I created this topic to request your help in testing the mate-menus package which I have updated and is currently in my PPA.
Probably you are already aware that the menu-editor in MATE does not work properly. It keeps crashing if you try to edit anything. Sometimes it crashes immediately, sometimes takes a while, but crash it sure does. So if you thought it did not crash, it is possible you did some quick changes and lucky it did not crash immediately! There are several bug reports (both on launchpad and upstream) and UM community discussion related to this. The oldest I saw was for UM-22.04, so it is at least 4 years old. Fortunately, we have a fix for it now!
I have created an updated source package and submitted to Debian MATE team for review and inclusion. But in the meantime, I have created binary packages for UM and uploaded to my PPA. I have tested it and it works. However, I would really appreciate if some of you can test it and give your feedback.
WARNING:Please, do the test(s) on virtual machine and not on a production/daily-driver machine! I cannot stress this enough.
Installing:
Add my PPA: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:suivue/mate-1.28-test
Do an ‘apt update’: sudo apt update
You should see message saying some packages can be updated. Run, apt list --upgradeable and confirm you see updates for 4 (related) packages:
mate-menus
libmate-menu2
libmate-menu-dev and
gir1.2-matemenu-2.0
If confirmed, do an upgrade: sudo apt full-upgrade
Once completed, log-out and re-login. If you reboot, all the better.
Testing:
Launch menu-editor by any one of the following means,
Right-click on classic menu and select ‘Edit Menus’.
Search and launch ‘Main Menu’. For classic menu it is under, “System→Preferences→Look and Feel→Main Menu”
Open a terminal and run mozo
Once the menu-editor is open, randomly select/deselect items from either panes.
Click on ‘Properties’ and close it.
In between click on ‘Preference’ or ‘System’. I think this is the actual trigger point.
Leave editor open for sometime.
Repeat above steps.
Try at least 2 or 3 times.
Report your findings.
I hope there will be no crash but just in case if there is, please give as much details as possible.
This package is important because it has a Release-Critical (RC) bug and is blocking other packages not just in MATE but also in Cinnamon and possibly other projects. So, any help from you is highly appreciated.
EDIT: You can test it on either UbuntuMATE noble (24.04) or resolute (26.04) or stonking (26.10, the daily builds and monthly snapshots are available).
I understand. IIRC, I read you recommendation on UM community. Using menulibre was one work-around. The second was to change the theme. How changing theme fixed the menu-editor crash or how consistent/permanent it was, I do not know (may be I can test). But if you can spare some time and test on a VM and give your feedback it would be great.
I actually have a spare laptop that currently has 24.04 on it unmodified and can test that on bare metal. I will certainly have time for that later today.
I am delighted that you are working on this
I had Mozo crashing often on me and it is quite easy to trigger a crash,
Ofcourse I will test, no problem. Here are the first results:
UM 26.10: Mozo has not crashed yet, works perfectly as it should but when starting from terminal it gives this warning:
(mozo:4320): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:57:28.145: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
Works as it should on UM 24.04 without crashing.
But when closing it emits this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/Mozo/MainWindow.py", line 500, in on_item_tree_popup_menu
popup.popup(None, None, None, None, button, event_time)
^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'popup'
EDIT: Tried again several times to see if this closing error on UM24.04 would trigger again but it seems I can’t trigger it anymore. It closes successfully without any messages.
I will keep on testing and keep you posted on any anomalies
The only question I have is, given that Bazaar site is going away (and I believe that includes Launchpad), aren’t PPAs at risk of disappearing at any time?
Or am I completely mistaken as to where the PPAs are stored/managed, and the scope of planned infrastructure retirements?
The bazaar code hosting (which not really many projects have used for the last decade) is being turned off on launchpad simply because most projects there use git (on launchpad), launchpad is fine and healthy it is just shaving off obsolete features that only few people still use (most active projects have transitioned to git on launchpad long ago)
Sorry it took me so long to get back but I can report no issues so far. Did some basic editing: moving entries up and down,from one category to another etc.
So if you thought it did not crash, it is possible you did some quick changes and lucky it did not crash immediately! 
There are several bug reports (both on launchpad and upstream) and UM community discussion related to this. The oldest I saw was for UM-22.04, so it is at least 4 years old. Fortunately, we have a fix for it now!
. It should be available to us through official channels in due course.
.