I just compiled GNOME on my LFS install, and the applications menu is empty. This just won't do, is there a way I can get the applications menu to be populated by the applications I have installed?

The only thing displayed in the app menu is the run command.

Thanks

I can't give you a straight answer, because I don't know

However, you'll probably find it in one or more of the docs located here:
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/Public/GNOME/teams/docs/users/

That's useless, the docs in the link provided seem to be for an older version of gnome.

Okey dokey... how about here:
http://www.gnome.org/learn/

That has up to date docs, but one thing I don't get is that in order to create entries in the application menu they have you go in to nautilus and type applications:/// in the location bar. But when I do it says it's invalid. Did I miss a step when installing gnome, or did the developers had a brain fart when writing the documentation?

Hmm, for some odd reason, there is .desktop files in the /usr/share/applications folder, they are just not showing up in the applications menu.

I played around with this stuff a long time ago and don't recall filenames or anything like that. I think I was messing with local copies of the menu settings.

Anyway, the point is, it was a Red Hat system, and Red Hat was making use of desktop file attributes. In the .desktop files, there were key-value pairs. The personal menu file for the "Foot Menu" was written such that any .desktop file with a specific key-value pair was displayed under a specific sub-menu.

Try to locate the personal menu file. As I recall, it was just a plan text file in XML format. See if the organization scheme is looking for specific key-value pairs. Look at the .desktop files the menu does include and try to figure out the relationship. Then expand or modify it to pull in the other .desktop files you want.

Lastly, if I recall, the menu files were set up in a manner similar to bash startup files. That is, there's a system-wide basic menu and then a personal user menu. If you have multiple users, you may need to transfer any personal changes over to the system-wide menu.

As always, make backups before changing anything, and take any of this information with a grain of salt. It's fuzzy because it's been a while. And that means the Gnome devs may have changed how it works.

EDIT:
Oh forgot... Don't know why the "applications:///" thing doesn't work. My gut would lead me to ask if you compiled and installed everything (required and optional packages). I'd be grasping at straws if I said anything else.

I meant to post an update earlier but forgot.

I got the applications menu populated by installed a few apps (mainly pyxdg, pygtk, and smeg) and copying the /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu file from my gentoo install to my LFS install.

But thanks anyway.

it seems like gnome-menus.2.30.4 created the following file /etc/xdg/menus/gnome-applications.menu while gnome-panel (or somethin') is looking for this file /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu.

creating a symlink from gnome-applications.menu to applications.menu fix this problem.

I found this thread while looking for the solution myself.

The link worked perfectly for me, thank you very much.

I thought I had messed up the install and would have to do it all over again.

This was a quick, direct and easy fix - you saved me hours of research.

Well done to all that contributed to this solution.