Applications vs Main Menu and Panels issues in Trusty

[kansasnoob]

I did a little research and found that we were cool. So I accomplished step 1, and I'm moving on to step 2.

Did it boot OK after step (1)?

Sorry I didn't do a better job explaining about the UUID number, but yes it matched.

[cscj01]

Yes it did boot. See my previous two posts for a full report.

[kansasnoob]

Okay, I was able to reboot and log in with panels. And some of my menus are correct. However, there are items that were in my menus before I changed the names of the folders that are no longer there. I suppose I can recreate most of them. The problem seems to be that when I try to add a new menu with Main Menu, it will show in Main Menu, but not in Applications menu. Additionally, I still cannot move items from one menu to another. Finally, I cannot add a new item to an existing menu. So while this has fixed my panels issue, my menu issues are worrse.

I assume the menu issue is then due to poor design

I know what we largely agreed on was to revert to what was the Quantal design because the Precise design no longer worked at all with the parts of GNOME version 3.10 that shipped with Trusty. It is not as slick as Precise was by a long shot and I've still not found a way to consistently backup an entire profile so each fresh install requires individual tweaking. A lot of the change was needed in order to not break GNOME's new Classic shell session.

There has been a lot of in-fighting between the lead maintainer of GNOME Panel and the other devs - one in particular - and one of the previous maintainers who is still heavily involved in Edubuntu has already suggested killing GNOME Panel in favor of adopting Mate in Edubuntu 16.04 .................. so who knows what the future will bring

But, let me make this perfectly clear, the current version of 'gnome-panel' (aka; the flashback session) will be supported in Trusty until April 2019, just as the Classic (no effects) session in Precise is supported until April 2017. I know I'm keeping about 30 of the 50+ puters I maintain on Precise, using the archived 12.04.1 images for reinstallations in order to avoid HWE EOL and the Trusty HWE that shipped in 12.04.5.

[kansasnoob]

I'll try in a not_so_distant post to explain where I was going with the idea of a dual-boot to evaluate a new release before jumping into another release upgrade. Once you learn how to do it safely it really is a great way to look before you leap

[cscj01]

Well, for what it's worth, your help has been invaluable. I have a question though. When I filed the bug related to the panels, one of the folks suggested I should install the Utopic version of Alacarte because the Trusty version was so buggy. I did that. I wonder if I revert back to the Trusty version if things might work after the changes we have made.

[kansasnoob]

Well, for what it's worth, your help has been invaluable. I have a question though. When I filed the bug related to the panels, one of the folks suggested I should install the Utopic version of Alacarte because the Trusty version was so buggy. I did that. I wonder if I revert back to the Trusty version if things might work after the changes we have made.

I'd revert back to the Trusty version before beginning to apply any tweaks. I'm not a huge fan of mixing packages like that because it's liable to cause problems with updates down the road. I hope you can revert that in synaptic without too much trouble.

[cscj01]

Revert of Alacarte went well. Now if I can figure out a way to get my menus where they need to be.

[cscj01]

Lo and Behold. I can now add new menus and new items. In order for a menu to display on the Applications menu, there must be at least one item on that menu. Unfortunately, I still cannot drag and drop menu items from one menu to another. So I must add the item and duplicate what is in the menu item I am trying to move. That is a long and laborious process, but at least it is attainable.

One issue remains though. I seem to be able to use only certain files (mostly .svg files and some .ico files) for my item and menu icons. If I try to use a .png icon, it does not show next to the item after the save. When I navigate to it from the Applications menu, I get the Ubuntu icon dialog-cancel.pngwith a black background and the diagonal slanted the other way. Sorry, I couldn't find the one Ubuntu uses.

Edit: Actually, it is not the type of file. There are just some cases where the icon for the menu item shows correctly when selected, but when the item is saved, there is no icon. And what shows on the Applications menu is as explained above.

[kansasnoob]

Lo and Behold. I can now add new menus and new items. In order for a menu to display on the Applications menu, there must be at least one item on that menu. Unfortunately, I still cannot drag and drop menu items from one menu to another. So I must add the item and duplicate what is in the menu item I am trying to move. That is a long and laborious process, but at least it is attainable.

One issue remains though. I seem to be able to use only certain files (mostly .svg files and some .ico files) for my item and menu icons. If I try to use a .png icon, it does not show next to the item after the save. When I navigate to it from the Applications menu, I get the Ubuntu icon dialog-cancel.pngwith a black background and the diagonal slanted the other way. Sorry, I couldn't find the one Ubuntu uses.

Edit: Actually, it is not the type of file. There are just some cases where the icon for the menu item shows correctly when selected, but when the item is saved, there is no icon. And what shows on the Applications menu is as explained above.

The one person I know of who I'd usually ask about this is Alberts Muktupāvels, but he's tied up in what I consider in-fighting over maintainer-ship of 'gnome-panel':

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnom.../msg00016.html

I really, really hate being caught in the middle - or even caught at the fringes - of those kind of arguments. When the dust settles I will ask Alberts if he's willing to have a look and provide some advice, but I'm loathe to do so while tensions are so high ...... it all gives me a sick feeling