.desktop files

[Andrew_Lucas]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create a .desktop file to run Minecraft. The exec line works, but for some reason, using an absolute path for the icon no longer works in 13.10 (it used to in previous releases).

Consequently, I need to know where a .desktop file 'looks' for its icon (i.e. what it does if no absolute path is specified). My current way of creating a .desktop is to cp skype.desktop over, edit for minecraft, then mv back into /usr/share/applications. By default, Skype just specifies:

Icon=skype.png

In my created minecraft.desktop file, it reads:

Icon='/home/user/.minecraft/favicon.png'

(I got my favicon.png from extracting the .jar, opening the folder and copying it over).

Currently, I've gone an unappealing grey box.

Help appreciated!

EDIT: I found this via Google (see here):

Icon – specifies the icon to be used. This entry supports both icons supported under the FreeDesktop Icon Theme Specification (which I haven’t yet fully grokked) as well as absolute paths.

This doesn't seem to be true? Am I making some really dopey mistake?

[ajgreeny]

I hope the line Icon='/home/user/.minecraft/favicon.png' is not actually what you typed in the .desktop file? You need to use your real username, not the word user.

Apologies if you know this already, but I thought it worth mentioning.

[Andrew_Lucas]

Icon='/home/user/.minecraft/favicon.png'

I hope the line Icon='/home/user/.minecraft/favicon.png' is not actually what you typed in the .desktop file? You need to use your real username, not the word user.

Apologies if you know this already, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Yeah of course. Just felt a bit weird about posting the username of my little sister.

[Andrew_Lucas]

Found my sound solution. For some reason, 'path' or "path" breaks it, whereas path alone is fine.

Anyone think this is worth filing a bug report over?

[ajgreeny]

Hm! Interesting.

I admit I did not notice the 'path' quote marks, apostrophes, backticks, or whatever they were in your file, but it would be interesting to see what happens if you used double quote marks instead, ie "path" rather than 'path'.

I shall try it now and report back.

OK, I have just tried that out. No, it will not work with double quotes either.

[vasa1]

@Andrew, this thread is marked "Solved". Maybe you can reverse that if you still don't have a solution?

[monkeybrain20122]

@Andrew, this thread is marked "Solved". Maybe you can reverse that if you still don't have a solution?

He has a solution: remove the quotations around the path.

[vasa1]

And looking at .desktop files in /usr/share/applications, the line for icons doesn't have any quotes or backticks:
Icon=/usr/share/xombrero/xombreroicon64.png
Icon=transmission
Icon=google-chrome

Also see table 2 here: http://standards.freedesktop.org/des...ec-latest.html

I'm interested in an answer as well because I want Leafpad to have a unique icon like Geany and Medit have.

[vasa1]

He has a solution: remove the quotations around the path.

Makes sense. They weren't needed.