked and my icon is tiny (i can get the recent documents fine in preferences).



here is what i typed into the terminal and the output...

Code: Select all

garry@garry-desktop:~$ apt remove mintmenu
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  nautilus-actions
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mintmenu
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 356kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 91168 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mintmenu ...
garry@garry-desktop:~$ sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu
garry@garry-desktop:~$ rm -rf ~/.linuxmint/mintMenu
garry@garry-desktop:~$ gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/mintMenu
garry@garry-desktop:~$ apt update
Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security Release.gpg [191B]             
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/main Translation-en_AU           
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna Release.gpg                               
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/main Translation-en_AU                     
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/upstream Translation-en_AU                 
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy Release.gpg [191B]                       
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Translation-en_AU                     
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/restricted Translation-en_AU               
Get:3 http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy Release.gpg [189B]                   
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/restricted Translation-en_AU     
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/universe Translation-en_AU       
Ign http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/multiverse Translation-en_AU     
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/import Translation-en_AU                   
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com romeo Release.gpg                                 
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com romeo/daryna Translation-en_AU                   
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com daryna Release                                   
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe Translation-en_AU                 
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/multiverse Translation-en_AU               
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates Release.gpg [191B]               
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/main Translation-en_AU             
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/restricted Translation-en_AU       
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/universe Translation-en_AU         
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/multiverse Translation-en_AU       
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Translation-en_AU                 
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Translation-en_AU             
Get:5 http://archive.canonical.com gutsy Release.gpg [191B]                   
Ign http://archive.canonical.com gutsy/partner Translation-en_AU               
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security Release                         
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com romeo Release                                     
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy Release                                   
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates Release                           
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy Release                               
Hit http://archive.canonical.com gutsy Release                                 
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/main Packages                   
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/main Packages                             
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/upstream Packages                         
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/import Packages                           
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Packages                             
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Packages                         
Hit http://archive.canonical.com gutsy/partner Packages                       
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/restricted Packages             
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/universe Packages               
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com gutsy-security/multiverse Packages             
Ign http://www.linuxmint.com romeo/daryna Packages                             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/restricted Packages             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe Packages               
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/multiverse Packages             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/main Packages           
Ign http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Packages           
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/main Packages                   
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/upstream Packages               
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/restricted Packages     
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/universe Packages       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/multiverse Packages     
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/free Packages               
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com daryna/import Packages
Hit http://packages.medibuntu.org gutsy/non-free Packages
Hit http://www.linuxmint.com romeo/daryna Packages
Fetched 193B in 5s (37B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
garry@garry-desktop:~$ apt install mintmenu
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  nautilus-actions
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  mintmenu
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/46.9kB of archives.
After unpacking 356kB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  mintmenu
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Selecting previously deselected package mintmenu.
(Reading database ... 91135 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking mintmenu (from .../archives/mintmenu_3.1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up mintmenu (3.1) ...
garry@garry-desktop:~$

[clem]

cmost's screenshot shows USP (which mintMenu was forked from).

[Kynan]

cmost's screenshot shows USP (which mintMenu was forked from).

Ahh yes sorry i didn't read cmost's later post regarding USP i guess i should have before posting .
But still it is interesting to learn about USP i had no idea, and as for what i said earlier....

1. the drop down box i don't think i would have used it and it doesn't look as sleek as what we have now.
2. the user's info might be useful as a plugin in preferences like the recent documents but i don't think i'd enable either of them, just because of the additional space on screen.
3. the rounded button when clicked. well this one i do agree is better in USP and it would match the window list rounded buttons, but hey its nothing major.
4. the tiny icon. yea i still think the icon is a bit small for my liking others may or may not agree, i think someone before suggested a plugin for adjustment.. sounds like a good idea to me. (also i noticed that you can now scale your panel and you don't have the grey stip underneath anymore but the logo still remaines unscalable.)

good work on the new features and the bug fixes (particularly that non functional menu after installing programs that annoyed me )
now it doesn't take newbies to have to google and search forums to find out about "sessions" to make a program work at startup, they can just right click "launch when i log in" BEAUTIFUL! drag and drop functionality for fav's makes things o so nice and the uninstalling programs will be a snap once i can out of the terminal / synaptic habbit...
overall works very well, well done all involved.

[exploder]

I just installed the new menu and I really like it! I especially like how customizable the menu is. The Preferences for the menu are now very user friendly. The Recent Documents section is a great addition to the menu and puts a nice finishing touch to it.

I did not think it possible to make the Mint Menu better than it was but this is nice!

Thanks for the awesome menu!

[Zwopper]

I like the new Mintmenu better than USP.
I've used USP before and it's a little to messy for me.
The new Mintmenu however is clean as the rest of th Linux Mint Distro is...