How can menu bars that require a right click be activated like Ubuntu versions <10.10? [closed]

Question

I've noticed that NetworkManager only has a single, left or right, click menu and no longer has an About menu option to show it's splash screen. In fact all the top bar mini short cut icons have been amputated and crippled leaving them with no rights.

This severely impacts on our custom aps., similar to FireFox bookmarks, which can no longer be right clicked to bring up a context menu. It is possible to disengage FF's File|Edit|... menu bar from the top by running it in safe-mode so the menu bar is resident in a window, restoring right clicks, but our aps. do not have "safe modes".

How can right clicks in menu bars be restored?

reference

Answer 1

They cannot, because this is a feature, not a bug.

Ubuntu is designed so that the menu and notification icons are simpler to use, and as a result, the left click vs right click issue is no more.

If you would still like to be able to right click, you would have to use another Destkop Environment other than Ubuntu's Unity, such as KDE or XFCE. If there is a missing feature in a particular application, then you should report a bug against that application, though I would warn that not all "missing features" are "missing features" indeed.

For example, Network Manager in Ubuntu is designed to work this way, with only one menu, and without the about option (which in reality is not that meaningful for a network icon).

Answer 2

Basically, the design of Unity's Panel-Service does not account for ANY right click context menus. Consequently, software using the right mouse button (Firefox, our aps etc.) will not function as designed. It is necessary to deactivate Unity functionality as outlined below. Note that Indicator right click functions will not benefit.

If menu bars are repatriated back to their own application window and away from the host(ILE) Unity top line environment (aka the Global Application Menu), right-click functionality is restored for them.

See:

• How do I disable the global application menu?

To disable Global Menu for Firefox, Go to 'Tools' –> 'Add-ons' –> 'Extensions' and Disable 'Global Menu Bar integration'.
This step by itself is inadequate to restore right mouse button functionality unless the correct steps in the link above are done.

Unfortunately, the micro short cut icon indicators at the top still require that the host(ILE) Unity-Panel-Service environment itself be modified to activate right-click menus.