Code

Music · Gravity Chasm

Sep 25 09:41

GNOME 45–50 · GPL-3.0 · Native D-Bus

Your app menus, back in one bar.

FUHGAWZ Global Menu brings application menubars directly into the GNOME Shell top panel, paired with an active live indicator. Track Nautilus file copies, stream media playback with animated Cairo wave equalizers, and extract menus across Wayland, GTK 4, GTK 3, and Qt apps.

Install extension GitHub Releases

Release

curl -sLO https://github.com/katon26/fuhgawz-global-menu/releases/latest/download/fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io.shell-extension.zip && gnome-extensions install --force fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io.shell-extension.zip && gnome-extensions enable fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io

✓ Live Media & MPRIS ✓ Zero window clutter ✓ Wayland & X11

Code

Music · Gravity Chasm - Conan

Sep 10 09:41

extension.js systemMenu.js

1 import { Extension } from 'resource:///org/gnome/shell/extensions/extension.js';

2 import { GlobalMenu } from './src/hoverSubMenu.js';

4 export default class FuhgawzGlobalMenu extends Extension {

5 enable() {

6 this._menu = new GlobalMenu({ target: 'top-bar', registrar: true });

7 this._menu.attach();

8 }

9 }

Core Engine · Tier 1 gtk-modules=appmenu-gtk-module

Direct App Menu Integration

File, Edit, View, and Help from the focused application are extracted and rendered directly into GNOME's top panel. Hovering between menus triggers instant submenus with full keyboard accelerator support.

Upcoming

Future Improvement: Custom User-Defined Profiles

Extensible profile manager allowing custom JSON menu definitions, per-app override rules, and declarative shortcut mappings loaded from ~/.config/fuhgawz/profiles.d/ without touching extension source code.

"profile": "custom.app", "rules": [{ "match": "wm_class", "actions": ["Ctrl+Shift+P"] }]

Live Activity MPRIS + Nautilus I/O

Dynamic Live Indicator

More than a static menubar. As your media player streams or Nautilus transfers files, the top panel integrates an interactive live indicator capsule with Cairo wave equalizers, progress scrubbing, and Libadwaita hover cards.

Gravity Chasm — Conan 0:42 / 3:18 · MPRIS

Nautilus · 3 files archive-ubuntu-24.04.iso

84%

Modern Apps org.gtk.Actions

GTK 4 Action Grouping

Modern libadwaita apps (such as GNOME Text Editor and GNOME Builder) do not export classic menus by default. The extension inspects org.gtk.Actions from active headerbars and groups them logically so modern apps stay fully accessible.

Qt & Electron com.canonical.dbusmenu

Session-Wide Registrar

A background D-Bus registrar lets Qt 5/6, KDE, and open-source editor applications like VSCodium broadcast their menu structures automatically without per-application launcher overrides.

System Tools src/systemMenu.js

Integrated System Menu

User switcher, recent documents, force quit, and quick-settings hiders live on the exact same shortcut key as the app menu. Fast access when you need it, invisible when you do not.

Compatibility GNOME 45–51

Modern GNOME Shell

Maintained and verified across GNOME 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51. Ships with a full libadwaita preferences dialog for menu placement, dynamic indicator tuning, and hotkey binding.

Universal Ecosystem Zero Distro Lock-in

Distro-Agnostic & Wayland-First

Engineered for solid compatibility across every major Linux distribution and custom desktop session. Installs purely in user space with no external package repositories, PPAs, or system tampering required.

Fedora Arch Linux Ubuntu Debian

Application Layer

gtk-modules=appmenu-gtk-module

Classic GTK 3 and compatible applications export their native menu trees over D-Bus automatically.

Resolution Engine

org.gtk.Actions & dbusmenu

When an app uses GTK 4 or Qt, the fallback engine queries action groups and session registrars to build menu structures dynamically.

GNOME Top Bar

Clutter + dynamic live indicator

Rendered natively inside GNOME Shell with hover submenus, live media capsules, and a system menu fallback if no app menu answers.

02 · Fallback Engine

The 6-tier fallback chain

When standard D-Bus export is unavailable, FUHGAWZ cascades through six audited resolution tiers to maintain zero panel lag.

Native GTK Menu Model

Standard path probing picks up menu trees exported by GTK 3 and GTK 4 apps with no extra work.

org.gtk.Menus

DBusMenu Protocol

Registered through com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar, matched by PID on Wayland and by XID on XWayland.

com.canonical.dbusmenu

Declarative Profiles

Curated JSON menu trees for Brave, Chrome, VS Code and GNOME Text Editor, with dynamic bookmark synchronization.

profiles/*.json

GTK Action Heuristic

Enumerates live action maps via DescribeAll, then dispatches synthetic keystrokes via virtual keyboard for unexported actions.

DescribeAllAll

Restricted AT-SPI Scan

50ms budget, strictly menu bars only, Chromium and Electron blacklisted to avoid a compositor stall.

ATSPI_ROLE_MENU_BAR

Desktop App Fallback

When no menu answers, launcher actions and window management still land on the same slot.

Gio.DesktopAppInfo

Chromium and Electron are deliberately excluded from the accessibility scan. Declarative profiles bridge them instead, so the bar never goes empty.

Install in two steps

Get pre-packaged release builds directly from GitHub Releases, or compile from source if you are customizing the extension.

Download GitHub Release

Download the latest pre-built .shell-extension.zip from GitHub Releases and install in user space.

Enable in GNOME Shell

Activate via CLI or the GNOME Extensions app without restarting your desktop.

Browse GitHub Releases

$ curl -sLO https://github.com/katon26/fuhgawz-global-menu/releases/latest/download/fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io.shell-extension.zip
$ gnome-extensions install --force fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io.shell-extension.zip
$ gnome-extensions enable fuhgawzglbmenu@katon26.github.io