Apt-get :: Debian Menu for DSL

Debian update menus can be used, but I believe that it would change the basic structure of the DSL menu tree (IE: myDSL dynamic menu and all of the custom DSL static menus).

But then again, I could be wrong. I have never used it except as already integrated with KNOPPIX and KDE.

I'm sure it is also possible to modify the program so that it plays nice with DSL but what fun is that?

I must admit that it offers superior functionality because it creates an entire submenu structure (Games, Tools, Office, etc) instead of just a single "Debian" submenu.

If I run into an unsolvable (by me) problem with my script, then plan B is to modify debian update-menus but I am not there yet.

I also don't know what the space requirements of debian update-menus are. Hopefully it is just a script or a simple C program with no weighty dependencies.

Just tried this now and it runs great. Just a few points/ideas

-The menu items for text mode programs are not being created properly. For example if I install aptitude the script creates the following menu item:

Code Sample

[exec] (aptitude) {/usr/bin/aptitude} # debmenu

Which fails to open aptitude properly (since it is not a X program). What is needed is something like

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[exec] (aptitude) {rxvt -e /usr/bin/aptitude} # debmenu

The menu file for aptitude is as follows:

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?package(aptitude):needs="text" section="Apps/System" \
title="aptitude" command="/usr/bin/aptitude" hints="apt"

I guess the needs="text" is what would normally tell debian's update-menus program it's a text app and should be run in a terminal.

-If you create a symlink from /usr/sbin/update-menus to /home/dsl/build_debmenu.sh (or wherever you've put it) then your script should be automatically called by the post installation scripts of any packages that need menu items. When I did this and used sudo apt-get install prog_name the menu items were added automatically. Similarly I used synaptic to install gaim and it added the menu item automatically with this symlink present. The only problem I encountered was if you use

Code Sample

su
apt-get install prog_name
exit

It doesn't update the user dsl's menu but the /root/.fluxbox/menu instead. While this makes sense it is probably not what the user would want.

Quote (cbagger01 @ June 05 2005,14:04)

The debian menu which includes update-menus package is 400KBs and has no dependecies not already in DSL. Although I'm not hugely familiar with it then menu creation is script based (there's a different script for each wm to create the menu) so it should be possible to modify how it behaves. I would think incorperating the static DSL menu would be fairly straightforward as update-menus already provides a mechanism to specify your own menu items seperate from those in /usr/lib/menu. What would be harder is getting it to work with the dynamic DSL menu.

I just suggested using update-menus as it seems sensible to make use of the pre-existing structure if possible rather than reinvent the wheel. However the update-menus stucture/scripts do seem pretty complicated at a first glance so maybe your way is best.

friedgold,

Thanks for your feedback. Assuming the "needs" variable is always included in every menu file item, it should not be too hard to add the rxvt -e part to the appropriate items.

Also, thanks for the /usr/sbin/update-menus information.
It appears that this is the appropriate place to trigger the menu update script, since this is when the "real" menu update tool would get triggered.

400KB is probably too big for DSL, but if the "Fluxbox" script was reasonable in size and could be made to work with DSL, then it would be a good candidate for modification.

Despite my efforts, I am not totally convinced that my way is best. However, I am convinced that my way is better than no menu updates at all.

Hey,

I'm a linux noobie. I've done a hdd install of dsl onto an old laptop for a friend of mine, she's even less savvy than me so I want to make things as straightforward as possible for her. This debian menu sounds like a great way to give her easy access to extra programs i add to dsl. Has anyone run into any problems with it yet?

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