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Removing KDE icons in gnome / remove gnome icons in KDE

This tutorial is for those people that like to run gnome and KDE side by side. This will allow you to only show the native apps in the menus within each desktop environment instead of showing everything.

update: I wrote a script to automate this process. If you’d like to use that instead it is available below.

You can run the following commands to make gnome menu backups and KDE menu backups prior to making the changes, if you want to be safe.

mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup{gnome,kde}

cp /usr/share/applications/* ~/.menu-backup/gnome

cp /usr/share/applications/kde/* ~/.menu-backup/kde

To update the menu listings then run (one continued line):

sudo -i

cd /usr/share/applications/ ; for i in *; do echo “ShowOnlyIn=GNOME” >> $i; done ; cd /usr/share/applications/kde/ ; for i in *; do echo “ShowOnlyIn=KDE” >> $i; done ; exit

The changes should take place immediately and you should now only see the native apps in each menu. Enjoy.

If everything seems to work the way you like you can delete the backup directories with the following commands:

rm -r ~/.menu-backup-gnome

rm -r ~/.menu-backup-kde

I suppose I could write a small shell script to do the work for you.. would anyone prefer that? I got bored and wrote it.

menu-cleaner.sh v0.1

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Post a comment — Trackback URI RSS 2.0 feed for these comments This entry (permalink) was posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 10:15 am by Christer Edwards. Filed in GNOME.

29 Comments

Lucian

Rock on! I have been asking this everywhere with no reply. Awesome!

Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 7:25 pm | Permalink
Lucian

Btw, is this a permanent fix or will I need to run this everytime I install new applications?

Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
Ubuntu Tutorials

Lucian – It is not a permanent fix, and I’ll need to update a bit of the code to allow it to cleanly be re-run after new apps are installed.. I’ll try to set some time for that.

Posted on 18-Jul-07 at 7:44 pm | Permalink
Lucian

Thanks for the reply. What will I need to do manually to run this script again?

NOTE: I have noticed some changes in the script since last night. Is it now possible to re-run the script or was something else fixed?

Posted on 19-Jul-07 at 3:56 am | Permalink
tidiman07

does it work with xfce4 too? Xubuntu-desktop? I’m gonna try it.

Posted on 25-Jul-07 at 8:30 am | Permalink
Ubuntu Tutorials

tidiman07 – it does not work with XFCE unless you run it *before* you install XFCE. The problem is the desktop menu icons are located in the same place for XFCE and gnome, whereas KDE places them in a separate directory.

If I get time to keep working on this I could put something together, but currently it’s gnome and KDE specific

Posted on 25-Jul-07 at 10:07 am | Permalink
Carthik Sharma

I had written about this over a year ago. It is good to see it get around, though.

Posted on 26-Jul-07 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
Freddy Martinez

Hi, I am also looking to get this to work on Xfce. I would like to install Xubuntu so I can work with Documentation easier but dislike all the additional icons that clutter up the K menu. Have you done anything with editing the script? Also, a not so elegant solution would be to have the script run in a cron job so that it eventually cleans up the menus for KDE & GNOME.

Posted on 26-Jul-07 at 6:27 pm | Permalink
Brad

404 on the script..

Posted on 04-Oct-07 at 9:51 pm | Permalink
Ubuntu Tutorials

Brad – thank you for pointing that out. I have updated the link. It should work now.

Posted on 05-Oct-07 at 7:42 am | Permalink
Chris

Will this work on Fedora as well? I have both GNOME and KDE on Fedora 7 and I was looking for such a fix.

Posted on 23-Oct-07 at 2:00 am | Permalink
Ubuntu Tutorials

Chris – as far as I know it should work in KDE, although I have not directly tested it.

Posted on 23-Oct-07 at 6:37 am | Permalink
Chris

So far the terminal commands don’t work exactly as they shoud, some of the backing up had to be done manually. Right now I’m out but I’ll try the rest of it when I get home.

