How to edit/add Menu items of Maverick Meerkat Unity Desktop??

[fslurrehman]

Hi
Few days ago, I installed ubuntu notebook Maverick Meerkat with Unity Desktop on my Fujitsu A530 Laptop.
My question is that:

Q. How can I edit/add Main Menu items for this Unity Desktop? I would highly appreciate your help.

Additional Details:

I edited the Menu Item from 'System>Preference>Main Menu' but change is not reflected in Unity Desktop Item and Default Menu List of Application is displayed.

[r_mano]

I have the same problem. Moreover, my CrossOver Office installation add new top-level menu with applications, that are invisible in Unity (I have to start them form terminal-command line). I was not able to find a single "configure" option for Unity interface.

¿Any help?

[slidingClouds]

When you say "Main Menu" - do you mean: (1) the items that are displayed when you press the Ubuntu icon on the top-left of the screen; or, (2) the items in the pane on the left of the screen?

I can help you with (2) (- find and run the application you need, then right-click the icon in the left-pane and select "Keep in Launcher"). Still looking for (1).

Eli

[r_mano]

It was (2). I did discover the existance of (1) with your post .
Thanks, great.

The other problem I think is a bug/feature, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/635223

[fslurrehman]

Thanks r_mano and slidingClouds

About (2): When I right click matlab software icon on launcher, it shows 'com-mathworks-util-PostVMlnit' and does not shows 'Keep in Launcher'.

Except matlab program I have successfully docked Terminal and System Monitor programs to the launcher.

About (1): I can not edit predefined main page with 6 icons of Web, Music, Photos & Videos, Games, Email & Chat, Office, File & Folders, Get New Apps.

Also when I click from 'Applications (from Launcher)>System>Main Men', I find my installed program of scilab under Science Menu whereas scilab program is there in All Applications list (when checked from launcher).

I have done extensive search but only intro of unity desktop is given every where. I haven't found any help/documentation, or customization guide.

The bottom line is that I cannot find any way to re organize or customize the grouping of my apps in launcher and main page of Unity Desktop of Maverick Meerkat. I need some help in this.

[r_mano]

Yep, I have the same problem with some application. For example, digiKam does not show the "keep in launcher" entry in launcher.

Puzzled.

[duanedesign]

There is a bug about the inconsistent appearance of the 'keep in launcher' option.

[LinkMJB]

Alright boys and girls, I spent some time tinkering with this tonight and found a solution using user preferences. I am considering writing a zenity front-end/(python/bash) backend to automate user input, bridging or to replacing "alacarte/Main Menu" functionalities to make this easier for the average user.

Here is what I have found so far ->
1) User customization is based in ~/.gconf/desktop/unity/launcher/favorites
2) Each application in your favorites has a directory within the favorites folder, and is indexed/referenced using the %gconf.xml
3) If you have already created a custom folder/application using alacarte/Main Menu, you should already have a file created under /usr/share/applications you can reference in the next step. Otherwise, make one using alacarte/Main Menu
4) cp -pr ~/.gconf/desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/app-firefox.desktop ~/.gconf/desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/app-[custom_name].desktop
6) vi ~/.gconf/desktop/unity/launcher/favorites/app-[custom_name].desktop/%gconf.xml
7) insert a line like so (inside the <gconf></gconf>):

<entry name="desktop_file" type="string">

<stringvalue>/usr/share/applications/[custom_name].desktop</stringvalue>

</entry>

8) Logout and log back in, or restart gdm ('sudo restart gdm')

NOTE: I assume similar things can be done to add programs into "Applications", but I expect it will live under /usr/share and effect ALL users...

Have fun! I will post back here when/if I create the GUI front-end to handle these steps, and provide a method to retrieve the .deb package

[LinkMJB]

I finished the frontend to handle menu creation, I named the tool "prixfixe" as a pun on "alacarte." This is meant only as a TEMPORARY solution for this problem until freedesktop.org gets their act together and provides a solution that works with Ubuntu + Unity.

While writing it I discovered a lot of broken functionality in gksudo (multiple command parsing, and random X display disconnects), and zenity (--question returns 0 ALWAYS, and does not return y/n).

Here is the URL for what I built if you are interested:
prixfixe

Install it using 'sudo dpkg -i prixfixe.deb'

Enjoy!

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Hey LinkMJB, thanks for working on this! Couple questions: after installing prixfixe, how do we launch it and how do we use it? Can you give an example of adding a menu item to Unity's launcher thingy?