SOLVED Menulibre altered now I can't get back

[wilbobob]

Hello
My lenovo G575 laptop is running LM 17.3 xfce 64bit. I've been so happy with it that I also put it on the Asus laptop belonging to my brother, who lives 300mile away. When doing a support call from him recently (about his printer, nothing to do with this query), he was describing what he could see on screen and it became clear that he has no category 'Accessories' in his start menu.
I subsequently went searching to see if I could find out why on my machine, and in Whisker Menu - Edit applications - Accessories found the 'Options - hide from menus' button. I set it to On and as expected the Accessories category disappeared from the Start menu.
When I reset the 'Hide from menus' option to Off the Accessories category didn't reappear. I've restarted several times since then and no change.
I've been unable to find any guidance from googling, and a search of these forums hasn't revealed anyone with a similar problem
Can someone suggest where I should look next.
Once I've sorted my problem I should hopefully have some idea about sorting my brothers machine too.
thanks
Bob

[MtnDewManiac]

subsequently went searching to see if I could find out why on my machine, and in Whisker Menu - Edit applications - Accessories found the 'Options - hide from menus' button. I set it to On and as expected the Accessories category disappeared from the Start menu.
When I reset the 'Hide from menus' option to Off the Accessories category didn't reappear. I've restarted several times since then and no change.

This is only a guess, because I have never used that application to edit my menu: Is it possible that checking the "hide from menus" option for a menu category also enabled it for all of the entries within that category (IOW, the applications listed under "Accessories")? And that a menu category will not display if there are no applications (which are set to be visible) in that category? And that, with the option now turned off again for the category, that you could turn it off for all of the applications within that category - or for one of them, lol - to make the category visible again?

The last time I felt the need to edit my main DE applications menu was way back in the GNOME 2.x days. IIRC, that was simply a matter of right-clicking on the menu icon, selecting Edit, and doing so. IDK how things work these days with third-party(?) editing applications. Maybe there is some kind of conflict. But I would investigate the above possibility first.

Regards,
MDM

[wilbobob]

Thankyou MDM. I like your way of thinking. I've checked and there were only two applications set to hide from menus. I set them to not hide and restarted but the Accessories category is still not showing.
I'll leave the changes I made in place until I find the answer to the posted problem.
Bob

[MtnDewManiac]

There will (should) be both a "default" menu file and the one you have customized somewhere on your system. Take a look at /home/{user name}/.config/menus/applications-merged/ - is there an actual menu file there, or only the 0 byte "dummy" file? If there is a real menu file there, try changing its name temporarily and then copying /etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu to the /home/{user name}/.config/menus/applications-merged/ directory and naming it whatever the menu file that you renamed (or removed) was called. That might do it. But just in case it does not, make sure that you pay attention to what you did so that you can undo it. I am unsure as to whether that file in the /etc/... directory is the default for the Whisper menu or for the traditional Xfce applications menu. If the latter, there should still be a default Whisper menu somewhere, you'd just have to figure out what and where it is.

Regards,
MDM

[wilbobob]

Thankyou MDM.
There was nothing in /home/...../merged.
I had a look in /etc/xdg/.... and the entry for the Accessories category looks different to all the others. I've got to drop this until this evening, and at that time I think I'll fire up another instance of LM17.3 from USB on another machine and compare there.
I'll report back on progress - or lack of it - then
Bob

[wilbobob]

I found this thread viewtopic.php?t=160784 about modifying the whisker menu. It seems to be regularly updated. I'll read and digest the contents
Wish me luck
Bob

[trytip]

backup/compress.local/share/applications then rename it to applicationsOLD logout/in and everything should be as it was in the beginning, if not reboot

if it's still the same delete your applications folder and rename applicationsOLD taking out the OLD

[wilbobob]

Woo Hoo. Sorted.
Trytip, I did what you suggested, but no change. The directory was rebuild on restart but the problem remained the same.

When I modified the Start (Whisker) Menu with MenuLibreto hide the Accessories category it changed the location shown at the bottom of the Menulibre page to a new folder /home/bob/.local/share/desktop-directories/xfce-accessories that whisker was then pointing to.
When I changed the Menu to no longer hide the Accesories category the Whisker menu page showed the location for the accessories category had reverted to the original location /usr/share/desktop-directories/xfce-accessories.directory but the Accessories option was not visible in the menu. The folders in /home/bob/.local... were still there. I dleleted them, and the Accessories category showed up in the menu

I had previously tried editing the .local folder to NoDisplay=false but that had no effect, removing the file completely solved the problem.

[wilbobob]

And just for completeness, my brother phoned tonight. We deleted the same folder in /home/***/.local/share/desktop-directories/xfce-accessories and now he has his Accessories category back too.
I'm actually quite impressed that with no linux experience, and working all on his own, he managed to break it in such a short time. It's probably a family trait.

[MtnDewManiac]

And just for completeness, my brother phoned tonight. We deleted

If I am not mistaken, there are "remote access" applications that you could use to remotely access his computer (with his permission, of course) for troubleshooting/adjusting purposes. I have never used one, so I cannot give specific recommendations.

Regards,
MDM

[wilbobob]

Absolutely correct MDM. I chose to not even suggest that as an option for him for two reasons. First I didn't want to LinuxMint to be a closed box for him, I wanted him to treat it as something he could play with and explore, and even break, and at least have a go at getting back out of the hole he had dug. A remote access solution might have made him believe he couldn't do anything for himself.
Secondly I'm not sure that he would want me rooting around in his machine, and I'm not sure I would want to either. Not that there would be anything illegal or unsavoury in there, just that it might feel like an invasion of privacy.
If the experience I've had so far of putting LinuxMint on a few other peoples computers so far is anything to go by I will never get another support call now he's up and running. Unless it's about putting it on his other laptop where he has a different OS with a 7 in it. He doesn't like it much anymore.
Bob

[MtnDewManiac]

I chose to not even suggest that as an option for him for two reasons. First I didn't want to LinuxMint to be a closed box for him, I wanted him to treat it as something he could play with and explore, and even break, and at least have a go at getting back out of the hole he had dug. A remote access solution might have made him believe he couldn't do anything for himself.
Secondly I'm not sure that he would want me rooting around in his machine, and I'm not sure I would want to either. Not that there would be anything illegal or unsavoury in there, just that it might feel like an invasion of privacy.

Both of your reasons are valid considerations. However, I was thinking of something that still allowed for the local user to see the desktop (and what is being done on/to it). Sort of like if you were there sitting in the chair doing... whatever it is, and he was standing behind you, looking over your shoulder. With an accompanying telephone conversation, it would be even more like that - you could say things like, "And I am doing this because..."

But I may be mistaken about the capability of such remote-access/usage applications to provide the local user with a view. In any event, these things would probably be considered to be overkill for an occasional service call that can be dealt with via a simple telephone call and/or email.

Regards,
MDM