I’m trying to help a group convert to Gnome from KDE, all on Solaris. Previously, a root-window popup menu had been set up (under KDE) so the users could start one or more of their applications without knowing the underlying UNIX system. Typically, their (X-Window) applications would be started by running a shell script (from KDE) since potentially several executables would need running and/or environment variables set for an application to come up. I didn’t see how in Gnome the default popup menu could be altered, so I started looking at Gnome Extensions. Also, it’s unclear if Gnome Extensions are meant to handle/execute separate processes, potentially at the same time. Before I go too far down that rabbit hole, was wondering if there was another significant alternative I may have missed? I supposed I could write an actual program to replace the KDE functionality, but was hoping Gnome would have something. Any suggestions?
The global popup menu is a part of GNOME Shell, so modifying it would require an extension.
There’s some documentation for working with Popup Menus, and a guide to Getting Started with extensions. We also have a Matrix channel where you can ask for help from the community.
Thank you, will follow those leads! I had started learning about extensions, but it wasn’t clear if it would suffice. I noticed it mentioned that spawning subprocesses wasn’t recommended in extensions.
But still have much to learn!
Spawning subprocesses in extensions is discouraged, because it’s very common for people to try and “cheat” around programming by doing things like GLib.spawn_command_line_sync('bash -c "ls | grep some.txt').
For your use case, I would personally use proper .desktop files, but I’m sure there are plenty of way to implement it. 
There is a popular extension to have an Applications menu in gnome-shell’s top bar. You can add your custom launchers there. See also the System Administrator’s Guide on setting favorite applications for all users.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.