KDE Menu - SOLVED

[AussieJohn]

HI Anna. Got your PM. Could not work out the IRC thingy so followed your first suggestion.

 

So here we are.. Your PM was sent approx. 3.23 AM hours my time so you can work out the difference. I think you are 10hrs behind our time.

 

[[ We do not go on to daylight saving time in Australia until October but my resident state, Queensland does not use daylight saving at all because "the longer daylight causes the curtains to fade more from the extra sunlight", "the cows get confused because the sun doesn't come up at the same time or set at the same time", " electricity bills go up because the air conditioners and fans have run longer to cover the extra hour each day", etc. etc. The decision was carried by a state wide referendum. (Think I am joking???. I kid you not) ]]

 

I await your info with thanks in anticipation. Cheers. John.

Edited September 16, 2004 by AussieJohn

[chris:b]

Hi John,

 

* Before switching to the kmenu, make sure you have installed:

# urpmi kdebase-kmenuedit

 

* Find out what the executables are called for those gtk/gnome programs which have no entries, most will, some not. Several ways to find them: browsing the Mandrakemenu looking for the entries there, or just testing the run commands (ALT - F2), examples are: gthumb, gftp, bluefish, qvcd, gtranscode, gvidcap, gimp-2.0. If installed as mandrake rpm you won't need the full path, because they usually get into /usr/bin, if necessary give the full path, example: /home/$user/thunderbird/thunderbird

The mandrake tools are all in /usr/sbin - browse there (or in the mdk menu) to get a list: menudrake, rpmdrake, harddrake etc. Only the MCC has a special entry: /usr/sbin/drakconf.real

 

* Switch to the original k menu style. Right click on the yellow star, ---> edit menu. The icons are for: New element, new submenu etc. On the right side give it a name, optional a description, then enter the run command, (or browse to /usr/bin to find it ...) a click on the icon on the right will let you chose an icon. Then: File --> save

 

* Fix the program start buttons in the kicker taskbar (left side). Delete the old one, create new. Right click on kicker, --> add --> program, browse the menu!

 

Doing this after a fresh install is very quick. And when installing a new application I first have a look what the executable is called and where it is copied to. Easy with graphical urpmi, right window, tick: all informations, you get a list of all files and where they will be installed. The few gnome apps that have no entry in the kmenu: this is a fault of the rpm packager ;-)

Actually I don't create menu entries for the mandrake tools, it's easier and faster just to:

ALT - F2, mcc <enter> to start the Mandrake Control Center.

 

* And in the kmenu style you'll notice a lot of nice utilities which are hidden by default in the mdk menu style. Like the kdesu konsole, kdesu konqueror, and more.

 

Have fun !

[AussieJohn]

Thank you sincerely ANNA. There is plenty in there for me to play around with.

I will keep you posted as to how I make out.

 

Cheers. John.

[AussieJohn]

Well ANNA, , I did it.

 

It was a hell of a lot easier than I thought it would be. Updating the Menu for the non-kde items was a breeze with the Kappfinder and adding those not detected was also dead easy within Menu Editor itself.

 

The thing that took most of the time and work was having to delete and reinstall all the application icons on the Main Panel and my two child panels because they seem to link to the Menu rather than to the apps themselves. I thought this a bit strange but what the heck, I am not a programmer so What would I know, and it all works anyhow . MCC was the one that took the most time (finding it) but in all honesty not that much.

 

This is going to be the first thing done immediately after any new install or reinstalls of Mandrake in the future. There were 5 or 6 apps that were installed as source and not as rpms. What was amazing was that kappfinder scanned and detected ALL of them whereas in Mandrake Menu mode, the 4 non kde ones were not detected and one had to go on a bit of a hunt to find where they were and create an icon link to them. While this was not hard after 2 years experience of doing this, this new (??????) way is crazy simple.

 

Thanks sincerely ANNA.

Cheers. JOHN

Edited September 21, 2004 by AussieJohn

[chris:b]

You are welcome, John :-)

[adamw]

btw, since the original post has been modified I can't tell, but is there a reason we don't use the Mandrake (or rather, stolen-Debian) menu system and menudrake here?

[papaschtroumpf]

I'm having tons of problems with the Mandrake menus (see this thread: http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=18961) so I may have to give the KDE menus a try.

It's really too bad that menus are so screwed up in what's supposed to be one of the "best desktop oriented" linux distros.

 

 

AussieJohn, KAppFinder basically removes the need to manually write down the location of all the exisitng apps in the mdk menu right?

 

If I screw up or don't like it, how to I force the menus to get rebuilt "a la Mandrake"?

[chris:b]

If I screw up or don't like it, how to I force the menus to get rebuilt "a la Mandrake"?

 

run menudrake, click on menustyle, choose the mdk menu style. save.

[chris:b]

btw, since the original post has been modified I can't tell, but is there a reason we don't use the Mandrake (or rather, stolen-Debian) menu system and menudrake here?

 

some like the native kde menustyle more

[AussieJohn]

I can assure you that from my experience that kappfinder is safe and obviously ANNA thinks so too otherwise she would not have made the suggestion. And so far as I am concerned, anything ANNA says is OK is really OK by me.

 

 

Cheers. John.