Uninstalled applications aren't automatically removed from the Cinnamon menu

Question

I'm using Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish (x86-64) server install with Cinnamon 5.2.7.

(System installation steps can be found here)

This problem also did occur on Ubuntu server 22.10 installation.

I've seen that applications installed on the system are present in the menu.

New installed applications are also automatically added to it.

Does Cinnamon Menu not auto-refresh application shortcuts?

I use a separate /home partition-drive and only reinstall the system so I always get my files back after a reinstall. The point is I can't rapidly check in the menu what I still need to install since all my applications are still present in the menu, even if the application is not reinstalled yet. This is very inconvenient.

It seems it does automatically add new installed applications, but it doesn't automatically delete the shortcuts if the application was removed from the system.

How could I make it refresh/renew the shortcuts with the current available applications on the system ?

The Cinnamon menu comes with a reset option called "Restore System Configuration". But this doesn't set it to match with the available applications on the system. It rather reset it to the default shortcuts the Cinnamon menu should have on its install, seems to me.

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This question has also been posted on the Linux Mint forum here:

[UBUNTU] Cinnamon Menu auto-refresh application shortcuts ? - Linux Mint forum

Is there a chance I could use the /home/wingarmac/.local/share/applications/ location to make a script that would search for the outdated .desktop files ? (reference)

I search how to list installed applications and their path. I found how to list installed packages here.

I used the command:

dpkg -l |awk '/^[hi]i/{print $2}' > installation.txt

Now I'm looking how to search the exec path for each line in the installation.txt file output.

But:

• it doesn't sort the types of package: apllication/driver/plugin/...
• it doesn't list only GUI applications
• It doens't give me the path to launch it.

To make my search for this it get rather complicated, but is it still possible?

The other way would be to make a script that would check the .desktop file for error. How could I do it this way eventualy ?

Ubuntu Cinnamon menu execution path examples:

• protontricks --no-term --gui
• /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --profile-directory=Default --app-id=*some long id here corresponding to my gmail*
• wine C:/windows/notepad.exe
• /usr/sbin/gparted %f
• pkexec lightdm-settings
• dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.Cinnamon /org/Cinnamon org.Cinnamon.ToggleKeyboard

I don't know where to start, since there are so much variables.

This post treats the same issue, but the answer is that the problem has been solved by waiting for an undefined cron-task. This is no solution to me, since I would like to apply manually this cron-task if it exists to purge the not working shortcuts immediately.

So, could anyone elaborate what this cron-task is and how I can apply it when needed to me ?

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Answer 1

I tried the following installations to compare the the Cinnamon menu:

1. Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon 5.6.7
2. Ubuntu Server 22.04 with Mint PPA to install Cinnamon 5.4.12

For point 2 I did this on my own computer:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com A1715D88E1DF1F24 40976EAF437D05B5 3B4FE6ACC0B21F32 A6616109451BBBF2
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vanessa main upstream import backport romeo" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list'
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com vanessa main upstream import backport romeo" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list' 
sudo apt update

And I resolved the keyring issue like this:

sudo apt-key list

pub   rsa4096 2016-05-24 [SC]
      302F 0738 F465 C153 5761  F965 A661 6109 451B BBF2
uid           [ unknown] Linux Mint Repository Signing Key <[email protected]>
sub   rsa4096 2016-05-24 [E]

apt-key export 451BBBF2 | gpg --dearmour -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/mint.gpg

Where the last 8 digits of the next line after pub are used to create the gpg key.

After that I installed Cinnamon on the Ubuntu server with:

sudo su
apt install slick-greeter muffin cinnamon

Results in system information:

• Operation System: Linux Mint 21 Vanessa (x86-64)
• Cinnamon version: 5.4.12

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In both environements, all is working great.

1. I right-click on the Cinnamon menu to select "Configure..."
2. I can click on the option-button (top-right corner - 3 lines button)
3. Select "reset it to defaults"

Results in:

• Wine shortcuts not automaticaly removed after uninstall of the wine application
• All other application not present aren't represented.
• All installed application are present like it should.

This is a solution to me.

I can presume it was due to unmet depencies that couldn't be found with the apt install -f command and the version of the Cinnamon menu.

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Bash-installer-menu

I made a bash script menu to do this quickly when I need to reinstall my system.

Detailed description here.

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What it does:

• It resolves known issues with sound on Ubuntu and the Cinnamon network applet.

  • For more details about the network applet issue here
  • For more information about the trouble with sound on Ubuntu

• It makes it easy to add the Mint backports for Cinnamon install on Ubuntu

• It let you select the proprietary driver to install for graphics

  Since I only use Nvidia drivers on my computer, I just did add the version I personally need.

• It has an option to update the Ubuntu kernel to its last release

• It has a menu to install additional packages from the installation.txt file.

• This is togheter in a submenu with a command to export to installation.txt all what has been installed with the apt install command manually.

• It also has 3th party software options, with software I like to use, that uses dpkg -i to be installed.

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Download and execution:

git clone https://github.com/wingarmac/Bash-installer-menu.git
cd Bash-installer-menu
chmod a+x Installer-menu
sudo ./Installer-menu