*subsequent* SW install won't add new entries to "Applications" menu

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sun, 11 Sep 2011, Liam Proven wrote:

> On 11 September 2011 16:34, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> >
> >  yesterday, i was test installing some SW to my ubuntu 11.04 laptop
> > and at the tail end of the DVD 1 install (there are two DVDs), i was
> > asked if i wanted to add entries for "Product Maintenance" to the
> > Applications menu, i said yes and, sure enough, i had new entries show
> > up there underneath the main entry for the vendor.
> >
> >  i wanted to wipe all traces of that install and test it again
> > slightly differently so i deleted the entire install directory (this
> > was not a .deb-package based install, it all installed under my home
> > dir), then *manually* went to edit the Apps menu and deleted those
> > menu entries.
> >
> >  the problem now is that subsequent installs won't re-add those Apps
> > menu entries anymore.  it's as if there's still some trace of those
> > entries somewhere and the install procedure must somehow think they're
> > already there so it doesn't add them again.  where would i go looking
> > for something like that?  does this sound familiar to anyone?
>
> Blimey, that's a rather drastic way of removing software! TBH I'm
> not entirely surprised things went awry.
>
> Have you tried doing some detective work and discovering how it's
> actually installed, so that you can go looking for config files and
> so on elsewhere?

  this is proprietary software whose entire install appears to do
little more than dump everything into a single directory, so i don't
see what i did as being that drastic.

  in fact, what i did appears to work just fine in terms of just
deleting the entire install directory and re-installing.  the *only*
issue is that, the first time i installed, i got those Applications
menu entries; since then, i haven't, so i'm just curious as to how a
*normal* ubuntu install would check whether those entries need to be
added.

  i'm in the midst of some detective work doing just what you suggest,
but i'm asking what appears to be a general question -- if a ubuntu
package wants to add an entry to the Apps menu, where would it
normally check to see if that's already been done?  other than that
hiccup, everything else seems to be behaving just fine.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================