[Pkg-xfce-devel] Bug#617470: xfdesktop4: Unable to load menu: File "menus/applications.menu" not found

[Dave Witbrodt]

Package: xfdesktop4
Version: 4.8.1-1
Severity: important


Testing Xfce 4.8 in experimental, I discovered that the menus provided
by xfdesktop4 do not work:  neither right-clicking on the desktop, nor
adding the Applications Menu button to a panel will work.  Attempts to
use menus result in an error message

    Unable to load menu: File "menus/applications.menu" not found

either in .xsession-errors (right-click) or in a visible dialog window
(Applications Menu button).

A little research led to a workaround.  First, an applications menu
file is shipped with libgarcon-common:

    $ dpkg -L libgarcon-common
    [...]
    /etc/xdg/menus/xfce-applications.menu

Apparently, xfdesktop4 is looking for /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu
instead.

I did not know whether to file a bug against garcon or xfdesktop:
there is no bug in either package, merely miscommunication.  I could
not find a way to configure xfdesktop4 to look for a different file
name, and I did not want to copy 'xfce-applications.menu' to
'applications.menu' in /etc/xdg/menus in case automagic updates would
only affect the original and not the copy!

For the time being, I have found the following workaround to solve the
problem:

  # cd /etc/xdg/menus
  # ln -s xfce-applications.menu applications.menu

The menu system starts working immediately, even without restarting
Xfce.


HTH,
Dave W.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (350, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-rc8+df110308.062ac622.110308.desktop.kms (SMP w/4 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages xfdesktop4 depends on:
ii  exo-utils                    0.6.0-2     Utility files for libexo
ii  libc6                        2.11.2-13   Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcairo2                    1.10.2-4    The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libdbus-1-3                  1.4.6-1     simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2             0.88-2.1    simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libexo-1-0                   0.6.0-2     Library with extensions for Xfce
ii  libgarcon-1-0                0.1.5-1     freedesktop.org compliant menu imp
ii  libglib2.0-0                 2.28.1-1+b1 The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                  2.24.1-1    The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1-gtk2. 0.5.0-2     sends desktop notifications to a n
ii  libpango1.0-0                1.28.3-4    Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libthunarx-2-0               1.2.1-4     extension library for thunar
ii  libwnck22                    2.30.4-3    Window Navigator Construction Kit 
ii  libx11-6                     2:1.4.1-5   X11 client-side library
ii  libxfce4ui-1-0               4.8.0-1     widget library for Xfce
ii  libxfce4util4                4.8.1-1     Utility functions library for Xfce
ii  libxfconf-0-2                4.8.0-2     Client library for Xfce4 configure
ii  xfdesktop4-data              4.8.1-1     xfce desktop background, icons and

Versions of packages xfdesktop4 recommends:
ii  dbus-x11                     1.4.6-1     simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  gamin                        0.1.10-2+b1 File and directory monitoring syst
ii  librsvg2-common              2.32.0-1    SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  xdg-user-dirs                0.13-2      tool to manage well known user dir
ii  xfce4-utils                  4.8.1-1     Various tools for Xfce

Versions of packages xfdesktop4 suggests:
ii  menu                          2.1.45     generates programs menu for all me

-- no debconf information