Applications Menu .desktop item with category Electronics creates an uneditable sub-menu Electronics

[Marcel Admiraal]

The Electronics sub-menu is not part of the current xfce-panel applications menu, but any .desktop file with Category Electronics will result in the Electronics sub-menu being displayed.

The problem is that this sub-menu cannot be edited (hidden or moved for example) (without editing the .desktop file), because as far as the current xfce-applications.menu file is concerned it doesn't (shouldn't) exist.

To reproduce the problem simply add Category=Electronics to any .desktop file.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xfce4-panel 4.8.6-2ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-26.41-generic 3.2.19
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-26-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Jul 18 10:59:47 2012
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xfce4-panel
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Hi,

Thanks for your bug report. Do you have a sample desktop file for that? I can't seem to reproduce here.

[Marcel Admiraal (marcel-admiraal)]

This bug has been resolved in Xubuntu 12.10, xfce-panel 4.10.0; however, for the record, I've attached the desktop file, which was causing the problem.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Ok, thanks, I'll try to reproduce with xfce4-panel 4.8.x. If it's easily fixable, this might be ok for a stable release update for 12.04 then.

[Marcel Admiraal (marcel-admiraal)]

Actually, I've just had another look and this bug is still reproducible; however it highlights another problem:
If you delete all the files in ~/.config/menus and ~/.local/share/applications running the menu editor and making any change will create a new ~/.config/menus/applications.menu file with the changes, but these changes are reversed or rather ignored, because the filename is wrong.
Manually renaming ~/.config/menus/applications.menu to xfce-applications.menu results in the changes being applied, but now the submenu Electronics doesn't appear in the menu editor, so a Desktop file with Category Electronics, as for example the one attached in my previous post, cannot, for example, be removed from the Electronics submenu.
Note, you can manually copy and edit a desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications (delete the Electonics entry under Categories) to remove it from the Electronics submenu.
BTW: If you click the help button on the menu editor you get a Document Not Found: The URI ‘ghelp:user-guide?menu-editor#menu-editor’ does not point to a valid page.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

The first issue is an alacarte bug (Bug #1069207).

I still can't reproduce your issue though, even if I install arduino (it shows up in Development), then open alacarte, still no Electronics submenu appears in the panel menu.

[Marcel Admiraal (marcel-admiraal)]

Sorry, maybe I'm just not making myself clear.
If you install Arduino, it shows up on the panel under both Development and Electronics.
But in the menu editor it only appears under Development (there is no Electronics submenu).
I've attached an image of the two to show what I mean.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

This Electronics submenu is not part of Xubuntu by default. You've probably installed an extra package that provides a .menu in /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/ (they will be automatically included in the panel menu).

But indeed, it seems that alacarte doesn't support menu merging, that's why it doesn't appear in the editor.