My system was done for many months due to a H/W failure and once backup received the backlog of updates all at once. It seems “something” caused the “main app menu” IE, the menu containing items such as File, Edit, View, Etc… for many, but not all, applications. Examples include, LibreOffice, Clementine, and Okular.
When logging in under a fresh user account the applications are not missing the menu which likely means it is something an RC file in the .config directory. While wiping out or copying a untainted .config would likely resolve the issue however I would like to avoid a blunt instrument solution if possible. I found a log of older posts on the various forums which were dated which if there was a solution it wasn’t clear.
I am not posting here so much for being handed a solution but it seemed appropriate to ask if this is a known i just haven’t found and maybe get a few hints on where I might find any reference docs or? which might assist.
Anyway if someone has any suggestions I’d appreciate a pointer.
Thanks Dee
System Specs as follows:
Linux HOSTNAME 5.9.16-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Dec 21 22:00:46 UTC 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Description: Manjaro Linux
Release: 21.2.3
KDE, plasmashell 5.23.5
Qt: 5.15.2
KDE Frameworks: 5.91.0
kf5-config: 1.0
Then reboot into 5.15. Press Esc during boot to get into grub menu > advanced options and boot with 5.15. Double check your running kernel is not 5.9 then remove it:
uname -r #to check kernel version
sudo mhwd-kernel -r linux59
Thank you very much! I hadn’t realized the regular and constant stream of updates did not keep the kernel current. That said I can see where manual decision making might would be a safer more conservative approach for the kernel. I have now subscribed to receive email notices on the kernel in an attempt to keep my head out of the sand.
I’m pretty sure you were only letting me know I needed to do some house work and not inferring an update of the kernel would have any effect on the issue on my post. If you did, it did not have any effect.
For the purpose of adding additional information to this thread I found a configuration setting which seems to be commonly present in many of the .config/*rc files. “Menubar=Disabled” is currently the setting in every file where it is present under .config. Manually changing it to a value such as “Enabled” is not persistent in that it reverts back to “Disabled” when the application is run. This setting probably has nothing to do with my issue but it’s the best hint I currently have. I’m guessing those .config/*rc files aren’t intended to be manually managed but rather are managed through some other piece of the system. If anyone has information on this I’d be grateful to hear about it or where I might find reference material.
And Thanks again for pointing out the outdated kernel.
Well, for the sake of any other soul who might be looking for information in the future:
I gave up on trying to find the smoking gun and reset my .config directory contents to that of a new user and it did indeed solve the issue. All the application’s had their top level menu bar return, IE… File, Edit, View, etc…
However it was a short lived victory in that the applications menu bars are gone again… while some application can be used in this state but it isn’t sustainable as using the main menu of an application cannot be avoided. I really, really like KDE but I’ve had no response from the KDE org’s forum, I’ve not found any documentation on any of the variables located in the various *rc files within /.config … I hate Gnome…but I have things to do and I need to use the applications to get them done… maybe I can catch up a bit using something other than KDE but come back when I have more time…
Though it occurs to me that I set up a drive using BTRFS and set up a cron job that would take a snapshot then rsync my home directory to the BTRFS drive ( I know about TImeshift but I’m just using that for the OS itself besides I wanted to see how the use of snapshots with BTRFS matched up to an EMC NAS snapshots)… at any rate maybe I can go back through the various copies and see the various changes to identified an item that changed which could be the cause.
Ok, after traveling many roads I came back to the MenuBar=Disabled a few similar variable definitions found in the various /.config/*rc files. I had found them earlier but changing them wasn’t persistent… I should have continued to chase that thread and looking into the persistence would have brought the “Appliacation menus daemon” to my attention.
The solution is to turn that daemon OFF. I am still looking for some kind of documentation on what that daemon does but for now the description found in the settings->Startup and Shutdown->Background Services screen is pretty straight forward. It states: “Transfers application’s menu to the desktop” … I don’t know about transferring anywhere but it sure will turn your applications main menu off… I saw mentions of this in many threads on several forums but I thought they were talking about the menus for the “windows”…
Solution for missing main menu in applications such as LibreOffice Writer, FreeCAD, Clementine, etc… : Turn the “Application menus daemon” off in Background Services.