diff --git a/gtk2_ardour/ardour.sh.in b/gtk2_ardour/ardour.sh.in
index 0561ee048a..5b132ee42a 100644
--- a/gtk2_ardour/ardour.sh.in
+++ b/gtk2_ardour/ardour.sh.in
@@ -47,6 +47,11 @@ export ARDOUR_DATA_PATH=@DATADIR@
 export ARDOUR_CONFIG_PATH=@CONFDIR@
 export ARDOUR_DLL_PATH=@LIBDIR@
 
+#
+# disable ubuntu global menu, causes crash in libappmenu-gtk-module.so
+#
+export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=""
+
 #
 # NSM needs a path to this script
 #
diff --git a/tools/linux_packaging/ardour.sh.in b/tools/linux_packaging/ardour.sh.in
index 1a2e1206be..cb9b1a0176 100644
--- a/tools/linux_packaging/ardour.sh.in
+++ b/tools/linux_packaging/ardour.sh.in
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ ETC_DIR=$INSTALL_DIR/etc
 # this triggers code in main() that will reset runtime environment variables
 # to point to directories inside the ardour package
 
+export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=""
 export ARDOUR_BUNDLED=true
 
 # NSM needs a path to this script