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Thread: 'Hidden Gems' in Knoppix 7

  1. #1
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    'Hidden Gems' in Knoppix 7

    .
    I'm beginning to think Klaus K always puts in some hidden goodies for us.
    This time it is a working 'Main Menu' menu editor entry
    on the DVD Main Menu at Main Menu>Preferences>Main Menu.

    If your persistence is working, you should try this exercise for yourself.
    1. Create a New Menu 'Hidden Gems' ...actually a sub-menu of Main Menu;
    2. Under this sub-menu, add the following three New Items with Names
    Aptitude, Htop & Top. For these three, the command syntax is
    for example: lxterminal -t aptitude --command=aptitude;
    3. Add a separator; and
    4. Add two more New Items with names AlsaMixer & Midnight Commander.
    For these two the syntax which worked was
    lxterminal -t alsamixer -e alsamixer and lxterminal -e mc.

    None of these use the 'Runs in 'terminal emulator' option.

    It took longer to write this up than it does to get yours working.
    For extra credit, figure how to get vrms to work under this scheme;
    I'm stuck there.

    If you have some favorite hidden gems, share them with us here and let
    us know if there are any peculiar command format requirements.

  2. #2
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    Here are two more

    .
    Name: VRMS
    Command: lxterminal --geometry=91x37 -t=vrms -e less vrms.txt
    Tool tip: Virtual RM Stallman
    Requires preliminary step: do vrms>vrms.txt to provide text file.
    man vrms gives description.

    Name: X-Kill
    Command: lxterminal -t xkill -e xkill
    Tool tip: X=program terminator
    man xkill gives description.

  3. #3
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    A hidden oops

    .
    We have a small problem.

    I've had a lot of fun creating my own sub menu 'Hidden Gems' using
    Alacarte in Knoppix 7.0.1. However, I just noticed, I no longer
    have a Knoppix sub-menu. Surprise.

    I just checked the LiveCD menu list against my new menu list.
    The good news is all menu items are accounted for.

    The bad news is that all the Knoppix sub-menu items now occur
    under Preferences, distributed in good alphabetic order amongst
    the other residents that were already there. I no longer have
    a distinct Knoppix sub-menu.

    I recall that with lxmed it was hard to invent new sub-menus,
    maybe that's at work here as well.

    It seems when I asked for a new submenu on the main menu,
    the Knoppix slot got co-opted, its displaced items went to the
    original bottom sub-menu.

    The capability to create new sub-menus on the main menu would
    have been THE feature missing in lxmed. I expect it SHOULD work
    in Alacarte, but don't know what has made it mis-function.

    Stay tuned, it aint over 'til its over.
    The authorities have been notified.

  4. #4
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    A full recovery from the Alacarte disaster

    .
    I've done a little research on Alacarte and have decided it is a disaster.

    Using the installed 'Main Menu' (Alacarte) menu editor in Knoppix 7 initially
    seems to be allowing construction of a menu addition. However, you may not
    recognize that it creates a mixed salad out of your original menu.

    I've started over on this exercise along the lines I published earlier for
    Knoppix 6. I've only extended that earlier approach by using Klaus K's method
    he uses in Knoppix 7 to create new menu categories.

    The modified approach which works is as follows.

    1. Create a new Main Menu category 'Hidden Gems' by copying & editing
    /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/knoppix.desktop to a similar text file
    /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/gems.desktop.

    2. Create new items for the Hidden Gems menu by copying & editing
    /usr/share/applications/htop.desktop to similar text files
    /usr/share/applications/*.destop where * is top, alsamixer, mc, aptitude,
    vrms and xkill.

    3. Editing desktop files may most easily be done using the pop-up gui which appears
    with a right-click on each menu item. Rather than using 'Runs in terminal emulator',
    one may control the lxterminal title and geometry better by using the command-
    line options just as described earlier.

    This all works nicely and doesn't destroy your nice Knoppix and Wine sub-menus,
    as did my ill-fated experience with Alacarte.

  5. #5
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    A fine point you might not expect

    .
    Quote Originally Posted by utu View Post
    3. Editing desktop files may most easily be done using the pop-up gui which appears
    with a right-click on each menu item.
    You might not expect it to be the case but the desktop files in /usr/shar/applications/
    that are edited by using the pop-up guis are placed in /home/knoppix/.local/share/applications/
    under the same names as their /usr/share/applications parents but with changes you've
    made.

    These .local files then become THE effective ones to address if there are any other
    changes to be made. Such as in the categories. If you want to delete 'Systems;'
    so things ONLY show in 'Gems;' then do it to the .local files, otherwise you'll be ignored.

    These caveats apply as well to ANY menu item you have edited in this way, not just
    the Hidden Gems group.
    Last edited by utu; 06-05-2012 at 02:24 AM.

  6. #6
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    Restore Initial Menu

    Hi guys,
    to restore the initial menu you have to delete the file /home/knoppix/menus/lxde-application.menu created by alacarte.
    knoppix e wine menus "magically reappear" after restarting

  7. #7
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    @ Blacksimon

    You will also find a lot of trash left over from Alacarte in /home/knoppix/.local/share/applications/,
    especially if you were expecting the 'undo' funtion to help out in these matters.

    Sorting out what to keep and what to throw away may be more trouble than making
    a new LiveUSB.

  8. #8
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    Hi Utu,
    yes I've found some trash in it. I've delete also /home/knoppix/.config/menus/lxde-application.menu
    I HATE ALACARTE !!!

  9. #9
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    I HATE ALACARTE
    It's a Gnome tool, not designed for LXDE

  10. #10
    Member Blacksimon's Avatar
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    Yes, I understand....
    anyway I solved the problem

    1: Do NOT use Alacarte
    2: Delete /home/knoppix/menus/*
    3: Delete /home/knoppix/.config/menus/*
    4: Create new menu category called "Hidden Gems" in /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged/ (copying & editing for example knoppix.menu to learn the correct syntax)
    5: Create new items called "XKill" for the "Hidden Gems" menu just created putting Xkill.desktop file in /home/knoppix/.local/share/applications/ (copying & editing other .desktop file to see the correct options) and so on for other items
    6: In a terminal:
    Code:
    root@Black:/home/knoppix# xdg-desktop-menu forceupdate  #I don't know if it's necessary
    Take a look to explore the topic:
    http://standards.freedesktop.org/des...y-spec/latest/
    http://portland.freedesktop.org/xdg-...ktop-menu.html

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