• From: Oxnard, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-08
  • Posts: 5

Topic: #! "noob" menu question

Ok, so here is the deal. I recently switched back to Linux as my primary OS. But I'm still very much a new user and my knowledge is limited.I did some distro hopping before landing on Ubuntu 9.04. I also played with 9.10 for a few days, but it was very unstable so I went with Fedora 11, but that continued to give me issues.

I wanted something close to Ubuntu, but without being Ubuntu. I picked up #!Cruchbang and I like it. It's sleek, non-system intensive and its just difficult enough to allow me to gain knowledge of how to work around, with, in, on and inside Linux.

That said, here is my issue/question. I've installed several applications since installing #!. But I've had some problems adding programs manually to the menu. For example Songbird, which I simply don't seem to be able to run in #! at all (second question?).

I did some looking around, and came across 2-3 topics of "auto updating" menu, I followed everything to the letter and it didn't do anything but make the OpenBox menu crash/not work.

Is there another option? Is there something I can do so the menu will automatically monitor newly installed applications and add them to the menu? Or just something I can do to add existing applications not already on the menu, to the menu?

I've lost tracked of exactly which applications I've installed and as mentioned, some of them don't work if I add it manually (Songbird does not work!)... I need to find something to work around this issue, because its really the only problem I've having besides Songbird not working.

Thanks!


(Apologize is this information exists, I was unable to find it. Please point me in the right direction if this solution exists.)

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,363

Re: #! "noob" menu question

This may help smile

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/configu … enbox_menu

  • From: Oxnard, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-08
  • Posts: 5

Re: #! "noob" menu question

omns wrote:

This may help smile

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/configu … enbox_menu

If you're referring to the part on "auto updating menu", as stated, I've been through all that and it didn't work. In fact, I just got errors and the OpenBox menu stopped working. I had to edit the config files to remove what I changed.

Surely there has to be another way. Or something easier... Maybe a pre-built script I can run to ensure it's being done correctly?

  • Registered: 2009-11-07
  • Posts: 6

Re: #! "noob" menu question

If I am understanding your question properly...
Have you tried editing menu.xml ?? You will find it in (Menu) Preferences >Openbox Config >Edit menu.xml
Like below, just change *1* for the name of the application and *2* for the command to run it.

<item label="*1*">
            <action name="Execute">
                <execute>
                    *2*
                </execute>
            </action>
        </item>



Hope this helps!

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,363

Re: #! "noob" menu question

itt-linux wrote:

If you're referring to the part on "auto updating menu", as stated, I've been through all that and it didn't work. In fact, I just got errors and the OpenBox menu stopped working. I had to edit the config files to remove what I changed.

Surely there has to be another way. Or something easier... Maybe a pre-built script I can run to ensure it's being done correctly?

I was referring to the whole page which should solve most of your problems. If you are getting errors and menu stops working then the code you have added to menu.xml is incorrectly formatted. I don't know of any other way to do this in openbox other than to use the GUI menu editing tool.

Preferences --> Openbox config  --> GUI menu Editor

  • From: Oxnard, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-08
  • Posts: 5

Re: #! "noob" menu question

First, on a brighter side I got Songbird working. Finally... Basically I just removed it, but I complete deleted everything, every file and folder related to Songbird, including the hidden ./songbird2 in the root directory. I also had to remove some "visual library" files. Then I just unpacked the .tar in the root directory and set up a link manually pointing to it... Ugh, so complicated...

Now, on to the menu issue... Once again, I've followed the damn directions. And nothing. I've even run the commands, such as "install menu" and "update-menus", etc... The Debian XML menu file does exist, but it doesn't show up on the OpenBox menu when I right click on the desktop. I also ran reconfigure, restart and even "hard reboot." All with no luck. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong or where to go from here, I unfortunately don't know a lot and there is so little information online to help me out. I might have to give up if this is going to be so damn complicated.

Any ideas?? Anything commands or files or whatever I need to install, run, check, etc. ?? I'm stuck.

EDIT: Maybe the <menu id="Debian" /> XML command is placed in the wrong spot?

EDIT #2: Double checked a few things. Yes. Obconfg is installed and working. Obmenu is installed as well. And menu-xdg and the obxdg package. Everything seems to check out, yet no Debian menu...

Last edited by itt-linux (2009-11-08 10:18:01)

  • benj1
  • Wiki Wizard
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  • From: Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-05
  • Posts: 1,084

Re: #! "noob" menu question

omns wrote:

This may help smile

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/configu … enbox_menu

would that be my first recommendation big_smile


@ op
it just worked for me without problems first did you install menu ?

second do you have an openbox file in '/etc/menu-methods' ?

- - - - - - - - Wiki Pages - - - - - - -
#! install guide           *autostart programs, modify the menu & keybindings
configuring Conky       *installing scripts
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 151

Re: #! "noob" menu question

The wiki method updates the menu with applications you install after modifying rc.xml. 

I think you'll have to cut and paste from /var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml for the applications you've already added.

The main alternative I can remember is adding the debian-menu applet to a panel (but this won't work with tint2).

