How to regenerate kde menus [Solved]

[avkward]

Some games just won't work after installation. I checked permissions and discovered that the group they (their files that is) belong to is defined as (wrong) number, so I just chgroup'ed them to games group and now everything works. The problem is, these games still won't appear in (kde) menu.

If I write the name of the game (let's say "torcs"), then I get nice completion with right icon and everything, but in Games section of menu there still are only five subsections (which where there from the beginning I believe):

Logic Games;
Arcade;
Board Games;
Card Games;
Tactics & Strategy

while in the /usr/share/applications/torcs-torcs.desktop it says:

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$ cat -n /usr/share/applications/torcs-torcs.desktop  | grep Categories
     8  Categories=Game;SportsGame;

So, long question short, how do I regenerate menus now? Installing & removing new packages or just logging out won't help, and apparently this is one of those questions, when Google just won't understand my phrasing (although I have no doubts that The Amighty know the right answer as usual).

[Fitzcarraldo]

Have you tried the following?

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

The following command will show you what the above command will detect for the KDE menu.

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --menutest

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --help
Usage: kbuildsycoca4 [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [options]

Rebuilds the system configuration cache.

Generic options:
  --help                    Show help about options
  --help-qt                 Show Qt specific options
  --help-kde                Show KDE specific options
  --help-all                Show all options
  --author                  Show author information
  -v, --version             Show version information
  --license                 Show licence information
  --                        End of options

Options:
  --nosignal                Do not signal applications to update
  --noincremental           Disable incremental update, re-read everything
  --checkstamps             Check file timestamps
  --nocheckfiles            Disable checking files (dangerous)
  --global                  Create global database
  --menutest                Perform menu generation test run only
  --track <menu-id>         Track menu id for debug purposes

[avkward]

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

No, this didn't help at all. It did spit lots of curses though, if it says something to you I'd be glad to hear it: http://pastebin.sabayon.org/pastie/11777

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --menutest

This actually generated pretty nice menu list (apart from curses again) and it even recognized torcs:

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$ kbuildsycoca4 --menutest 2>/dev/null | grep torcs
Games/  torcs-torcs.desktop     /usr/share/applications/torcs-torcs.desktop

Sadly, menus still won't change. And yes, I tried those other kbuildsycoca4 options as well.

What somewhat helped though is a strange idea Google finally bestowed on me - to remove ~/.config/menus/ (I actually backup'ed it). Now I see all (I think) my games in KDE menu, the only remaining annoyance is that Games section still has only those five default (?) subsections, all other nodes are created directly under Games "directory". Even though in /usr/share/applications/torcs-torcs.desktop it clearly mentions SportsGame subsection.

[Ryuno-Ki]

Hm, I removed KDE on my sabayon installation, but maybe it works cross-distro though.

Try this: Right-click Kicker (K-Menu icon) and choose "edit menu entries" (or something like this. I haven't English naming here). Then you could change the menu as you like.
Read on here The KDE Menu Editor Handbook.

Regards, Ryuno-Ki

[avkward]

Try this: Right-click Kicker (K-Menu icon) and choose "edit menu entries" (or something like this. I haven't English naming here). Then you could change the menu as you like.

It's called "Edit Applications" and I actually thought it has something to do with panel itself, but it works, thanks!

[Fitzcarraldo]

Sure, manual editing of the KDE Menu is always an option, but that doesn't explain why the automatic population of the menu doesn't work in your case.

BTW, 'Kicker' was the name of the default KDE 3 launcher; the default launcher in KDE 4 is called 'Kickoff'. You might want to try an alternative KDE 4 launcher such as Lancelot, Takeoff or Homerun. They're all Plasmoids so can be installed on the Panel or desktop. I use both Lancelot and Takeoff on the Panel as they have their strengths and weaknesses, but I prefer them to Kickoff in any case.

[Ryuno-Ki]

Sure, manual editing of the KDE Menu is always an option, but that doesn't explain why the automatic population of the menu doesn't work in your case.

I searched a bit and found this post, which could explain the problem (just screened).

BTW, 'Kicker' was the name of the default KDE 3 launcher; the default launcher in KDE 4 is called 'Kickoff'.

I changed the view to "Classic mode", so for me it looks like Kicker
But thanks for clarifying.

[Fitzcarraldo]

avkward, something else comes to mind: Have you tried running the KDE Menu Updating Tool (KAppfinder)? It should be in the KDE menu (Kickoff > Settings > Menu Updating Tool) but, if it isn't, you can launch it from the command line thus:

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$ kappfinder

KAppfinder
The application finder looks for non-KDE applications on your system and adds them to the KDE menu system. Click 'Scan' to begin, select the desired applications and then click 'Apply'.

[Butch Cassidy]

Newish install and I don't have KAppfinder installed, Rigo doesn't pick it up and it doesn't show up in the package search. Not quite sure what happened to it.

[Ryuno-Ki]

Yes, I can confirm this.
But I also find this package in portage (using the command app-portage/pfl - be careful, because there's no documentation available) :

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$ e-file kappfinder
 *  kde-base/kappfinder
        Available Versions:     4.0.5-r0 4.0.3-r0 4.0.2-r0 4.0.1-r0 3.5.9-r0 3.5.8-r0 3.5.7-r0 3.5.5-r0 3.5.10-r0 3.4.1 4.2.96-r0 4.3.5-r0 4.2.4-r0 4.4.9999-r0 4.2.3-r0 4.3.90-r0 4.1.2-r0 4.3.85-r0 4.3.3 4.3.4-r0 4.4.0 4.3.3-r0 4.4.4 4.3.2-r0 4.4.3 4.3.67-r0 4.3.5 9999-r0 4.4.3-r0 4.3.65-r0 4.4.2-r0 4.3.1-r0 4.4.1-r0 4.3.61-r0 4.4.0-r0 4.3.0-r0 4.3.98-r0 4.2.98-r0 4.3.95-r0                       
        Matched Files:          /usr/kde/4.0/bin/kappfinder; /usr/kde/3.5/bin/kappfinder; /usr/kde/3.4/bin/kappfinder; /usr/bin/kappfinder;


so it's just not in entropy. Maybe someone should fill a "feature request"