Installing and running the application menu As the menu is no | Qubes OS📢

Installing and running the application menu

As the menu is not yet part of Qubes by default, you have to install it yourself with:

[user@dom0 ~]$ sudo qubes-dom0-update --enablerepo=qubes-dom0-unstable qubes-desktop-linux-menu


The menu can then be added to the XFCE panel as a widget, with Panel -> Add New Items -> Launcher, and in the Launcher add the Open Qubes Application Menu option. Normally, the process that provides the menu with data will be running in the background, but it will only start on the next reboot. To avoid the need for a reboot, you can just run the following in a dom0 terminal:

[user@dom0 ~]$ qubes-app-menu &


There are also several helpful options in the command line for users who want more customization, like --keep-visible (if you want the menu to be always visible) or --page [N] to select the page at which the menu should be opened (0 for apps, 1 for favorites, and 2 for system tools). The entire option list is available, as usual, through qubes-app-menu --help.

Feedback and testing

As this is very much a first release, bugs are likely. Please report any issues you discover (https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/issue-tracking/).

We’d also very much welcome anonymous feedback on the new menu through our survey tool (https://survey.qubes-os.org/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=255277&lang=en).

The current plan is to have this menu become the default in Qubes 4.2, but of course compatibility with other menus will be maintained. Our current development status can be seen in the GitHub project for the new application menu (https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/projects/12).

Enjoy!