Ubuntu Desktop panel menus are never visible

[Andrew]

when upgrading from ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04 the new menu (on the top panel) in the upper lefthand corner is never installed. The minimize, maximize and close functions still work fine if a program is running, but if a program is not running this menu (which is present on a fresh install of 12.04) never appears. On a fresh install of 12.04 this hidden menu appears where "Ubuntu Desktop" is normally seen. I like this menu because it allows easy access to File, Edit, View, Go, and Help. I usually use it to connect to my server over ssh.

I assume this is part of unity, but i'm not sure. Unity seems to run fine, so i am thinking maybe it's some sort of panel menu issue.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1019750/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

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[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello
can you please attach a screenshot of the problem ?
Thanks
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Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in unity.

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs.

[Andrew (keen101)]

Here is a screenshot of a 10.04 upgraded system to 12.04. Notice the mouse icon failing to activate the "hidden menu" in the top left hand corner where "Ubuntu Desktop" is shown.

[Andrew (keen101)]

here is a screenshot from a freshly booted 12.04 live-cd. Notice the top left hand corner where the menu "File, Edit, etc." appears when the mouse cursor is moved over the words "Ubuntu Desktop".

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

Seems like some Nautilus config issue. Does this happen in a guest session on the upgraded PC too?

[Andrew (keen101)]

Yes, the guest session acts the same.

[Andrew (keen101)]

And the problem is easily repeatable. i have tried this on my laptop too, and it is also the same when upgraded from 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS.

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

Seems like Nautilus isn't sending the menus up to the global menu.

Also, what's the output for this command in a terminal?

echo $UBUNTU_MENUPROXY

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

Oh and sorry for not asking this earlier, but does Nautilus handle the desktop in your case? In other words, can you drag and drop icons into the desktop?

[Andrew (keen101)]

[quote]Oh and sorry for not asking this earlier, but does Nautilus handle the desktop in your case? In other words, can you drag and drop icons into the desktop?[/quote]

I'm not exactly sure. I can't drag icons from the unity menu to the desktop. But if i right click on the desktop i have the options to Create New Document or Create New Folder. I can create a link to a file in my home folder and can drag that to my desktop if that help answer your question.

I tried that command and got nothing back. I tried it a couple times, but got nothing back each time. Even sudo did not help. I will paste it below.

andrew@nettop:~$ echo $UBUNTU_MENUPROXY

andrew@nettop:~$ echo $UBUNTU_MENUPROXY

andrew@nettop:~$ echo $UBUNTU_MENUPROXY

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

is indicator-appmenu installed?

[Andrew (keen101)]

No. indicator-appmenu was not installed. I just installed it now and restarted and the menu is there! I think that fixed the problem! So it looks like it was just a dependency issue with indicator-appmenu that failed to install it from an upgrade from 10.04 LTS. Cool. Hope you now have enough info to fix it for other people.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

closing the unity part of the bug then, how did you upgrade? it should have been pulled in by the dist-upgrader...

[Andrew (keen101)]

I used update-manager to upgrade.