XFCE global appmenu (vala appmenu) in Xubuntu 18.04

Question

I use Xubuntu and am very happy with XFCE. I use it in a netbook and saving screen space is vital for me. So I want to move the menus to a bar like it was in Unity. Some months ago I had followed the tutorial in this link and it had worked fine in Xubuntu 16.04. Now I have installed Xubuntu 18.04 and am getting this error:

~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/mate
 The packages in this PPA require MATE 1.8 or newer. For Ubuntu 14.04, it depends on the following PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mate-dev/+archive/ubuntu/trusty-mate

Currently, this PPA only provides TopMenu (global menu) from Git for MATE 1.8+ and Xfce. More information:
- MATE: http://www.webupd8.org/2014/12/get-global-menu-in-mate-18-with-topmenu.html
- Xfce: http://www.webupd8.org/2015/02/use-global-menu-in-xubuntu-or-linux.html
 Más información: https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/ubuntu/mate
Pulse [ENTRAR] para continuar o Ctrl+C para cancelar la adición.

Obj:1 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                      
Des:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [83,2 kB]                               
Obj:3 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease                                               
Obj:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/lyx-devel/release/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                           
Obj:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/snwh/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                                                          
Obj:6 http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease             
Ign:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/mate/ubuntu bionic InRelease      
Err:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/mate/ubuntu bionic Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.83 80]
Leyendo lista de paquetes... Hecho
E: El repositorio «http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/mate/ubuntu bionic Release» no tiene un fichero de Publicación.
N: No se puede actualizar de un repositorio como este de forma segura y por tanto está deshabilitado por omisión.
N: Vea la página de manual apt-secure(8) para los detalles sobre la creación de repositorios y la configuración de usuarios.

~$ sudo apt install xfce4-vala-appmenu-plugin unity-gtk3-module unity-gtk2-module appmenu-qt appmenu-qt5
Leyendo lista de paquetes... Hecho
Creando árbol de dependencias       
Leyendo la información de estado... Hecho
El paquete appmenu-qt5 no está disponible, pero algún otro paquete hace referencia
a él. Esto puede significar que el paquete falta, está obsoleto o sólo se
encuentra disponible desde alguna otra fuente

E: No se ha podido localizar el paquete xfce4-vala-appmenu-plugin
E: El paquete «appmenu-qt5» no tiene un candidato para la instalación

I don't want to install MATE, I want to keep XFCE but with the global menu bar.

Solution

I had the same problem. You have to run

sudo apt-get install xfce4-appmenu-plugin

to install it. That worked for me.

Comments

[DK Bose]

Re. Err:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/webupd8team/mate/ubuntu bionic Release 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.83 80], it seems there's no ppa for bionic.

[N0rbert]

@user171780 What are your final target? If you need to install MATE - then you can install from official repository with sudo apt-get install ubuntu-mate-desktop. If not - please edit your question and clarify.

[huangzonghao]

LOL can't believe I have been running Xfce4 for years without noticing the menu bars for some app were missing. Saved my life, thanks! But can I just complain that xfce didn't pack those essential plugins up in their desktop environment? Just felt incredibly stupid that we have to install all those small things manually.