KDE plasma global menu integration with --hostdbus

[4O4]

Hi, awesome project! I'm just wondering if it is possible to show app's menu in host OS global menu (e.g. the default one in KDE Plasma) for more seamless experience? Maybe some tricks with --hostdbus and some libraries inside the container? I tried to experiment a bit by myself but I don't know too much about internals of global menu handling yet, I'll appreciate any help.

[mviereck]

Do you mean the regular application menu? You can create a desktop starter icon with option --starter, e.g.

x11docker --starter --clipboard x11docker/lxde leafpad

Move this desktop file in your home folder to ~./local/share/applications. It should appear in your global menu.

---

Edit: You can edit the .desktop file with a text editor to adjust it.

#!/usr/bin/xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
# x11docker desktop file
Type=Application
Name=x11docker-lxde leafpad
Exec=x11docker   --clipboard -- 'x11docker/lxde' 'leafpad'
Icon=x11docker
Comment=
Categories=System
Keywords=docker x11docker x11docker lxde leafpad 
TryExec=x11docker   --clipboard -- 'x11docker/lxde' 'leafpad'

The most interesting lines are Name=, Icon= and Categories=. Some desktop environment provide an editor. E.g. on Xfce i can right-click the file and change icon and name.

[4O4]

No, what you're talking about is an application launcher :) I mean the macOS-like global menu usually docked in panel at the top of the screen

[mviereck]

Oh, ok. I've seen something similar once in Unity desktop, but I did not use Unity.

Try out if any combination of --hostdbus, --hostnet or --hostipc helps. Though, I would assume it is a feature of the window manager KWin and should work ootb for all applications without configuring them.

[4O4]

Including all of these flags was my second thought but it is apparently not enough :( It doesn't work out of the box either. There are two scenarios where the menubar stays visible inside the application instead of being hidden there and displayed in global menu instead:

• when gui application is running as root (no containerization)
• when gui app is running in the container

I don't think that it's possible to overcome the first case, because there are two different users and they don't share d-bus session.

I hope however, that there is some workaround for second option since all the x11docker stuff seems to be running as current user and it's possible to share dbus. But as I said - I don't have enough knowledge so I maybe totally wrong.

[mviereck]

I hope however, that there is some workaround for second option since all the x11docker stuff seems to be running as current user and it's possible to share dbus.

Currently --hostdbus only shares the user session dbus socket, but not the dbus system socket. Try to add --hostdbus --sharedir /run/dbus/system-bus-socket. Also try with different applications. I'd assume that QT5 applications will integrate better than GTK applications. x11docker/plasma konsole is worth a try, or x11docker/lxqt pcmanfm-qt.

[4O4]

Awesome, it works both with and without --sharedir option (--hostdbus is enough)! I guess it's a matter of the libs installed in the plasma image then

[mviereck]

Awesome, it works both with and without --sharedir option (--hostdbus is enough)! I

Glad to hear that. :-)

I guess it's a matter of the libs installed in the plasma image then

First guesses: Maybe packages qdbus and/or qdbus-qt5. Maybe libqt5widgets5.

[mviereck]

There is a piece of code in x11docker that may block the global menu integration. Indeed it is surprising that it worked for x11docker/plasma konsole and --hostdbus at all.

At line 4000 x11docker sets some environment variables to avoid possible xpra issues:

  echo   "  echo 'export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= QT_X11_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR=1 MWNOCAPTURE=true MWNO_RIT=true MWWM=allwm'"

You could remove that line (or at least QT_X11_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR=1) and try out further if some more applications integrate into the global menu.

[4O4]

I'm guessing these might be some legacy or Ubuntu-specific variables and I am using arch-based distro which maybe doesn't care about them. Anyway I'm gonna test it when I have some spare time. Thank you for your help!

On Thu, 27 Sep 2018, 22:33 mviereck, notifications@github.com wrote:

There is a piece of code in x11docker that may block the global menu integration. Indeed it is surprising that it worked for x11docker/plasma konsole and --hostdbus at all.

At line 4000 x11docker sets some environment variables to avoid possible xpra issues:

echo " echo 'export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY= QT_X11_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR=1 MWNOCAPTURE=true MWNO_RIT=true MWWM=allwm'"

You could remove that line (or at least QT_X11_NO_NATIVE_MENUBAR=1) and try out further if some more applications integrate into the global menu.

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