Public bug reported:
Binary package hint: alacarte
In the alacarte menu editor, some items cannot be moved into new menus
("folders").
PROBLEM:
Steps to reproduce the problem:
1. Right click on the Ubuntu logo .. Applications .. Places .. System area in
gnome-panel.
2. Select "Edit Menus". This launches the (very temperamental and
ill-documented) alacarte menu editor.
3. Unter "Menus:", click on "Applications" (expand this menu if it isn't
already).
4. Find and select an item that has a (forward) slash in its name, e.g.
"Applications -- CD/DVD Creator" or "Sound & Video -- GnomeBaker CD/DVD Writer"
(if no such item is installed, you'll have to install/create one to reproduce
the problem).
5. Drag and drop that item from the "Items:" list on the right hand side to
another menu in the "Menus:" list on the left hand side. Normally, with items
that don't have a slash in their name, this would make a copy of the item
appear in the destination menu, switch the view to the destination menu (which
is questionable behaviour), but NOT delete the item in the original menu you
dragged the item out of. You have to go back to the original menu and delete
the item there afterwards to properly and successfully complete the move.
Apparently dragging and dropping in alacarte copies, and doesn't move.
Shift-dragging appears to move, but does absolutely nothing. But that's
"normal" for alacarte. (I said it was temperamental.) This bug report is not
about this "normal" behaviour. (If this bugs you, then you go submit another
bug. Don't hijack this one.) What this bug is about is this: When trying to
drag and drop an item that has a slash in its name to a new menu/folder in the
above way, the copy never appears in the new menu, and the view never properly
switches to the new menu (the display of the "Menus:" and "Items:" lists
becomes inconsistent at this point; the "Menus:" list shows the new menu as
selected, but the "Items:" list still displays the contents of the old menu).
This is because alacarte chokes on the slash in the item name; it doesn't
properly escape it. Additional information can be gathered by closing alacarte,
relaunching it from the command line, and trying to perform the aforedescribed
drag and drop operation again then:
$ alacarte
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Alacarte/MainWindow.py", line 421, in
on_menu_tree_drag_data_received
self.editor.copyItem(item, new_parent)
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/Alacarte/MenuEditor.py", line 290, in
copyItem
keyfile.write(open(out_path, 'w'))
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
'/home/<MYUSERNAME>/.local/share/applications/CD/DVD Creator.desktop'
It appears that alacarte looks for an item called "DVD Creator.desktop"
in ~/.local/share/applications/CD/, while in truth there is an item
called "CD/DVD Creator.desktop" in ~/.local/share/applications/. Just
one more reason to wonder if there's a good alternative to the gentle
horror that is alacarte.
WORKAROUND:
The above problem can be worked around by first renaming the item in
question (e.g. rename "CD/DVD Creator" to "CD and DVD Creator" or
"GnomeBaker CD/DVD Writer" to "GnomeBaker CD and DVD Writer"), moving
the renamed item as described above, and then renaming the item in the
new location/menu back to its original name that included the slash.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
- Diagnosed on Ubuntu 9.04 (I'll try to reproduce with the Ubuntu 9.10 live CD
and update this bug.)
- alacarte version: 0.11.10-0ubuntu1
MORE SCHTUFF FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES:
- From man alacarte:
"alacarte is a program that for editing freedesktop.org complient menus."
(This is basically the entire man page. I also feel very complient today.
Language proficiency is a skill that for writing man pages.)
- From apt-cache show alacarte:
"easy GNOME menu editing tool \ Alacarte is an easy-to-use menu editor for
GNOME"
(Riiiiight.)
"It works with the freedesktop.org menu specification and should work with
any desktop environment that uses the spec."
(For some value of "works".)
ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: alacarte 0.11.10-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_IE.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alacarte
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-17-generic i686
** Affects: alacarte (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: apport-bug i386
--
Cannot move some items into new menus in alacarte menu editor
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/502136
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