There are many users who do not want to use Unity as the official desktop or simply cannot use Ubuntu because of its hardware, but they do want to obtain the same functions as in the official flavor, such as the Global Menu. In this small tutorial we show you how to get Global Menu in Xubuntu 16.04, the official flavor for teams with few resources.
In this case, to achieve the same functionality as Global Menu, we will use TopMenu, an application that we find in the official Ubuntu repositories (Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, etc ...) and that will allow us to have Global Menu in Xubuntu.
Global Menu Installation
We install TopMenu as follows, open a console and write the following:
sudo apt install xfce4-topmenu-plugin libtopmenu-client-gtk2-0 libtopmenu-server-gtk2-0 libtopmenu-client-gtk3-0 libtopmenu-server-gtk3-0 topmenu-gtk2 topmenu-gtk3
Global Menu Settings
Once everything is installed, before restarting the system we have to create a text file that we will call «topmenu-gtk.sh»And that we will save in /etc/profile.d. In the text file we will write the following:
#!/bin/sh export GTK_MODULES=$GTK_MODULES:topmenu-gtk-module
Well now we have everything ready, we only need to insert in the Xubuntu panel the item that refers to TopMenu, so that the Xubuntu panel works as if it had a Global Menu. So in this case we have to go to Panel–> Panel Preferences–> Items–> Add Items and we select TopMenu.
After this the Global Menu will work but we have to take into account two things. The first one that TopMenu does not work with QT libraries so we won't be able to get it to work on Kubuntu. The second thing is that TopMenu has a bug that causes does not work on panels where they do not have a solid color, so you will have to use a panel with this appearance.
Now, once ready, we have to restart the system so that the new changes are incorporated and you will see how the Global Menu that we have created works. The steps are simple and anyone can do it, so now there is no excuse to have Global Menu on Xubuntu 16.04.