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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Wed 13 Jun 2012, 12:38 Post subject:
How do I edit drop-down menus? Lucid 5.2.0 with xfce |
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Hi all,
I've been building my own Puppy, I've started over 5 times, and I guess I finally have some clarity about what I want to accomplish...
I have switched to XFCE in Lucid 5.2.0, and I love almost everything about it, but it makes a bit of a mess of the drop-down menus.
Is there a menu editing .pet for Lucid? I've seen one for the 4. series, or is there clear directions posted somewhere about how to edit and clean up your menus?
Mainly I'm looking to clean up the drop-down menus on the desktop (right-click) but the bottom left menu button as well.
Thanks. Even though I've become a pretty competent Puppy user, this is all new territory to me...
Eathray
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 01:29 Post subject:
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Well, I've made a little bit of progress. I'll post about it when I'm further along, but I could still use some input from some of you guys more knowledgeable than myself about customizing the desktop.
One thing I've learned is that xfce combines several menu lists, so editing one doesn't cut it. I have to find them all. I've found two so far, and I also found out that lxmed will edit the xfce side of the menu... but not the jwm side. I'm going to dumb jwm eventually since xfce can do everything alone, but I don't want to do that until I have everything set up in xfce first.
I'll post again. Input, please. I know most of you have a lot more know how than I do.
Thanks,
Eathray
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disciple
Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 6781 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 08:15 Post subject:
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I don't really understand how or why you can have both an xfce menu and a jwm menu. Are you running the full XFCE? Or just the taskbar or something?
Normally you wouldn't edit the start menu on Linux, because it is all arranged into nice logical categories. But if you do want to edit it, you can change individual menu entries by editing the .desktop files (normally in /usr/share/applications; this is what lxmed does), and you edit the menu structure by editing the files in /etc/xdg/menus
Some window managers like JWM require you to run `fixmenus` and then restart them (or reboot) before you see any changes.
_________________ If you have or know of a good gtkdialog application, please post a link here
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smokey01

Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 2682 Location: South Australia
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 09:00 Post subject:
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Eathray try this:
http://www.smokey01.com/saluki/pet_packages-saluki/xmenumaker-2.0.pet
This is what jemimah uses in Saluki and it uses the XFCE window manager.
Worth a try.
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 10:28 Post subject:
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Smokey,
Thanks for dropping in. I'm sure I haven't explained it as well as I should. I've never done anything significant to the desktop before.
The version of xfce I'm using is from the Puppy Lucid repository, and it appears to be the full or a near-full version. I have switched with the 'xwin startxfce-4' command and it's all up and running, not jwm...
However, the jwm menu entries seem to still be in play, such as from jwmrc. The sub-menus seem to all follow that menu rather then the xfce menu in etc/xdg/menus. Also, in the main menu drop-down, some stuff was added by xfce like 'file manager' and 'terminal,' even though those entries already exist in sub-categories. Other categories like Desktop are missing, and everything in it has been combined with another category 'settings.' There's just some quirky things about it that's kind of messy.
I found some info here: http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/customize-menu
This is where it said that xfce would combine other menus with it's own, and that seems to be the case in the sub-menus here. Also, I've managed to change all my menu icons, but the sub-menu icons seem to be a combination of the original ones and the ones I added. I think I found the menu entry for those icons, so... maybe just some pasting with fix that.
The lxmed tool does in fact make changes to the xfce menu, so 'Yay,' I fixed a couple things, like removing 'file manager' from the main menu when it's already in the sub-menu and a top panel icon (how many places do I need the same button, anyway?).
I've installed the pet you mentioned... so far doesn't work. Do you know the terminal command to launch it? would it just be, 'xmenumaker' ? Saluki is Racy I think; fully compatible with Lucid?
Okay, that's what I got so far...
Eathray
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 10:49 Post subject:
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This is what I got when I tried to launch xmenumaker from the terminal a couple times:
[img]file:///root/my-documents/clipart/xmenumaker-terminal-results.png[/img]
hopefully I did that right
Eathray
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disciple
Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 6781 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 13:04 Post subject:
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gtkdialog is probably somewhere else like /usr/bin - check by running `which gtkdialog`.
You can either make a symlink to it in /usr/sbin, or edit the xmenumaker script to use the correct path.
_________________ If you have or know of a good gtkdialog application, please post a link here
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smokey01

Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 2682 Location: South Australia
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 16:23 Post subject:
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It may also be possible that the gtkdialog is too old. I think jemimah is using a later version in Saluki.
gtkdialog version 0.8.0 (C) 2003-2007 Laszlo Pere, 2011 Thunor
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disciple
Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 6781 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Sat 16 Jun 2012, 21:21 Post subject:
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smokey01 wrote: | It may also be possible that the gtkdialog is too old. |
The error message would be different if that were the case.
_________________ If you have or know of a good gtkdialog application, please post a link here
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 10:44 Post subject:
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Disciple and Smokey,
Okay, thanks guys. here's what I found:
In user/bin all I found was 'gtkdialog-splash.'
When I run the command: 'xmenumaker which gtkdialog' I got the following reply: /usr/sbin/xmenumaker
In user/sbin I found 'gtkdialog2' and 'gtkdialog3' but no 'gtkdialog.' 'xmenumaker' is also there, an executable file.
What if I make a blank file called 'gtkdialog' and symlink it to 'gtkdialog2?' Would that work?
Eathray
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 10:50 Post subject:
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Additional:
I just ran pfind and all I got is gtkdialog2 and gtkdialog3 with various files associated... no gtkdialog.
Eathray
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 11:42 Post subject:
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Eathray wrote: |
What if I make a blank file called 'gtkdialog' and symlink it to 'gtkdialog2?' Would that work?
Eathray |
Hmm... didn't work. Maybe there's something there I don't know.
Eathray
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Eathray

Joined: 06 Sep 2009 Posts: 724
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 14:33 Post subject:
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Okay, how 'bout this... Can you guys help me organize my thoughts?
Here's a pic of what I'm dealing with:
See below attachment... pic was too wide to paste
You notice that the drop-down menu on the left does not seem to correspond with what lxmed lists as the catagories (middle).
I don't understand why there's such a dramatic difference aside from xfce is not utilizing it's own list of catagories... is jwm still running that show, or is xfce inter-mixing various lists as the xfce site suggests?
If I were to simply dump jwm, would xfce use it's own list?
Thanks
Eathray[/i]
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smokey01

Joined: 30 Dec 2006 Posts: 2682 Location: South Australia
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 16:36 Post subject:
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I'm pretty sure they look different because the source files are different and have no relationships.
I don't know much about xfce but it should come with some sort of gui to help you manage the menus. I'm sure saluki does anyway. It might we worth having a look at saluki to check.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
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disciple
Joined: 20 May 2006 Posts: 6781 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
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Posted: Sun 17 Jun 2012, 20:47 Post subject:
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Eathray wrote: | Disciple and Smokey,
Okay, thanks guys. here's what I found:
In user/bin all I found was 'gtkdialog-splash.'
When I run the command: 'xmenumaker which gtkdialog' |
You wouldn't run that, just `which gtkdialog`
Quote: | I got the following reply: /usr/sbin/xmenumaker
In user/sbin I found 'gtkdialog2' and 'gtkdialog3' but no 'gtkdialog.' 'xmenumaker' is also there, an executable file. |
Oh, sorry, I misread your error message - it was indicating there is no gtkdialog anywhere in the path, so there was actually no need to look for it with `which`.
Quote: | What if I make a blank file called 'gtkdialog' and symlink it to 'gtkdialog2?' Would that work? |
Well, something can either be a blank file or a symlink, not both. Unless xmenumaker is extremely old, it will be expecting either gtkdialog3 or gtkdialog4. Try creating gtkdialog as a symlink to gtkdialog3, and it will probably work.
_________________ If you have or know of a good gtkdialog application, please post a link here
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