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How To Get A Unity Like HUD Searchable Menu In Xubuntu Ubuntu MATE Linux Mint More

Important: issues and limitations

i3-hud-menu has quite a few issues / limitations but I decided to post an article about it anyway since some of you might still find it useful.

Also, Im hoping someone reading this article might be able to fix or at least come up with some workarounds for some of the issues below. If you do, please let us know in the comments!

i3-hud-menu limitations / issues:

• it doesnt work with client-side decorated applications;
• it doesnt work with Firefox or Thunderbird;
• it doesnt work with Qt5 apps (make sure appmenu-qt5 and libdbusmenu-qt5 are not installed or else you wont have a menu for Qt5 apps, such as VLC in Ubuntu 16.04 - if you do install those packages, you can use the menu via i3-hud-menu, but the actual menu wont be visible in the application);
• using it, LibreOffice no longer has a menu if the "libreoffice-gtk" package is installed - this package is used for GTK+ integration (though using i3-hud-menu, you can search the menu, but actually using the menu items doesnt work for some reason);
• to get i3-hud-menu to work with Java swing applications, youll need JAyatana;
• probably more.

It appears that the LibreOffice and the Qt5 applications issue occur because "APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=1" is not respected. Furthermore, using "UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=" (for example, using "UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= libreoffice --writer") or blacklisting it via Dconf Editor (com > canonical > unity-gtk-module > blacklist) doesnt get the LibreOffice menu to show up.

On Arch Linux (possibly in other Linux distributions as well), which requires the unity-gtk-module-standalone-bzr package, you need to run the following command (or change this via Dconf Editor: com > canonical > unity-gtk-module, set gtk2-shell-shows-menubar to "false") and reboot to ensure that menus are displayed in GTK applications:

gsettings set com.canonical.unity-gtk-module gtk2-shell-shows-menubar false

Install and configure i3-hud-menu

sudo apt install python3 python-dbus dmenu appmenu-qt unity-gtk2-module unity-gtk3-module wget

2. Download and install i3-hud-menu

To download and install J.A. McNaughtons i3-hud-menu fork from the command line, use the following commands:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/jamcnaughton/i3-hud-menu/archive/master.tar.gz
tar -xvf master.tar.gz
sudo mkdir -p /opt/i3-hud-menu
sudo cp -r i3-hud-menu-master/* /opt/i3-hud-menu/

If you want to install it yourself, grab the code from GitHub (but note that the instructions below assume that youve installed i3-hud-menu in /opt/i3-hud-menu/)


3. Load the Unity gtk module

export APPMENU_DISPLAY_BOTH=1
if [ -n "$GTK_MODULES" ]
then
 GTK_MODULES="$GTK_MODULES:unity-gtk-module"
else
 GTK_MODULES="unity-gtk-module"
fi

if [ -z "$UBUNTU_MENUPROXY" ]
then
 UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=1
fi 

export GTK_MODULES
export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY

... and save the file.

If after completing all the steps below, i3-hud-menu doesnt work, you can try to paste the lines above in ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.profile.

4. Add i3-appmenu-service.py to startup

The next step is to add i3-appmenu-service.py to the system startup. If youve installed i3-hud-menu using the commands above, this file should be located in /opt/i3-hud-menu/

Xubuntu: To add i3-appmenu-service.py to startup, launch Session and Startup from the menu / System Settings, and on the "Application Autostart" tab click "Add", enter "i3 menu service" under "Name", and "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-appmenu-service.py" (without the quotes) under "Command":


Ubuntu MATE: launch Control Center and open Startup Applications, click "Add", use "i3 menu service" under "Name", and "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-appmenu-service.py" (without the quotes) under "Command", and click "Add":


Linux Mint (Cinnamon): launch Startup Applications from the menu, click Add > Custom Command, use "i3 menu service" under "Name", and "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-appmenu-service.py" (without the quotes) under "Command", and click "Add":



5. Assign a keyboard shortcut to i3-hud-menu.py

The keyboard shortcut you assign to i3-hud-menu.py will be used to open i3-hud-menu and search through an applications menu. Heres how to configure it in some Ubuntu flavors and Linux Mint (Cinnamon).

Xubuntu: open "Keyboard" from the menu / System Settings, and on the "Application Shortcuts" tab, click "Add". Use "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-hud-menu.py" (without the quotes; if youve installed i3-hud-menu to a different location, make sure you use the correct path) for the command, click "OK:


... and assign it a keyboard shortcut:



Ubuntu MATE: from Control Center open Keyboard Shortcuts, click "Add", under "Name" enter "i3-hud-menu" (without the quotes), and use "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-hud-menu.py" (without the quotes; if youve installed i3-hud-menu to a different location, make sure you use the correct path) for "Command":



Linux Mint (Cinnamon): launch Keyboard from the menu, click "Add custom shortcut", enter "i3-hud-menu" (without the quotes) under "Name", "/opt/i3-hud-menu/i3-hud-menu.py" (without the quotes; if youve installed i3-hud-menu to a different location, make sure you use the correct path) under "Command" and click "Add":


... and assign it a keyboard shortcut.



via / further reference:

• Reddit (thanks to JaZoray)
• jamcnaughton.com

Available link for download

How To Save And Restore The Unity Session In Ubuntu Using A Script

• restore geometries of existing windows - restores the window geometry and position (including workspace) for all running windows;
• restore matching windows - restores the window geometry and position (including workspace) for both apps that are still running as well as those that were restarted;
• restore running applications: restores all application windows that were running (even if they are now closed) when the session was saved, along with their position (including workspace) and window geometry;

Important note: The script can only restore app windows that were open when the session was saved and cant restore applications that were running in the background (so to be able to restore an app, that app needs to have at least one open window when the session is saved).

• it doesnt work for every single application. For instance, it cant restore an open Nemo window because Nemo lacks the "--new-window" command line option (which does exist in Nautilus);
• when using "restore 2" (so the apps that arent running are restored along with their window position and size): theres a delay between launching the app and resizing / positioning its window - thats because the script waits a few seconds to make sure the app actually starts before trying to manipulate its window.

Unity session save and restore script installation and usage

1. The script requires perl, xprop (available in the x11-utils package), wmctrl and xdotool. To install these in Ubuntu, use the command below:

sudo apt-get install perl x11-utils wmctrl xdotool

2. To download my modified script, install it in /usr/local/bin and make it executable, use the following commands:

wget http://raw.githubusercontent.com/hotice/webupd8/master/session -O /tmp/session
sudo install /tmp/session /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/session

You can check out the script code HERE. Or, if you want to download Arnons script (without my Unity fixes), see his post HERE.

Thats it!

To save the current session, simply use the following command:

session save

Then, when you want to restore the session, use:

session restore X

where X is:

• 2 - Restore geometries of missing windows (opens any previously running app windows and restores both windows positions and geometries);
• 1 - Restore geometries of matching windows (restores window geometry and position for all running apps, even if they were restarted since the session was saved);
• 0 - Restore geometries of existing windows (restores window geometry and position for apps that werent closed since the session was saved).

For instance "session restore 2" to restore geometries of missing windows, etc.



(direct video link)


Also see:

• Organize Your Unity Launcher Based On The Current Workspace With LSwitcher
• Set Different Wallpapers For Each Workspace While Keeping Desktop Icons With Unity WallpaperSwitcher

Available link for download