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: #! "noob" menu question

If you don't know the command to launch a program, look for its launcher in /usr/share/applications and open it in a text editor. Alternatively you can use xfce4-appfinder to do this for you.

Also try running the program from a terminal, maybe the program is crashing, segfaulting, or something.

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  • benj1
  • Wiki Wizard
  • Offline
  • From: Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-05
  • Posts: 1,084

Re: #! "noob" menu question

jobester wrote:

The wiki method updates the menu with applications you install after modifying rc.xml. 

I think you'll have to cut and paste from /var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml for the applications you've already added.

i dont think thats correct, i followed the guide to make sure it worked, and i have things in there that came with the base install, aswell as things installed since, but before setting up debian menu.

although it would be interresting to see if the op has that file

- - - - - - - - Wiki Pages - - - - - - -
#! install guide           *autostart programs, modify the menu & keybindings
configuring Conky       *installing scripts
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 151

Re: #! "noob" menu question

i dont think thats correct, i followed the guide to make sure it worked, and i have things in there that came with the base install, aswell as things installed since, but before setting up debian menu.

although it would be interresting to see if the op has that file

Oops, for some reason I completely skipped the first step of adding the Debian pipe into the Menu.xml file.  The wiki instructions work perfectly for me now too.

For reference, I added it below the help pipe so my file looks like:

        <menu id="help" label="Help" execute="obpipemenu-crunchbang-help" />
        <menu id="Debian" /> #THIS is the only line I added.
        <separator/>
        <item label="Lock Screen">
            <action name="Execute">
                    ...
  • benj1
  • Wiki Wizard
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  • From: Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-05
  • Posts: 1,084

Re: #! "noob" menu question

glad youve got it sorted

- - - - - - - - Wiki Pages - - - - - - -
#! install guide           *autostart programs, modify the menu & keybindings
configuring Conky       *installing scripts
  • From: Oxnard, California
  • Registered: 2009-11-08
  • Posts: 5

Re: #! "noob" menu question

benj1 wrote:
omns wrote:

This may help smile

http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/configu … enbox_menu

would that be my first recommendation big_smile


@ op
it just worked for me without problems first did you install menu ?

second do you have an openbox file in '/etc/menu-methods' ?

First, I already followed the directions in that link, as mentioned. It is not working...

Second, yes I have an OpenBox executable file in that directory...


@jobester; I did edit the rc.xml but after I installed some application, so your other tip is worth a try, or maybe I can install something new to see if it shows up. It's the only thing new I can think of.

As the other poster mentioned, it should not be needed..... but any suggestions how and what to copy from the Debian menu.xml to the OpenBox menu.xml file?

Thanks guys.

  • benj1
  • Wiki Wizard
  • Offline
  • From: Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-05
  • Posts: 1,084

Re: #! "noob" menu question

itt-linux wrote:

As the other poster mentioned, it should not be needed..... but any suggestions how and what to copy from the Debian menu.xml to the OpenBox menu.xml file?

Thanks guys.

do you mean the /var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml file?

they are the same format so you could just copy the entries over, or you could copy it over to ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml (backup the existing menu.xml first)

then in the terminal

openbox --reconfigure


see if that works

- - - - - - - - Wiki Pages - - - - - - -
#! install guide           *autostart programs, modify the menu & keybindings
configuring Conky       *installing scripts
  • xaber
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: Viterbo, Italy
  • Registered: 2010-04-26
  • Posts: 190

Re: #! "noob" menu question

I tried a program: obmenugen.
You simply execute it with obmenugen -p and then reconfigure and there you have an ubuntu style menu.
The problem is: it deletes some of the default menu entries, wich could be annoying.
And so far I couldn't discover a method to reset the menu or to modify the obmenugen generated menu!
I sent an email to neonskull to have some info!

xaber's Website

  • From: Deep in The Swedish Woods
  • Registered: 2008-11-28
  • Posts: 578

Re: #! "noob" menu question

...and on the other hand there's dmenu (Alt F3) which simply rocks! big_smile

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  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: #! "noob" menu question

@xaber - if you run "obmenu -s" you will get a static menu that you can edit with obmenu. Otherwise if you want to edit the dynamic menu, look at the files under /home/user/.config/obmenugen/.

exclusions is for well...exclusions. Any menu items you do not want shown. obmenugen.cfg lets you edit the default terminal, browser, file manager etc. obmenugen.schema lets you change the order of items, remove categories and seperators as well as add new ones. You should be able to add some of CrunchBang's items using the raw format. For example:

raw:<menu id="obConfig" label="Openbox Config"><item label="Edit autostart.sh"><action name="Execute"><execute>geany ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh</execute></action></item><item label="Edit rc.xml"><action name="Execute"><execute>geany ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml</execute></action></item><item label="GUI Config Tool"><action name="Execute"><execute>obconf</execute></action></item><item label="GUI Menu Editor"><action name="Execute"><execute>obmenu</execute></action></item><item label="Reconfigure"><action name="Reconfigure"/></item></menu>

Last edited by anonymous (2010-04-29 01:09:43)

Note: ** Please read before posting **

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