Mac-style Menu Bar for GTK and Java/Swing applications!

[bumblestiltskin]

This thread was originally opened by AdQ who wrote a gtk patch and the mac menu applet.
Then rainwoodman made a new project called globalmenu and completely rewrote it.
You can now find it (and instructions to install via ppa) here : http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/

Thanks ayoli. I have rainwoodman's globalmenu installed on 9.10 Karmic and have been using it for about a week. I installed it via PPA so that I can get the latest updates. It's a great way to save space and being that my favorite GUI environment was the Mac Classic (OS 7/8/9) I can slip right into a nice workflow with this installed.

Is this forum the best place to bring up questions and suggestions or is there a more "official" place for that?

[ayoli]

Thanks ayoli. I have rainwoodman's globalmenu installed on 9.10 Karmic and have been using it for about a week. I installed it via PPA so that I can get the latest updates. It's a great way to save space and being that my favorite GUI environment was the Mac Classic (OS 7/8/9) I can slip right into a nice workflow with this installed.

Is this forum the best place to bring up questions and suggestions or is there a more "official" place for that?

This is a good place for questions, yes.
For bug reporting and features request, I would recommend to use the issues page at google code.

[bumblestiltskin]

I've decided to switch away from Gnome and move to XFCE because it better meets my needs.

I tried installing and adding the Global Menu in the XFCE panel, but it doesn't show up, even after log out. Like any other panel plug-in, I can right-click on the panel and it shows the "Global Menu Plugin for XFCE" but it's grayed out and no preferences menu option.

I would highly prefer a native XFCE solution instead of Gnome panel plug-in. Maybe the solution is in this thread, but I couldn't find it through the search or by backtracking through the thread.

Running XFCE 4.6.1 on Karmic.

[ayoli]

I've decided to switch away from Gnome and move to XFCE because it better meets my needs.

I tried installing and adding the Global Menu in the XFCE panel, but it doesn't show up, even after log out. Like any other panel plug-in, I can right-click on the panel and it shows the "Global Menu Plugin for XFCE" but it's grayed out and no preferences menu option.

I would highly prefer a native XFCE solution instead of Gnome panel plug-in. Maybe the solution is in this thread, but I couldn't find it through the search or by backtracking through the thread.

Running XFCE 4.6.1 on Karmic.

this sounds like an issue you may look at http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/issues/list and search if this issue exists or post it there.

[bumblestiltskin]

this sounds like an issue you may look at http://code.google.com/p/gnome2-globalmenu/issues/list and search if this issue exists or post it there.

Thanks ayoli. Before I report, do you remember seeing any instructions or workaround for XFCE in this thread or elsewhere? I'd like to give it a real try before putting more pressure on the developer. Or at least post the bug with some info as to what I tried.

[ayoli]

Thanks ayoli. Before I report, do you remember seeing any instructions or workaround for XFCE in this thread or elsewhere? I'd like to give it a real try before putting more pressure on the developer. Or at least post the bug with some info as to what I tried.

I'm sorry, I didn't see any particular hints for xfce here, maybe in the issue list on google code.

[theparticle010]

I have had the same problem with xfce. and have since moved back to gnome ( although I love the speed of xfce and a boot time under 35 seconds from bios to login and seeing the desktop ) and would swith to xfce if it worked well.

[formaldehyde_spoon]

Nice, I like it, but is there any way to unlock the text colour from following the desktop theme?
I use a dark panel, so cant see the menu text...

[ayoli]

Nice, I like it, but is there any way to unlock the text colour from following the desktop theme?
I use a dark panel, so cant see the menu text...

you may want to edit the gtkrc file of your theme (under ~/.themes/<theme_name>/gtk-2.0/gtkrc). find the style that applies to menus and set the text color to your needs.

[formaldehyde_spoon]

you may want to edit the gtkrc file of your theme (under ~/.themes/<theme_name>/gtk-2.0/gtkrc). find the style that applies to menus and set the text color to your needs.

It wasn't there, it was at /usr/share/themes//gtk-2.0/gtkrc
(from one of your other posts in this thread - do you realize you've posted in here 250 times? )

But even when I changed every single instance of text[ ? ] = @colour_var in the file to white the menubar text stayed black (some other text, like file names in nautilus changed to white).

Did I miss something? Is there any other way?
I change the clock text to white by adding this

 style "panel-clock"
 {
   fg[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF"
 }
widget "*.clock-applet-button.*" style "panel-clock"

to ~/.gtkrc-2.0
can I do something similar for globalmenu?