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determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

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  determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2017-08-02 07:20 +0200
    Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in  xfce Lck Ras <likcoras@riseup.net> - 2017-08-02 08:20 +0200
    Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in  xfce Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2017-08-02 10:20 +0200
    Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in  xfce Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> - 2017-08-02 14:00 +0200
    Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in  xfce Charlie Kravetz <cjk@teamcharliesangels.com> - 2017-08-02 16:30 +0200
      Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> - 2017-08-03 07:00 +0200
        Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in  xfce Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2017-08-03 09:20 +0200

#184522 — determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

I'm using a pretty vanilla debian 9 with xfce.

There's an Applications menu in the upper left which has lots and lots
of applications listed under multiple submenus.

There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
the Applications menu.

However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.

So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
/usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
. )

TIA for any clues on this,

dan

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#184524 — Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

On 08/02/2017 02:12 PM, Dan Hitt wrote:
> There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
> the Applications menu.
> 
> However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.
> 
> So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
> program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
> /usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
> solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
> cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
> . )

The applications list is from .desktop files in various locations in
your system, so searching for .desktop files in the packages (with
apt-file or dpkg) should work.

Try something like 'dpkg -L $package | grep desktop' or 'apt-file search
-F $package | grep desktop'.

Some applications also generate .desktop files and install themselves in
$HOME/.local/share/applications, so look in there as well.

Hope it helps.

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#184530 — Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 22:12:55 -0700
Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm using a pretty vanilla debian 9 with xfce.
> 
> There's an Applications menu in the upper left which has lots and lots
> of applications listed under multiple submenus.
> 
> There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
> the Applications menu.
> 
> However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.
> 
> So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
> program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
> /usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
> solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
> cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
> . )
> 
> TIA for any clues on this,
> 
> dan
> 

Before it gets too messy, and with menus it does... a maze of twisty
little XML files, none of which have any effect...

On the menu, go to Settings, then Main Menu. Explore the structure and
you might find your program, without a tick to enable it. I don't know
why this happens, but it does occasionally. You'll almost certainly
find other things you didn't know were there.

If not... click on the Xfce at the top left and look for 'Other' in the
right pane. If it is there, tick it, close out the menu then explore
the new Other (I'm assuming it is not there now or you would probably
have mentioned it). I won't guarantee that every binary on the system
is listed here, but it must be a large percentage, there will certainly
be things here which aren't anywhere else in the menu.

Whether your program is already in the menu or not, you can add it, but
first you need to know where it is. At a command prompt, type 'which
xxxx' with your program name, whereby you should see the full path to
the program binary.

Back in Settings->Main Menu, choose an appropriate location, then click
'New Item'. Give it a descriptive name and the start command i.e. the
path to the binary plus any parameters you want. You can run scripts
like this, or wrappers to the normal startup commands for programs, but
with extra parameters to control the startup.

-- 
Joe

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#184534 — Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Tue, Aug 01, 2017 at 10:12:55PM -0700, Dan Hitt wrote:
>I'm using a pretty vanilla debian 9 with xfce.
>
>There's an Applications menu in the upper left which has lots and lots
>of applications listed under multiple submenus.
>
>There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
>the Applications menu.
>
>However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.
>
>So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
>program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
>/usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
>solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
>cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
>. )
>
>TIA for any clues on this,

Just as an alternative solution, you might find the XFCE Whisker Menu
more user-friendly. Especially if you're used to the Windows 7-style
start menu. 

If you install 'xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin', you can then right-click on a
panel, select "Add to Panel" and choose the Whisker Menu. Click the
button and you should see a panel with two panes - one side is a list of
applications, the other side is a tree of folders. All familiar so far.

At the bottom of the panel, though, is a search box. If you type a few
characters of the name of the application in there, you should see
matching entries display in the pane above.

>
>dan
>

-- 
For more information, please reread.

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#184540 — Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 22:12:55 -0700
Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm using a pretty vanilla debian 9 with xfce.
>
>There's an Applications menu in the upper left which has lots and lots
>of applications listed under multiple submenus.
>
>There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
>the Applications menu.
>
>However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.
>
>So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
>program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
>/usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
>solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
>cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
>. )
>
>TIA for any clues on this,
>
>dan
>

Xfce pulls the menu from the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications
and ~/.local/share/applications .



- -- 
Charlie Kravetz
Linux Registered User Number 425914
[http://linuxcounter.net/user/425914.html]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.   [http://keepingdreams.com]
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#184559

Thanks everybody for all the suggestions.

Whisker manager worked for me (thanks Darac), but the other
suggestions were also interesting and useful.

I did have trouble with Settings > Main Menu ---- my version of xfce
doesn't seem to have that.
The Settings submeu jumps from Keyboard to MIME Type Editor, and i
don't see an xfce icon i can click on.  (I also tried the Settings
Manager, but similarly couldn't find anything.)  My version of xfce is
version 4.12.

It sounds like it would be very useful to get to Settings > Main Menu, though.

(Ans along the way i discovered a nice little application showing a
world map with at least some of the countries identified in their
native scripts.)

Sure appreciate everybody's help!!! :)

dan

On Wed, Aug 2, 2017 at 6:54 AM, Charlie Kravetz
<cjk@teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA256
>
> On Tue, 1 Aug 2017 22:12:55 -0700
> Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I'm using a pretty vanilla debian 9 with xfce.
>>
>>There's an Applications menu in the upper left which has lots and lots
>>of applications listed under multiple submenus.
>>
>>There's a program that i have on my system whose name i cannot find in
>>the Applications menu.
>>
>>However, that might just be because i conducted a defective search.
>>
>>So i'm wondering if there's a systematic way to determine if the
>>program is in the menu.  (Presumably it is a matter of looking in
>>/usr/bin or something like that, although that cannot be the complete
>>solution as there are a few thousand programs in /usr/bin, and they
>>cannot all fit in the menu.  So i suspect there's a list somewhere . .
>>. )
>>
>>TIA for any clues on this,
>>
>>dan
>>
>
> Xfce pulls the menu from the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications
> and ~/.local/share/applications .
>
>
>
> - --
> Charlie Kravetz
> Linux Registered User Number 425914
> [http://linuxcounter.net/user/425914.html]
> Never let anyone steal your DREAM.   [http://keepingdreams.com]
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#184560 — Re: determining which apps have entries in the applications menu in xfce

On Wed, 2 Aug 2017 21:54:48 -0700
Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:


> 
> I did have trouble with Settings > Main Menu ---- my version of xfce
> doesn't seem to have that.
> The Settings submeu jumps from Keyboard to MIME Type Editor, and i
> don't see an xfce icon i can click on.  (I also tried the Settings
> Manager, but similarly couldn't find anything.)  My version of xfce is
> version 4.12.
> 
> It sounds like it would be very useful to get to Settings > Main
> Menu, though.
> 

That would be alacarte, a Gnome program but without many dependencies.

-- 
Joe

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