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I have used succesfully used for some time GNU Emacs 23.1.50.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.18.0) on Ubuntu 9.10. With all kinds of plugins and additions.

Now I have installed a completely new Ubuntu, that's 11.04, and I installed most of the emacs and related emacs plugins with apt-get.

This is what I have installed.

i A emacs23                                                                                    - The GNU Emacs editor (with GTK+ user interface)
i A emacs23-bin-common                                                                         - The GNU Emacs editor's shared, architecture dependent files
i A emacs23-common                                                                             - The GNU Emacs editor's shared, architecture independent infrastructure
v   emacs23-gtk                                                                                -
i A emacsen-common

And my version now is: GNU Emacs 23.2.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.4) of 2011-04-04 on crested, modified by Debian

The problem is, that on when I enter any mode (css, sgml, org, sql, c, text, etc), whatever menus I have between Tools and Help do not show. So the main menu item shows (like SQL in sql mode), but when I mouseover it, it does not contain any items.

First, I thought is one of the *.el files I have in my .emacs.d or I blame it on pymacs rope ropemode ropemacs etc. But then I deleted all from my .emacs file and my .emacs.d folder and I have the same strange thing. What is extremely weird, is that sometimes, I don't know how, when I start emacs, the problem is gone. This is like one in 50 tries. I first thought I did something (like when I uninstalled magit), and blame it on that. But then I closed and opened my emacs again, without modifying anything and the menus were broken again.

No that I installed back my .emacs .emacs.d and my plugins, since it's not their fault, I have for example on scratch buffer a Lisp-Interaction menu beginning with "Complete Lisp symbol" and then a YASnippet empty menu. If I switch to a .py file, the first menu after the Tools menu is IM-Python, which in fact has the sub-menu items that Lisp-Interaction menu has. So when I hover on IM-Python I get "Complete Lisp Symbol", "Indent-or-Pretty print", etc. and then the rest of menus Python, Yasnippet, Rope are empty. And the last menu, Help, is good again.

I really don't know what should I try more, or how to go further and debug, I've been fighting with it for hours.

PS: oh yeah, so now I discovered an answer on stackoverflow for a similar issue, so when I hit F10 (menu-bar-open) the menu fixes, the submenu items appear correctly. But when I open a new file and want to use the menu again, it's broken and have to hit F10 again and it works. So it's not so bad after all :) but anyway, if you have a clue please let me know.

Thanks, Stefan

StefanH
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  • Why would someone need menus on Emacs ? They kill productivity. Learn about `M-x` and `C-h`. Look [there](http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/LCSR-Computing/some-docs/emacs-chart.html). – Alexandre C. May 22 '11 at 09:16
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    I have many shortcuts and commands I use with M-x. But for example, in IM-Python menu I can navigate to any class or method I need in python. There are various plugins like Yasnippet or different major-modes that have useful commands there, and it's very quick to take a look and use the menu or learn what's available. I'm not using for my daily commands which I've assigned shortcuts to. – StefanH May 22 '11 at 10:13
  • thanks for the F10 tip - that works for me (temporarily) – Dang Khoa Jul 29 '11 at 05:18

1 Answers1

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Try and duplicate the issue with a plain-vanilla emacs. To do that, startup emacs like this:

$ emacs -q --no-site-init

It should work as expected. If it does, then make a copy of your .emacs file and in the copy, delete half of it, then restart emacs normally. If the problem is there, then cut down your .emacs by half again; if it's not there, startup with the other half of the original .emacs file. Lather, rinse, repeat until you find the offending code that mucks everything up.

If it does not work when emacs -q --no-site-init is called, then there's something wonky going on in the interaction between your emacs binary and the window manager, which will be a lot tougher to track down.

Joe Casadonte
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