[SOLVED] Can't edit the Main Menu > Other

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overkill22
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[SOLVED] Can't edit the Main Menu > Other

Post by overkill22 »

Right click on the menu icon > configure > select tab MENU > open the menu editor.

I want to move some application from being under "internet" to "Other" or anywhere I want in the menu. I can copy/move, but when I paste nothing happen.

I tried to create new launchers, but when I check the properties of the application I want to copy, in the command line there's nothing, so I don't know where the launcher goes (but if I use the original launcher from the menu, it actually launch the application).

Why am I not able to change the menu?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

Check file ownership in your home folder.

find $HOME ! -user $USER

If that command produces output run this command to fix the issue

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME

To avoid recurrence don't open GUI apps with sudo :wink:
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by rickNS »

smurphos wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 1:11 am Check file ownership in your home folder.

find $HOME ! -user $USER
Smurphos hi, (quoted so you'd see this)

I ran your first command for the heck of it, as I have no issues I'm aware of.

I got a result: /home/rick/.cache/dconf

It seems that it is not my fault, and that it is a known bug reported on Github some 2 years ago, https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate/issues/169

You'll see from that github page that something as benign as refreshing update manager can cause root owned stuff in home.

Anyway, either looking at the folder with file manager as administrator or chown of that empty folder has created another root owned file; /home/rick/.config/dconf/user

I decided to check my other "almost identical" Mint 18.0 thinkpad it had the same root owned /.cache/dconf empty folder as well as two other empty files.
/.config/enchant/en_CA.dic
/.config/enchant/en_CA.exc

I wonder what bug produced those?

EDIT: correct typo
Last edited by rickNS on Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

rickNS wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 12:40 pm Anyway, either looking at the folder with file manager as administrator or chown of that empty folder has created another root owned file; /home/rick/.config/dconf.user

I decided to check my other "almost identical" Mint 18.0 thinkpad it had the same root owned /.cache/dconf empty folder as well as two other empty files.
/.config/enchant/en_CA.dic
/.config/enchant/en_CA.exc

I wonder what bug produced those?
How did you launch the file manager as Admin?

~/.config/dconf.user or ~/.config/dconf/user. You definitely don't want the latter owned by root - it contains most of your desktop environment related settings.

Root owned enchant config files? Enchant is a spell-check engine - so as a wild guess at some point you ran a GUI text editor opened with sudo, and installed a Canadian English dictionary from that sudo instance.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by overkill22 »

smurphos wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 1:11 am Check file ownership in your home folder.

find $HOME ! -user $USER

If that command produces output run this command to fix the issue

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME

To avoid recurrence don't open GUI apps with sudo :wink:
I had a bunch of stuff showing up (mainly icons links) and fixed with your second command.

1. last time I was using gksu if I'm not mistaken, not it doesn't work anymore. What should I use if I want to open nemo GUI (for example) with sudo permission?

2. the fix didn't fix the menu problem. It looks like I can't really paste anything in the folder I go after cutting or copying. Example:

I'm in the main menu editor.
I select internet > firefox
then I click on copy/cut either from the right side of the window or right-click copy/cut

then I go to "Other" . Click paste, it will still paste under Internet, as if I never moved out of that directory.
This doesn't happen in other directories.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

overkill22 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:12 am I had a bunch of stuff showing up (mainly icons links) and fixed with your second command.

1. last time I was using gksu if I'm not mistaken, not it doesn't work anymore. What should I use if I want to open nemo GUI (for example) with sudo permission?

2. the fix didn't fix the menu problem. It looks like I can't really paste anything in the folder I go after cutting or copying. Example:

I'm in the main menu editor.
I select internet > firefox
then I click on copy/cut either from the right side of the window or right-click copy/cut

then I go to "Other" . Click paste, it will still paste under Internet, as if I never moved out of that directory.
This doesn't happen in other directories.
OK - so not an entirely useless exercise, you fixed some ownership issues - pkexec nemo to open nemo with admin privileges from the command line in Cinnamon 19. Or just right click in any folder in regular nemo and click open as root.

I can reproduce your bug with the example given - investigating....
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

smurphos wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:42 am I can reproduce your bug with the example given - investigating....
1) It happens in a fresh user account.
2) The underlying config files changes by copying / pasting to 'Other' appear to look as they should.
3) Copying and pasting to other categories works fine.
4) I tried Mate to see if the same bug occurs - the Mate menu editor doesn't have a facility to copy and paste menu entries so couldn't test.
5) This used to work, but I have't needed to move menu items around since Cinnamon 18.3 so don't know when the breakage occured.
6) Cinnamon-menu-editor hasn't had commits for about 10 months so I don't think it's a bug with the menu editor per se
7) A workaround is to create a new launcher in Other - coping the entry from the Properties tab of the launcher you want to emulate and then hide or delete the unwanted launcher.

I'll have another look when i've got more time and will raise a bug report..
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by overkill22 »

smurphos wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:25 am
smurphos wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:42 am I can reproduce your bug with the example given - investigating....
1) It happens in a fresh user account.
2) The underlying config files changes by copying / pasting to 'Other' appear to look as they should.
3) Copying and pasting to other categories works fine.
4) I tried Mate to see if the same bug occurs - the Mate menu editor doesn't have a facility to copy and paste menu entries so couldn't test.
5) This used to work, but I have't needed to move menu items around since Cinnamon 18.3 so don't know when the breakage occured.
6) Cinnamon-menu-editor hasn't had commits for about 10 months so I don't think it's a bug with the menu editor per se
7) A workaround is to create a new launcher in Other - coping the entry from the Properties tab of the launcher you want to emulate and then hide or delete the unwanted launcher.

