FAQ

What is MeowMenu?

MeowMenu is a standalone Xfce panel launcher with presets, Places, flexible layouts, keyboard navigation, and an optional Calculator. It originated as a fork of Whisker Menu, but it has its own settings and release cycle.

Which release should I test?

Choose a release candidate for a more stable experience. Choose a regular 0.x.x release for the latest features and improvements. See Support and compatibility for current details.

The plugin doesn’t appear in ‘Add New Items’ after install.

Run xfce4-panel -r to restart the panel. If it still doesn’t appear, verify the .so file installed correctly by running ls /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libmeowmenu.so (or ls /usr/local/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libmeowmenu.so for source installs). If the file is absent, the package may not have installed cleanly. Try reinstalling.

My custom preset isn’t loading.

Check three things: (1) the file is in ~/.local/share/meowmenu/presets/; (2) the filename stem matches the Id field inside the file (e.g., my-preset.meowpreset must contain Id=my-preset); (3) you restarted the panel with xfce4-panel -r after placing the file.

My favourites disappeared after testing a development build. Can they be recovered?

MeowMenu preserves the favourite identifiers that are still stored, including applications that are temporarily unavailable. It cannot reconstruct choices that an earlier development build already erased. Restore a saved preset that contains the missing favourites, or add the applications again manually.

Can I contribute a translation?

Yes — edit the relevant po/<lang>.po file, run msgfmt --check --check-format -o /dev/null po/<lang>.po, and open a pull request. The status page separates technical validity, translated text, intentional English fallback, and fluent review; no language is marked fluent-reviewed before maintainer review. See translation status.