[KDE] KMenu Broken

[AllenWJones]

Hello! I have recently installed Kubuntu 16.04 to a new partition (after a failed upgrade, a whole other ordeal) and I am going through the distro customizing specific things several of which are more challenging than I believe they should be. A prime example of this would be the broken KMenu and editor.

I open kmenuedit then start moving my entries around, adding new submenus, separators, and changing names/descriptions to suit my needs. I click on "Save" and check the menu.. and it doesn't look like what I just configured. I rebooted, some things now look closer, but there are some wonky items that I cannot fix/remove such as .hidden-2 [Hidden]; some items have disappeared entirely (I can't find them to restore them), and when running kmenuedit in Konsole there is an error when saving:

[FONT=monospace]kbuildsycoca4(5135) VFolderMenu::loadDoc: Parse error in  "/home/allenwjones/.config/menus/applications-merged/xd
g-desktop-menu-dummy.menu" , line  1 , col  1 :  "unexpected end of file"  
kbuildsycoca4(5135) parseLayoutNode: The menu spec file contains a Layout or DefaultLayout tag without the mandat
ory Merge tag inside. Please fix your file.
[/FONT]

Needless to say, I am feeling quite frustrated while I recreate icons for applications manually.. not forgetting the original menu changes I was attempting to make. I am looking for an alternative means to editing the kmenu manually, or if there is a functional application I can install that does a better job?


Thank You!

[Rog131]

KDE Menu

KDE Menu Editor

F1 - KDE Menu Editor Handbook
or/and
https://docs.kde.org/trunk5/en/kde-w...dit/index.html

KMenuEdit stores the menu hierarchy in $HOME/.config/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu and $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories contains desktop files for submenus you created. In $HOME/.local/share/applications/ you find the desktop files for the custom items you created...

xdg-desktop-menu

xdg-desktop-menu --help
or/and
https://portland.freedesktop.org/xdg...ktop-menu.html

Description

The xdg-desktop-menu program can be used to install new menu entries to the desktop's application menu.

The application menu works according to the XDG Desktop Menu Specification at http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/menu-spec

Parse error in ".../.config/menus/applications-merged/xdg-desktop-menu-dummy.menu ...Please fix your file.

It seems that you or some application that you have used has executed the xdg-desktop-menu command.

The KDE Menu generation program (kbuildsycoca) can't parse the created file so the menu creation is flawed. You could edit/move/remove the problem file.

[AllenWJones]

Thank you for those resources, Rog131 as they have helped me quite a bit!

I have renamed the $HOME/.config/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu file and I now see the default menu when opened. I have renamed the *.dummy.menu under the applications-merged folder and I am able to save without error. I will continue reading the manual you linked to as well.

[GreyGeek]

Yup! Rog131's sig should be "Kubuntu is my first Language!"

[Snowhog]

Yup! Rog131's sig should be "Kubuntu is my first Language!"

I have a feeling that his knowledge spans more than Kubuntu Linux.

[AllenWJones]

Just to note, there are multiple bugs in the kmenuedit GUI that make changing the menu configuration unpleasant.

1. After adding a new submenu to the root and saving, the name cannot be changed. The file created has a different name than the name selected.
2. After deleting any custom made menu item, it now appears in a new "hidden" folder that displays in the menu itself and cannot be deleted or renamed.
3. Manually deleting the corrupt file works, but a new file is not created unless a change is made and saved. Many old entries are not deleted from filesystem.

I'm not sure if these are individual bugs, or if there is a different section for these.. If so I apologize. IMO, a workaround is not a fix and I would like to be reassured that the right people (who can or will fix this) has seen the thread?


Thanks again!

[Rog131]

Just to note, there are multiple bugs in the kmenuedit GUI that make changing the menu configuration unpleasant.

1. After adding a new submenu to the root and saving, the name cannot be changed. The file created has a different name than the name selected.

.
.
.

I'm not sure if these are individual bugs, or if there is a different section for these.. If so I apologize. IMO, a workaround is not a fix and...


Thanks again!

#1 seems to be a variation of the KDE menuedit bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=345100

Testing at here and the workaround seems to work at here (Plasma desktop 5.6.5) - at the KDE forums: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?...art=15#p356852

...I would like to be reassured that the right people (who can or will fix this) has seen the thread?

Bugs need to be reported to the bug tracking systems.

(K)ubuntu packaging bugs to the Launcpad: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
KDE bugs to the KDE Bugtracking System: https://bugs.kde.org

If you are unsure then file to the both systems.

[dequire]

Well since the solution seems so simple - just to make the write and read paths the same - This would appear to be an easy fix (1,000 papercut or junior jobs kind of thing). If I could program beyond HTML I'd give it a go. But in the interim, as Rog points out, bug reporting is crucial as the old axiom always holds true: The squeaky wheel gets the grease

[AllenWJones]

I am going through the existing KMenuEdit bug list now, and I will either add my experience to an existing bug, or generate a new bug report.


Thank You!