Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

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glitchathon
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Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by glitchathon »

There is an issue in the MATE menu Favorites section where if you uninstall an application that is a "favorite", the uninstalled application leaves a blank spot in the Favorites menu. Normally, to fix this, I would reinstall the application, un-favorite it, and then uninstall the application again.

However, I am in a situation where I have a blank spot in my Favorites section and I have no idea what application it was. Is there a way to dig into a config file to see what the application is so that I can manually remove the entry from there and/or reinstall/un-favorite/uninstall it?

Thanks!
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all41
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by all41 »

Try click and hold on one of the lower icons and drag it on top of the icon above the space then release.
You should be able to move the icons around so the vacant spot will be filled.
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Schultz
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by Schultz »

This isn't a fix, but only a workaround. You can change the number of columns and that should fix the gap. After reading your post, I found out I had the same issue. For me, changing from 2 columns to either 3 or 1 fixed the gap. To do this, right click on your menu button and select Preferences. Then select the Favorites tab. In there you can change the number of columns.
all41 wrote:
Try click and hold on one of the lower icons and drag it on top of the icon above the space then release.
You should be able to move the icons around so the vacant spot will be filled.
This didn't work for me.
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all41
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by all41 »

Hi Shultz,

It does work here. It takes a few iterations of swapping the icons.
The columns change seems like a good solution though, I'll check it out.
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Schultz
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by Schultz »

all41 wrote:
It does work here.
What version of Mate are you on? I'm on 1.16.2
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all41
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by all41 »

My version is 1.20.1

That must be the difference. I chose to add Convertall to show in favorites and moved the icon up to the middle of the Favorites,
then uninstalled Convertall. There was a gap where the Convertall icon resided. I chose several different columns numbers, but each
still had the gap (except 1 column). Returning to two columns still had the gap. I swapped icons to finally remove the gap.

edit: Next time I boot to Rosa I'll check the column method there.
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Schultz
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by Schultz »

all41 wrote:
That must be the difference.
Must be.

As far as a config file goes, I searched in all the hidden files in my home folder and didn't find any config file to edit, but there must be one somewhere. Anyone know where else one could look for the (potential) config file?
glitchathon
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by glitchathon »

OK finally found the config file:

Code: Select all

$HOME/.linuxmint/mintMenu/applications.list
In there, I was able to find the culprit .desktop file. In my case, it was

Code: Select all

location:/usr/share/applications/ghb.desktop
Unfortunately, deleting the line didn't work. There appears to be something running that updates the file, overwriting any changes I made.

Also, ghb.desktop was for the Handbrake application. In my case, it was not a case of me uninstalling the program. Instead, it was because Handbrake changed the desktop file name to fr.handbrake.ghb.desktop. So it rendered the item in the Favorites menu unusable. It also meant, I couldn't simply reinstall the application and un-favorite it.

So I ended up just creating a dummy ghb.desktop file and copied it to /usr/share/applications/. I then found it in the MATE Menu and un-favorited it. Problem solved. I still wish I could have simply deleted the line from the applications.list file.
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Schultz
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Re: Mate Menu Favorites (uninstalled application stuck in there)

Post by Schultz »

I just found the file by accident (I was looking for something else). The file is named applications.list (a different one from the one you posted). It's located in /home/~/.config/mate-menu/applications.list.

Editing this file fixed the gap for me.
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