Xfce Forum

retnev

Member

Registered: 2019-04-07

Posts: 6

XFCE Menu Editor.

The menu editor that comes with XFCE default install is hardly working. Very difiicult to create content and organize item.
I am just wondering if there is a good working Menu replacement available ?

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

Are you talking about menulibre? Different distros pack different apps for that (or none). Right now I have mx-menu-editor, but I've also used alacarte before (the latter was the buggier, I've had little problem with the other two.

retnev

Member

Registered: 2019-04-07

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

Thanks for the reply.
XFCE came with alacarte. I know as I had top open and when I poke around the menu editor alacarte moves up in top so it must be that. There is no about or anything in alacarte so I cou8ld not see what the menu editor was called.
I also have MX-menu-editor, and it completely botches my menus. Never heard of menu-libre, I will give it a try.
At the moment i have to usually go hand edit the config files and hand edit menu entries. A bit painful as it crosses several files to get a menu item to work correctly.

Jerry3904

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 863

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

I also have MX-menu-editor, and it completely botches my menus.

Huh? That has never been mentioned on the MX Forum IIRC. This isn't the place to discuss it, but you could post on the Forum so we could have an idea of what happened.

TIA

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MX-23 (based on Debian Stable) with our flagship Xfce 4.18.

retnev

Member

Registered: 2019-04-07

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

I installed menulibre and it works great, except that even though it shows it updates and creates menu and launchers none of it actually appears in the xfce menu. The xfce menu is severely broken. It has been a problem for years. You either use the out of the box menu and never edit it or use a different environment if you want custom menus. It is my favorite environment by far, but the menu is unruly.

Last edited by retnev (2019-04-08 00:34:29)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,491

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

I find the manual way to be most reliable. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you understand how it works, you can do anything with it. There are also a few posts in the forum that talk about manual editing that might be useful:
- https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12235
- https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=12026

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alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

I installed menulibre and it works great, except that even though it shows it updates and creates menu and launchers none of it actually appears in the xfce menu.

Maybe it sounds silly, but what used to happen to me the first times I used MenuLibre was that I forgot to use the "Save" button after tweaking some menu item, thus not commiting the changes, perhaps that's what's happening to you?

After that, I've had no trouble tweaking the menus in Xfce, maybe you've found a bug?

retnev

Member

Registered: 2019-04-07

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

alcornoqui, very valid observation as the save button is very inconspicuous.
However that is not the problem, xfce main menu shows none of the changes.
Must the menu be restarted somehow?

Or rather, are there different XFCE menus, some of which do not work with menulibre ?
That could be my problem. It seems to me Menulibre edits a menu that the xfce menu program doesnt read.

How do I know if I am running the Whisker Menu.
Menulibre ss about 5 other directories with applications plus the ones  edited recently with it, but the XFCE menu refuses to even see them.
Obviously menulibre is saving in a config file which is different from what whisker menu reads, or... I have something else installed.
there is however no way to see what menu I have in xfce. I never changed it so it should be whisker.

Last edited by retnev (2019-04-08 20:44:26)

Mellowbob

Member

Registered: 2011-10-16

Posts: 286

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

I installed menulibre and it works great, except that even though it shows it updates and creates menu and launchers none of it actually appears in the xfce menu. The xfce menu is severely broken. It has been a problem for years. You either use the out of the box menu and never edit it or use a different environment if you want custom menus. It is my favorite environment by far, but the menu is unruly.

Yes, agree 100%. Use menulibre and all is well.

retnev

Member

Registered: 2019-04-07

Posts: 6

Re: XFCE Menu Editor.

Whatever I do Menulibre just does not update the xfce whisker menu.
The two doesnt even seem related.

So what is the trick to get menulibre to update whisker ?
The only thing about XFCE I really start to dislike with passion is the whisker menu.
Is there a completely different menu alternative I can use. It seems to be the only workable option.