Posted on 23-Oct-07 at 10:07 am | Permalink
Chris

Ok, so I finally got to run it in the terminal and it returned the following which I don’t know it it is normal or not:
-bash: kde: Is a directory
-bash: kde4: Is a directory
-bash: screensavers: Is a directory
logout

And the KDE menus are not hidden nor are the GNOME ones in KDE.

Posted on 25-Oct-07 at 1:36 am | Permalink
Annoym

I happen to have the same problem that Chris has.

Posted on 11-Nov-07 at 6:30 pm | Permalink
Zlatan Kadragi?

The problem in Ubuntu 7.10 is in “ShowOnlyIn=GNOME” and “ShowOnlyIn=KDE”
That parts should be written as:
“OnlyShowIn=GNOME” and “OnlyShowIn=KDE” (note: >”“”< )

Posted on 24-Nov-07 at 8:34 am | Permalink
Jlar

Just a little fix.

If you’re running the commands manually, the first one should be:

“mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup/{gnome,kde}”

Posted on 27-Nov-07 at 3:11 pm | Permalink
Daniel

For those looking for the menu-cleaner.sh script: http://www.programming-designs.com/linux/menu-cleaner.sh

This tutorial didn’t help in Gutsy so I had to use the script instead.

Posted on 27-Dec-07 at 3:34 pm | Permalink
Lewis

Do I just copy the entire code above as one line, and do I need both GNOME and KDE already installed (one I’ve seen said to run part of the code first, then install KDE and then run the second part of the code)

Posted on 20-Feb-08 at 9:44 am | Permalink
michele

There is a way to go back? i loose my backup and i want the kde apps back on my gnome menu. It’s possible?

Posted on 10-Jul-08 at 8:48 am | Permalink
locazoreloco

THIS DOESN’T WORK IN HARDY, HELP!!! I TRIED WITH THE ORIGINAL POST AND THE CHANGES THAT ZLATAN SUGGEST BUT NOTHING HAPPENED!

Posted on 26-Jul-08 at 6:00 am | Permalink
jersoncito

The script that Daniel said

http://www.programming-designs.com/linux/menu-cleaner.sh

worked with KDE4 for me. but I had to change the script with a text editor (kde to kde4)

Thanks

Posted on 02-Aug-08 at 2:52 pm | Permalink
eric gunstone

I ran just installed kubuntu-desktop in ubuntu 8.04 Gmone and didn’t like all the mix of menu items, I ran menu-cleaner.sh and it seems to have cleaned up most of rhe Gnome menus but now i don’t have hardly any icons in the KDE menu’s… how do I restore them?

Posted on 10-Oct-08 at 10:37 pm | Permalink
Martin Espericueta

I’m running 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. I have Ubuntu – and will be installing Kubuntu.

Do I have to modify the script in any way?

Thanks,

Martin

Posted on 16-Nov-08 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
Henry

The first command is missing a virgule.

mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup{gnome,kde}

should be

mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup/{gnome,kde}

Posted on 09-Jan-09 at 11:31 am | Permalink
oiad

for intrepid you should download the above .sh file and then run it in the terminal once
./menu-cleaner.sh
then open it in a text editor and change both of the two
/usr/share/applications/kde
lines to:
/usr/share/applications/kde4

This way it will get all of the apps for you.

Posted on 11-Feb-09 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
mrHappyPants

or you can simply copy the block of code and chance the kde to kde4. ie change it to:

#!/bin/bash
###########
# menu-cleaner.sh will consolidate your desktop environment menus, meaning
# that your gnome applications will only show in gnome and your KDE
# applications will only show in KDE. This came from my biggest pet peeve
# of seeing *all* of the applications in both desktop environments.
#
# BUGS: I have no idea, it's a really simple app. Report them if you find them
# at christer.edwards@ubuntu.com
#
# LICENSE: menu-cleaner.sh is released under the Public Domain.

