At the moment I am in Puppy Tahr 6 which uses jwm as the window manager. I know that Antix uses this manager as well. I am hoping that someone can explain to me in very simple basic terms how to add, remove directories and items from the JWM menu. At first I thought all you had to do was go into the .jwmrc file and make the changes there. That is not the case so my understanding is that I have to use the _root_.jwmrc file.

I would really appreciate an actual example of how to go about doing this. It sounds really convoluted but I'm sure with a little friendly nudge I will understand how to do this. I'm also going to install Antix 13.2 and try there as well. I know I can try icewm etc... but I really want to understand how this works in jwm. All part of my linux learning __{{emoticon}}__

Control Centre>Desktop>Edit JWM works for me in AntiX 14 testing.

On my older 13.2 and 11 installs

/home/username/.jwm is where I go to hand edit the menu in JWM.

Do you modify the .jwmrc file? That's the one I was modifying. Worked fine until I installed some apps and the menu went back to its default state.

rmcellig wrote:Do you modify the .jwmrc file? That's the one I was modifying. Worked fine until I installed some apps and the menu went back to its default state.

there is a file called"menu" file in home/user/.jwm that you can edit. as long as you stay out of the applications submenu, which will get overwritten with updates, you can add what you want.

there is a link in the control panel for"open jwm settings" that will open both jwmrc and menu files.

I am not a JWM guru. But I know in my older ~/.icewm/startup or other there is a way to comment out autoupdate menus.
I am not sure where that is in ~/.jwm folder though. Which text file.

Yeah, but he's running puppy... Things are not the same.

Off the main menu, look for a Setup menu, and look for a"Menu Manager - edit the menu" option

Thats where it is on Slacko 5.7.0... Sorry don't have Tahr loaded to look.

Also, in my puppy at least, if you edit the .jwmrc those changes get overwritten. I can look to see where I changed the main menu code at if you need me to.

Also, although many of us heare also run puppy versions, it would be better to ask puppy questions over on their forum because people there expect puppy questions, lol

I posted over at the puppy forum as well. Had no problem figuring out how to do it in Antix 13.2

ok, well, IN PUPPY (not antiX), you need to make the change in / etc/xdg/templates/_root_.jwmrc. After I make a change, I then go to their desktop, jwm window manager settings, application launch buttons in tray program and just click apply, and it regenerates everything...

For antix, I think dolphin_oracles instructions above might be correct, but I can't test as my antix 13.2 machine is disconnected while I test another pc with 14.5 using the network cable.

For example, on mine I added a bunch of programs to the main menu. You can see both the menu itself and the things I added in the pic. I basically copied some of them off other parts of their menu file in /root/.jwmrc

As far as the syntax itself to add a program to the menu file itself, once you are maintaining the correct file, the syntax is the same for both antiX and puppy, as follows...

The option I am adding displays #1"Take a Shot!" on the menu
It will have the icon named #2"tas.xpm" displayed next to it
And it will run a program called #3 tas from wherever it finds it in the path. All the little characters around those 3 pieces of info are critical, but are the same for all items on the menu, so just copy a menu line and change only the three things that control what gets displayed and what runs. The line to get it to display that reads, and in the following line I've changed to 1,2 and 3 the stuff that changes

<Program label="Take a Shot!" icon="tas.xpm">tas</Program>
<Program label="1111111111" icon="222222">333</Program>

BTW, i forgot the save my changes so my printscreen option isnt showing up in the pic

Thank you SOOOO!! much. Now I get it and I have properly modified my jwm menu. Now how can I:

1. Modify the ones that start with PUPPYMENU
2. Take the code I already entered and make that a .menu file so that things look nice and tidy?

rmcellig wrote:Thank you SOOOO!! much. Now I get it and I have properly modified my jwm menu. Now how can I:

1. Modify the ones that start with PUPPYMENU
2. Take the code I already entered and make that a .menu file so that things look nice and tidy?

Wouldn't you get quicker answers if you ask over at the Puppy forums? They seem a knowledgeable and helpful bunch.
Although both antiX and Puppy use jwm, the way the distros set them up is completely different.

It's just that thriftee was so helpful with his last post. I'll post something on the Puppy forum.

I'm not saying - don't post here. Sure you can, since there are some Puppy users here - thriftee, roky

I know but I really value this forum when it comes to help. Everyone I have had contact on this forum is helpful patient and very knowledgable. __{{emoticon}}__

I posted on the Puppy forum as well.

Yeah, I had seen the antiX JWM menu in 13.5 and 14, and they are what I'd call pretty"normal" by comparison to the puppy ones.

I think you'd be better off seeing if you could add personal menu entries or desktop entries that would then cause puppy's menu generator to generate what you want, rather than to modify those submenus, which get generated by templates near that _root_ one. From a philosophy standpoint, I can tell you that I try to
1. minimize the number of modifications that I make
2. try to keep all my mods in one place so I don't need to go hunting for them to reuse them
3. keep my mods simple as possible
4. and one learned from Dave here, keep a copy in a file named for that machine in a directory structure matching the structure off the / so that I can easily save and implement the same changes on another setup, for example if they came out with a newer version of the puppy you are running, how would you reimplement your changes?


anti is correct that you should get better answers there, but I had been wanting a screenshot option ANYWAY on mine and so just did a printscreen of it as I did it for your benefit. I'm pretty much a newbie over there and don't want to upset people because there is a tremendous amount that I don't know, that they might, and I'd like to see their answers, too.

PS: I tried to update my instructions above so that someone could use them if changing a JWM menu in antiX, also, since the syntax is the same. Its just that in antiX its maintained in a different file, as pointed out by dolphin_oracle above. Also, I think in antiX, adding a desktop entry in /usr/share/applications and regenerating the menu might be a"cleaner" way to add menu options to the submenu's, IMO. I believe that works in puppy, too.