I'll have another look when i've got more time and will raise a bug report..
Thanks mate! That's a good job!

I thought to do the point 7 too, but for some applications I have the "command" field in the launcher properties empty! But the launcher is working... :?:
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by rickNS »

smurphos wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:28 am
How did you launch the file manager as Admin?
By right click -> open as administrator.
~/.config/dconf.user or ~/.config/dconf/user. You definitely don't want the latter owned by root - it contains most of your desktop environment related settings.

Root owned enchant config files? Enchant is a spell-check engine - so as a wild guess at some point you ran a GUI text editor opened with sudo, and installed a Canadian English dictionary from that sudo instance.
Yes the first one is a typo. I certainly won't argue with you, but I do not recall installing any dictionary. That said, apt list --installed shows the enchant package is on both computers.

I guess the most important point I wanted to make (did you read that github link ?) is that sometimes root owned files do get created on /home that are not the users fault. Starting in mint 18, and according to cosmo in that linked github post the "problem" gets worse in mint 19. Maybe that's why cosmo is no longer around here ? Switched distros ?

Also curious that if it is considered a "bug", why did that thread just die. How serious is it ?
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

Hi,

Yeah I'm aware of that 'anomaly' - it occurs on every fresh install as far as I can tell and it's been around since 18 I think. Whether it's a bug or not that particular file being root owned doesn't appear to cause any harm.

Interestingly after posting on this thread I also had ~/.config/dconf mysteriously go to root ownership. It was very odd - I was applying an update and the update manager started spewing out error messages about a faulty theme (not one of the defaults) that would normally be in ~./xsession-errors and then told me I had broken packages. Did a quick check with apt for broken packages - nada and then checked ownership of home and ~/.config/dconf was owned by root. I don't really understand how that could cause the problem I saw or how it happened... :roll: The only thing I'd done that was unusual immediately prior was testing the theme in question (breeze-gtk from software manager) and testing downgrading thunderbird via deb. It was update manager updating thunderbird again when it all went strange.

Anyway fixed ownership, rebooted and all has been normal since.

Anyway checking and fixing any none user owned files in home is a good basic troubleshooting step. It doesn't cause any harm and does often fix unusual issues.

Enchant is a default package - it's in the dependency chain of lots of common packages that include a spell-check function.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

overkill22 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:35 am
Thanks mate! That's a good job!

I thought to do the point 7 too, but for some applications I have the "command" field in the launcher properties empty! But the launcher is working... :?:
This bug exists on an up to date Cinnamon 18.3 as-well so it looks like its been around a while. I think I was on 18 or 18.1 the last time I moved a bunch of menu items into the 'Other' category.

What applications have an empty command field? That's fairly strange. What happens if you click and drag in the box (as if you were highlighting text contents for copy and paste)?
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by overkill22 »

smurphos wrote: Wed Oct 17, 2018 1:16 pm
overkill22 wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:35 am
Thanks mate! That's a good job!

I thought to do the point 7 too, but for some applications I have the "command" field in the launcher properties empty! But the launcher is working... :?:
This bug exists on an up to date Cinnamon 18.3 as-well so it looks like its been around a while. I think I was on 18 or 18.1 the last time I moved a bunch of menu items into the 'Other' category.

What applications have an empty command field? That's fairly strange. What happens if you click and drag in the box (as if you were highlighting text contents for copy and paste)?
I'm not sure I understood this, you mean drag and drop? If this, I can't drag anything.

You can find the app with the empty command field here https://electrum.org/#download , it's weird indeed.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

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overkill22 wrote: Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:04 pm I'm not sure I understood this, you mean drag and drop? If this, I can't drag anything.

You can find the app with the empty command field here https://electrum.org/#download , it's weird indeed.
Not drag and drop, I mean drag and highlight. Anyway i think i'm barking up the wrong tree.

Does cat /usr/share/applications/electrum.desktop return any output - if it does the command after Exec= should be the command line needed.

If that doesn't return output try cat /.local/share/applications/electrum.desktop
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by overkill22 »

smurphos wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 12:11 am
overkill22 wrote: Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:04 pm I'm not sure I understood this, you mean drag and drop? If this, I can't drag anything.

You can find the app with the empty command field here https://electrum.org/#download , it's weird indeed.
Not drag and drop, I mean drag and highlight. Anyway i think i'm barking up the wrong tree.

Does cat /usr/share/applications/electrum.desktop return any output - if it does the command after Exec= should be the command line needed.

If that doesn't return output try cat /.local/share/applications/electrum.desktop
Exec=sh -c "PATH=\"\\$HOME/.local/bin:\\$PATH\" electrum %u"
But still if I go in the menu there's no command but the application starts anyway. Did you see?

and a message before

Code: Select all

# If you want Electrum to appear in a Linux app launcher ("start menu"), install this by doing:
# sudo desktop-file-install electrum.desktop
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

I didn't install it to check - but I had a look for the .desktop file in the download.

What does whereis electrum return?
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

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smurphos wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 12:40 am I didn't install it to check - but I had a look for the .desktop file in the download.

What does whereis electrum return?
electrum: /usr/local/bin/electrum

usually I try to install the programs in /opt, but I don't know if it's a good practice.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

electrum %u should work as the command in a custom menu entry.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by overkill22 »

smurphos wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 12:51 am electrum %u should work as the command in a custom menu entry.
That's cool.

So editing the "Others" folder is a bug of cinnamon. Can I mark as solved or should I wait a solution?
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

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Well you've got a working workaround so I guess marking the thread as solved will help others identify the workaround until the bug is fixed.
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Re: Can't edit the Main Menu

Post by smurphos »

smurphos wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 2:25 am I'll have another look when i've got more time and will raise a bug report..
https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/7961
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