if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "##############################################"
echo "# You must be root / sudo to run this script #"
echo "##############################################"
exit 1

else

echo
echo "Creating backup folder"
echo
mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup/{gnome,kde} &>/dev/null
cp /usr/share/applications/* ~/.menu-backup/gnome/ &>/dev/null
cp /usr/share/applications/kde/* ~/.menu-backup/kde/ &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "backup failed, exiting menu-cleaner"
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating gnome menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=GNOME" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "gnome menu cleaner failed, exiting."
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating KDE menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/kde/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=KDE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "KDE menu cleaner failed, exiting"
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating KDE4 menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/kde4/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=KDE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "KDE4 menu cleaner failed, exiting"
exit 1
fi

echo "menu-cleaner successful. Enjoy"
echo

fi

Posted on 15-Apr-09 at 11:42 am | Permalink
mrHappyPants

also, i made a copy of the contents of /usr/share/applications/ before and after installing XFCE and compared the two files. The extra applications were obviously installed by XFCE and thus would preferably only appear in XFCE, so thats a messy way of altering the script for those who are interested. The following is a list of my differences, may be different for you guys though

exo-preferred-applications.desktop
fedora-mousepad.desktop
fedora-Thunar-bulk-rename.desktop
fedora-Thunar.desktop
fedora-Thunar-folder-handler.desktop
fedora-thunar-volman-settings.desktop
fedora-xarchiver.desktop
Terminal.desktop
xfce4-appfinder.desktop
xfce4-autostart-editor.desktop
xfce4-mixer.desktop
xfce4-panel-manager.desktop
xfce-backdrop-settings.desktop
xfce-display-settings.desktop
xfce-keyboard-settings.desktop
xfce-menueditor.desktop
xfce-mixer-settings.desktop
xfce-mouse-settings.desktop
xfce-session-settings.desktop
xfce-settings-manager.desktop
xfce-splash-settings.desktop
xfce-ui-settings.desktop
xfce-wm-settings.desktop
xfce-wmtweaks-settings.desktop
xfce-workspaces-settings.desktop

Posted on 15-Apr-09 at 12:27 pm | Permalink
mrHappyPants

okay so my posts are probably starting to get annoying, but for anyone who is interested, my updated /bin/menu-cleaner is:

#!/bin/bash
###########
# menu-cleaner.sh will consolidate your desktop environment menus, meaning
# that your gnome applications will only show in gnome and your KDE
# applications will only show in KDE. This came from my biggest pet peeve
# of seeing *all* of the applications in both desktop environments.
#
# BUGS: I have no idea, it's a really simple app. Report them if you find them
# at christer.edwards@ubuntu.com
#
# LICENSE: menu-cleaner.sh is released under the Public Domain.

if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "##############################################"
echo "# You must be root / sudo to run this script #"
echo "##############################################"
exit 1

else

echo
echo "Creating backup folder"
echo
mkdir -p ~/.menu-backup/{gnome,kde} &>/dev/null
cp /usr/share/applications/* ~/.menu-backup/gnome/ &>/dev/null
cp /usr/share/applications/kde/* ~/.menu-backup/kde/ &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "backup failed, exiting menu-cleaner"
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating gnome menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=GNOME" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "gnome menu cleaner failed, exiting."
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating KDE menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/kde/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=KDE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "KDE menu cleaner failed, exiting"
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating KDE4 menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/kde4/
for i in *; do echo "OnlyShowIn=KDE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "KDE4 menu cleaner failed, exiting"
exit 1
fi

echo "Updating XFCE menu entries"
echo
cd /usr/share/applications/
for i in exo-preferred-applications.desktop; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
for i in fedora-mousepad.desktop; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
for i in fedora-*hunar*; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
for i in fedora-xarchiver.desktop; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
for i in Terminal.desktop; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
for i in xfce*; do echo "OnlyShowIn=XFCE" >> $i; done &>/dev/null
if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]
then
echo "XFCE menu cleaner failed, exiting"
exit 1
fi

echo "menu-cleaner successful. Enjoy"
echo

fi

Posted on 15-Apr-09 at 12:36 pm | Permalink

8 Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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