Global Menu Support for Java Applications in Ubuntu

Java swing applications' menus do not integrate with Ubuntu's global menu. A library called Jayatana is available to enable global menu support for Java swing applications in Ubuntu (From Ubuntu 15.04 Jayatana became a default library but it is disabled since 30-09-2015). There are hundreds of articles available about Jayatana, but this article has an additional hack to remove the irritating message, printed by Jayatana.
If you already have Jayatana in your system, jump to: Remove: Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS Message

If you have not noticed any differences between Java swing applications and others, have a look at the following screenshots of Android Studio and Eclipse.

Android Studio without global menu support

Eclipse with global menu

To enable the global menu support, install the Jayatana using following commands in your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T to start terminal).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danjaredg/jayatana

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install jayatana

Once you have successfully installed the software, logout and login to the system again. Now open any Java swing application, you will see the difference.

Remove: Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS Message

Now open your terminal and enter the following command to check the version of Java.

java -version

You will get a message “Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar” just above the version information of Java.

Since there are some applications which use the java -version command to check the version of installed Java, Jayatana is disabled in Ubuntu 15.04 and 15.10. If you are using Ubuntu 15.04 or latest version, ignore the Step 1 and continue from Step 2.

The “Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS” message can be removed by a simple hack, but with a cost of disabling automatic support of Jayatana for all the Java applications. Lets dirt your hands...

Step 1:

Enter the following command in the terminal to remove the “ Picked up JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS: -javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar” message of Jayatana.

sudo rm /usr/share/upstart/sessions/jayatana.conf

Now logout and login to the system and execute the same command to print the version of Java.

java -version

This time you will not get that annoying message. But, if you run any Java swing application, it will be returned to its old swing menu. Now you need to enable the global menu support for all the Java swing applications manually.

Step 2:

IntelliJ IDEA:
To enable the global menu support for IntelliJ IDEA, enter the following command in terminal. This command is given for IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1. Change the directory name according to the your version (IntelliJ IDEA 15 does not support Jayatana).

For Ubuntu 32bit:

gedit ~/.IntelliJIdea2016.1/idea.vmoptions

For Ubuntu 64bit:

gedit ~/.IntelliJIdea2016.1/idea64.vmoptions

At the end of the opened file, add the following line and save the file.

-javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar

After the modification, the file should look like this:

For all the IDEs based on IntelliJ IDEA like PhpStorm, PyChram, etc, you can apply the same technique (The vmoptions file name may be different).

Android Studio:

Android Studio users, enter the following command in your terminal:

This command is given for Android Studio 1.4. According to your version change the directory name.

For Ubuntu 32bit:

gedit ~/.AndroidStudio1.4/studio.vmoptions

For Ubuntu 64bit:

gedit ~/.AndroidStudio1.4/studio64.vmoptions

Add the following line in the opened file and save the file.

-javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar

After the modification, the file should look like this:

NetBeans:

To enable the global menu for NetBeans, enter the following command in the Terminal. In my case the NetBeans is installed in /usr/local/netbeans-8.0.2 directory. Change the location in this command, based on the version and location of your NetBeans.

sudo gedit /usr/local/netbeans-8.0.2/etc/netbeans.conf

Search for netbeans_default_options in the opened file, and add the following statement at the end of the existing value. (Notice that the options are separated by space)

-J-javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar

After the modification, the file should look like this:

Step 3:
Close the file and open your IDE (Android Studio/IntelliJ IDEA or NetBeans), you will see the magic.


For any Java swing applications, use the following command to enable the global menu integration.

java -jar -javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar <file-name>

If you are using any other Java swing applications, change the configuration file of them by adding the command line parameter '-javaagent:/usr/share/java/jayatanaag.jar' to enable the global menu.

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