Eclipse IDE Global Menu Hack On Ubuntu

If you are among the countless people using Eclipse IDE as your platform for software development in Java (or other supported languages) on Ubuntu, then you may have noticed that it does not integrate at all into the global menu on Unity. Not a deal breaker actually, right. This does not even hamper you with your work at the least. I know it doesn’t for me.

However, if you are one of those who always strive for consistency on their Ubuntu desktop, then maybe this one bothers you a bit.

I’m not the least bothered but after getting back to working on Ubuntu after ‘being forced’ to using Windows for months, I finally decided to search for a way to get Eclipse to use global menu. Fortunately the InterWebs is always full of answers.

This one I found and is quite an easy hack.

The answer is all here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/eclipse/+bug/618587/comments/46

Quoting the solution from the said page, the steps are quite easy,

No need to actually rebuild the appmenu-gtk, but.. the following is obviously a hack:

step 1:
$ sudo vim /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/menuproxies/libappmenu.so

step 2: (search for “Eclipse”)
/Eclipse<return>

step 3: (replace “E” with “X”)
rX

step 4: (save)
ZZ

step 5: (maybe optional, not sure)
sudo ldconfig

step 6:
Profit!

Note that I skipped Step 5. The hack still works without running ldconfig.

As always, be careful when editing system files. Make a backup of libappmenu.so first before you continue doing the steps above. The said file is not a regular text file, so be doubly careful while editing.

Do not forget to start/restart Eclipse for the modifications to take effect.

* By the way, I am using Ubuntu 12.04. Step 1 might have  a different path depending on the version you have on your system. I believe the solution shared above works on Ubuntu 11.10 as well.

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If you are among the countless people using Eclipse IDE as your platform for software development in Java (or other supported languages) on Ubuntu, then you may have noticed that it does not integrate at all into the global menu on Unity. Not a deal breaker actually, right. This does not even hamper you with…