Global Menu no longer working

Hello, I noticed since recent update (plasma-desktop 6.4.0-1, plasma-x11-session 6.4.0-5, kwin-x11 6.4.0-1). Operating system: Arch Linux.

Not sure if I am missing a package, or if global menu simply no longer works for kwin if x11 session is used? I can still see the button, I can configure it, but when clicking on the button it simply does nothing.

I have no intention of switching to wayland, so if it is a wayland only feature please let me know so I can stop using it. Okay, thanks.

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Nobody here uses x11? Is this a bug that’s going to be fixed? Or is it a move to wayland or it doesn’t work? Can anyone weigh in here? Do I need to recompile something? I don’t mind doing so.

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I am using wayland and it doesn’t works for me either.

In Wayland, global menu works only with KDE/QT apps in KDE Plasma.

There has been an effort by KDE dev to implement a protocol for it for all applications, but for lack of support by other compositor mainly (GNOME, hyperland, weston…) it has been stuck in review for 3+ years.

Janet even prepared patches for both firefox and chrome.

This is listed in Plasma/Wayland Known Significant Issues - KDE Community Wiki

I use X11 and the global menu works (also for gtk). But which one do you mean, the one in the window decoration or the one as a panel?

I mean the one in the panel. The only package I have installed is appmenu-gtk-module. Maybe I am missing a package for this to work?

I don’t use wayland. So, this should not affect me (well, I hope not).

It’s strange, if it did work before, it should work now. Are you sure you selected the X11 session? Does the problem arise with all applications or only GTK applications?

@Guido_I

I installed the packages "“kwin-x11 and plasma-x11-session”. In my .xinitrc I have:

export XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
export DESKTOP_SESSION=plasma
exec startplasma-x11

and I start it with .zprofile like this:

if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
exec startx
fi

I don’t use a log in manager liks SDDM or whatever. Am I missing something important that needs to be started? In plasma-x11-session package the .desktop file launches startplasma-x11, so that part should be correct. Not really sure what the issue is. Wondering if I removed a package I need by accident (assuming this is not a program that is bundled with plasma-desktop).

Okay, so if I go into Global Menu Settings, change the preference in “Appearance” section to “Show full application menu” and click apply, it crashes plasma-desktop and the setting remains unchanged.

Tried removing it and adding it back. That also didn’t work, but the crashing stopped. I can use the word based menu, just not the button.

In a terminal:

kcmshell6 kcm_kded

Be sure that this service is activated.

@Guido_I
Yep, that service was running. Not really sure what it could be.

I have this related packages installed:

appmenu-glib-translator
appmenu-gtk-module
libdbusmenu-gtk3
libdbusmenu-glib
libdbusmenu-qt5

@Guido_I

Okay, so I was missing “appmenu-glib-translator” so I installed it and rebooted. But, still just a button that does nothing when clicked. All the other packages were already installed.

Do you mean that the whole menu works, while the only-button menu doesn’t?
Sorry, but I didn’t understand.

In that case then it is a known bug. It has already been fixed in Plasma 6.4.2 which came out today.

Also, using X11, you can install the material-kwin-decoration from the AUR to have the menu in the title bar of the window.

@Guido_I
Yes, the text menu does work, just not the button menu. Oh, okay that’s great news. So, just got to wait for an update today or tomorrow.

@Guido_I
Okay, so I updated today:

Name : plasma-desktop
Version : 6.4.2-1

but bug still persists. Maybe other packages need to be updated to reflect the change? Not really sure. Thanks for sticking with me on this issue. Guess I’ll keep checking for new updates and see if it automagically fixes itself.

Is it something kde and ubuntu could push since they use global menus. I know there needs to be a 3rd to get full approval but it could get things moving a bit. I know not from upstream projects, but from users there was work for a bit on getting it to work in wlroots? or mainly sway/wayfire. Don’t quote me on that last one though ha, it’s been a while since I looked into it on those platforms.
As a accessibility feature a global menu is vital if you navigate with the eyes or mouth if paralyzed.