GTK menus on Ubuntu

[Allin Cottrell <cottrell wfu edu>]

I'm wondering if anyone knows the machanism whereby Ubuntu 
"commandeers" the main menu system of a GTK application and sticks 
it into the global top-of-screen menu bar, or combines it with the 
application-window title bar? I'm talking about a "traditional", 
non-CSD GTK application, where the "natural" location for the main 
menu system is at the top of the program's window but underneath the 
window's title bar as added by a WM.

Reason I'm asking is that I notice my GTK application is broken on 
current Ubuntu (and on no other platform). The program includes code 
to desensitize menu items that shouldn't be accessible given the 
current program state. (If these menus are somehow accessed the 
program is likely to crash.) In general this works fine, but the 
Ubuntu-mangled menus don't respond to the desensitizing code (that 
is, calls to gtk_action_set_sensitive). So I'm trying to figure out 
if there's any way to protect my menus from mangling -- or failing 
that, to frame a well-informed bug report to Ubuntu.

--
Allin Cottrell
Department of Economics
Wake Forest University