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mwinfie

Member

Registered: 2018-11-30

Posts: 3

Alacarte won't let me add a New Item with arguments -- ex. xterm -sb

Hello,

Basically, I want my xterm's to accept arguments whe adding New Items via alacarte.     Creating the New Menu item 'Servers' works fine.   Under that, I want a list of servers, but when I go to use New Item and run command 'xterm' with arguments anything beyond 'xterm' command (even a space) grays out the 'OK' to accept it.  It's like there's a check to just see if there's an 'xterm' binary and any arguments passed  beyond that are impossible to add.   I've tried escaping commands, quotes, etc.  No luck. 

This works:

Name: Server123
Command: xterm 
Comment: xterm to connect to server123

(OK not grayed out)

This doesn't:

Name: Server123
Command: xterm  -sb -sl 10000
Comment: xterm to connect to server123

(OK grayed out)

Not sure what's going on here.  hopefully there's a way to add things like this in the menu system:

(server123a) {xterm -name xterm -title 'server123a' -sl 30000 -sb -si -ls -sk -bg "LightGoldenrod4" -fn -misc-fixed-medium-*-normal-*-15-120-*-*-c-*-iso8859-*  -g 80x40 -fg white -e slogin -l oracle server123a}
(server123b) {xterm -name xterm -title 'server123b' -sl 30000 -sb -si -ls -sk -bg "LightGoldenrod4" -fn -misc-fixed-medium-*-normal-*-15-120-*-*-c-*-iso8859-*  -g 80x40 -fg white -e slogin -l oracle server123b}

etc.

Thanks,

Malcolm

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,492

Re: Alacarte won't let me add a New Item with arguments -- ex. xterm -sb

Hello and welcome.

I can't replicate this with the version of alacarte here (3.11). The button is not greyed out. Also, I believe that alacarte creates a desktop entry in ~/.local/share/applications and you can manually change the item and add the parameters there.

As for alacarte, I believe that it is a gnome package and it's bug tracker is located here.

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k-3.14

Member

From: Rhineland

Registered: 2017-02-18

Posts: 156

Re: Alacarte won't let me add a New Item with arguments -- ex. xterm -sb

@ mwinfie

You did not mention, which distribution you are using.

With Linux Mint 19 and menulibre experienced a "similar" issue.

https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14905

mwinfie

Member

Registered: 2018-11-30

Posts: 3

Re: Alacarte won't let me add a New Item with arguments -- ex. xterm -sb

Thank you both for responding.   I'm actually running Cygwin CYGWIN_NT-10.0 V023746 2.11.2(0.329/5/3) with xfce 4.12.   I'm not sure how to determine alacarte's version (tried -v & -? with no luck).   I have one other question -- I was able to create a menu item with alacarte, but I can't find it anywhere within my installation.  I grepped everything.   I have a simple mneu item named 'FILI' -- it's not in my ~/.config ... or even anywhere within the system directories  /usr/*.  Does alacarte store these changes in clear text?

I just found a bug that fits this behavior exactly.   I think I'm going to have to go with ToZ's recommendation of editing my own menu / desktop files.   

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1194145

Bug 1194145 - Alacarte disables OK key when there is an argument to a command

Luigi Cantoni 2015-02-19 01:35:27 EST
Description of problem:
Alacarte disables OK key when there is an argument to a command

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
3.11.91-2.fc21

How reproducible:
Any desktop icon which has an argument appears to now have the OK key disabled

Steps to Reproduce:
1. open alacarte and create a new item
2. put test in the "Name:" field
3. put bash into the "Command:" field
4. OK button will now enable (darken)
5. put a space after bash (ready to have an argument) and the OK button is disabled (lighter).

Actual results:
Cannot edit/create commands with arguments

Expected results:
Should be allowed (used to be allowed)

Additional info:

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: Alacarte won't let me add a New Item with arguments -- ex. xterm -sb

I'm not sure how to determine alacarte's version (tried -v & -? with no luck).

Until someone more intelligent comes along and posts the proper way, here is MDM's "Dummies" method:

Run Synaptic Package Manager, switch to the "Status" tab - and then choose "Installed" above that, and type the name of the package into the search box.

If you don't have Synaptic Package Manager available, try whatever package manager you have installed, it will probably be somewhat similar.

Regards,
MDM

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Mountain Dew Maniac

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