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[SohrabT <701330@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This error is occuring in Xubuntu Natty Narwhal.
The only way to fix it was to just remove the entire "other" category from the main menu, which isn't a fix but rather an aesthetic cover.

It seems to happen when an application is once shown in the main menu in
some category. Then once that object is hidden it appears in the Other
category. Making the object reappear in the original category removes it
from the Other category.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/701330

Title:
  "Other" category becomes choked

Status in “alacarte” package in Ubuntu:
  Expired

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: alacarte

  As one works with revising the menus to taste, the "Other" category
  can end up grotesquely swollen with duplications of entries created or
  moved about.  It appears (to this non-expert) that the problem arises
  from alacarte somehow furbling up the "Categories" entry when it makes
  its files.

  Case in point: Create a new sub-menu of "System", named "Controls".
  Copy a few entries from the existing "Preferences" and
  "Administration" menus into "Controls".  Now look into the "Other"
  Applications menu: all the copied-over entries from "Controls" are
  duplicated in "Other"; moreover, these are not actually "duplicates"
  but effectively the same entries: delete one in "Others" and it
  disappears from "Controls".

  The issue seems to be shown in these two files:

  Here is /usr/share/applications/Appearance
  ------------------------------------------
  [Desktop Entry]
  Name=Appearance
  Comment=Customize the look of the desktop
  Exec=gnome-appearance-properties %F
  Icon=preferences-desktop-theme
  Terminal=false
  Type=Application
  StartupNotify=true
  Categories=GNOME;GTK;Settings;DesktopSettings;
  OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gnome-control-center
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=Appearance
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.32.0
  X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-control-center-2.0

  
  And here is ~/.local/share/applications/Appearance.desktop
  ----------------------------------------------------------
  [Desktop Entry]
  Name=Appearance
  Comment=Customize the look of the desktop
  Exec=gnome-appearance-properties %F
  Icon=preferences-desktop-theme
  Terminal=false
  Type=Application
  StartupNotify=true
  Categories=;
  OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=gnome-control-center
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=Appearance
  X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.32.0
  X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gnome-control-center-2.0
  Hidden=false

  
  (The order of appearance of entries in the second has been changed by me to make its correspondence with the original clearer.)

  What leaps out is the "Categories=;" entry.  An uncategorized entry
  is, as I understand it, auto-grabbed into the "Others" sub-menu, which
  apparently acts as a catchall "uncategorized" sort of trash can.

  The same problem exists with many other files that end up made in the
  ~/.local/share/applications/ directory; I only presented this one
  example for simplicity and clarity.  Why this happens, I have no idea,
  but it sure makes a nightmare out of trying to do any substantial menu
  customization.

  This is a fresh, clean install of Maverick.  Per Synaptic, the
  alacarte version is 0.13.2-ubuntu1 (but I have had this sort of
  problem since at least Ubuntu 6 or 7).

  It would seem to me that when alacarte creates these higher-level customized .desktop files, it should be carrying across all the same data as are in the original, and just adding in only what the user has added or changed (e.g. "Hidden=false
  ").  I don't know what is supposed to happen to that datum if the user copies or moves an entry into a sub-menu not contemplated in the original Category string, but blanking it altogether does not seem a likely member of the list of candidates.

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