Settings menu file should ignore 'System' category

[Denis Rut'kov]

Binary package hint: xubuntu-default-settings

This menu has so many items (>30) it doesn't fit on the screen. It's very confusing and inconvenient. This menu also has a lot of items which don't belong there or are redundant:

1. Not settings but applications, like Synaptic, System Monitor, Storage Device Manager, Partition Editor etc

2. Redundant items that should be integrated into others like Screensaver, Default Printer, SCIM, different Java settings etc

3. Items which belong to System or Administration menus like Device Drivers, Services, Authorization etc. They often require root password which is not expected from simple user settings.

4. Items that shouldn't be in the main menu at all, like Thunar settings, Panel settings, Desktop settings. They are easier to access from their corresponding applications. If a user wants to tune Thunar, he would probably launch it and look for its settings there rather than in the main menu.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Hi,

Thanks for your bug report. Your issue should already been fixed with the latest xubuntu-default-settings upload. Could you retry please? Could you provide a screenshot of your menu if you are still experiencing this issue?

1. They should be in the "System" menu with a recent xubuntu-defaut-settings (on jaunty)

2. No, "Others" is for random things that don't fit in any category. If you do not want them to show up in "Settings", please file a bug for these programs to have "Category=Settings;" removed from their desktop files.

3. They should be in the "System" menu (see 1.).

4. This is rather subjective. When we removed them from the Settings menu in Xfce 4.4, many people complained. So I think it's better to stay as is (what upstream recommends), and let people choose (keep or hide them).

[Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000)]

Hi, Lionel.

Nothing changed so far.

And you didn't understand what I meant in paragraph 2. I said those settings are too simple and redundant and should be integrated into other _settings_. Like "Screensaver" should go into "Display", "Default Printer" should be dropped completely, several Java settings should be combined into one settings menu entry.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for your suggestion. However, the changes you are requesting aren't really a bug and require more discussion, which should be done on an appropriate mailing list or forum. http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists might be a good start for determining which mailing list to use.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

If nothing changed, please provide a screenshot of this submenu as I asked previously. Please also attach your "$HOME/.config/xfce4/panel/xfce4-menu-XXXX.rc" (where "XXXX" is a number). Thanks.

[Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000)]

I've uploaded what you asked for. However, I'm not sure why you needed "$HOME/.config/xfce4/panel/xfce4-menu-XXXX.rc" as it contains almost nothing.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 05:04:56PM -0000, Denis Rut'kov wrote:
> I've uploaded what you asked for. However, I'm not sure why you needed
> "$HOME/.config/xfce4/panel/xfce4-menu-XXXX.rc" as it contains almost
> nothing.

It contains the following:

use_default_menu=true
menu_file=

This means that you are using the default Xfce menu, and not the Xubuntu
customised one. If you were using the one from xubuntu-default-settings,
it would look like:

use_default_menu=false
menu_file=/etc/xdg/xubuntu/menus/xfce-applications.menu

The default Xfce menu is indeed perfectible, but your issue is fixed by
the one from xubuntu-default-settings.

 affects ubuntu/xubuntu-default-settings
 status invalid
 assignee nobody
 affects ubuntu/xfdesktop4
 status triaged
 importance wishlist
 summary "Settings menu file should ignore 'System' category"
 done

--
Lionel Le Folgoc - https://launchpad.net/~mrpouit
EEBA 555E 0CDE 92BB 3AF4 4AB3 45A0 357B 5179 5910

[Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000)]

Well, I edited the "menu" file to match what you posted and I don't see any changes in menu.

P.S.: I didn't mention I use Xubuntu Jaunty and XFCE 4.6.

[Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000)]

I just noticed I have "use_default_menu=true" setting, but I cannot change it. Something keeps reverting it to true after rebooting or restarting X .

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Of course, the panel configuration is written when your session (or the panel) is closed, so your changes are lost.

[Denis Rut'kov (dendron2000)]

Thanks, Lionel, I managed to make menu use xubuntu defaults. Much better now.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Created attachment 2776
Exclude 'System' category for the settings submenu.

Hi,

(The xdg spec doesn't seem very clear on that, but I think the current situation might be a bit disturbing for the user. Feel free to close the bug if you disagree.)

Currently, when a desktop file contains Category="System;Settings;....", it will be duplicated and shown twice in the menu, once in 'Settings', and once in 'System'. 'Settings' is a separate menu _for_ the user (sort of control center), but desktop files containing 'System' and 'Settings' can launch system applications (probably not usable without admin rights), therefore a bit out of scope for the user settings menu.

So maybe the settings submenu should exclude the system category (see attached patch)?

Thanks!

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Oops, I forgot to forward it upstream setting back status to confirmed so I won't forget.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Ok, I won't forward this one, it's a matter of preferences, so not really useful to forward, as we already use a "better" menu file in xubuntu.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Reassigning to garcon as the menu file moved there, but I don't have a very strong opinion on that particular issue, so feel free to do whatever you want. ;-)

[Skunnyk-q (skunnyk-q)]

Closing old garcon bugreports.
Please reopen if needed.