Launcher icon defaults when in unity sidebar

[Jalaska13]

So I made a launcher for a script that I use frequently, and I gave the launcher an Icon. However, when I dragged the launcher to the sidebar, the icon defaulted to the little springy platform. Is it possible that my file setup is the culprit? I have it like this:
~/.local/share/Launchers/myLauncher
~/.local/share/Launchers/Icons/myIcon.png
Do I have to put the icon somewhere else? I tried putting them in .local/share/applications and .local/share/icons and that didn't work either.

[Steve H]

I've been trying the same thing for a while now. I've traced most of the unity config folders but I'm yet to find the one responsible.

Really annoying.

[Jalaska13]

The really weird thing, though, is that it worked with another program that wasn't one of mine. It also worked with a launcher for another program (also not written by me). In fact, it even worked for a launcher that pointed to a script that opened a folder. The script I'm trying here uses python, although I really doubt that has anything to do with it.

[Steve H]

I just created a desktop link then dragged it to the sidebar. Great! I thought and promptly deleted the desktop link and that was when the icon defaulted. To me it defeats the object if you have to have both a desktop link and a sidebar link for it to work.

[Jalaska13]

What I do is keep a "Launchers" folder (I put mine in ~/.local/share/). I'm not in Ubuntu at the moment, but when I go back I'll try adding it from the desktop and seeing if that works.

[Pirate Zoro]

Add the launcher to ~/.local/share/applications, then add it to the dock from there. I did this with a command to manually activate the screensaver when I was using Unity, and the icon should remain constant

[Jalaska13]

I tried that and it didn't work. Where did you put the logo that the launcher used as its icon?

[Pirate Zoro]

I made the launcher on the desktop so that I could add the icon to the launcher itself, then put that in the application folder. That way when I put it in the dock it had the icon

[Jalaska13]

Wait, when you say add the icon to the launcher itself, what do you mean? The way I do it is open the preferences for the launcher, click on the icon (which brings you to a file select dialogue) and select the image file. Is that what you mean? And then drag the launcher to the dock? Cuz that's exactly what I did, just not on the desktop (made the launcher on the desktop, then dragged it to a new folder, then added the icon, then dragged to dock).

[mc4man]

Maybe post the contents of your launcher(XXXX.desktop

.desktops won't open in directly in a text editor (I use nautilus-actions to create an option), just open gedit > then drag & drop your launcher into the gedit window.
Small possibility there may be something 'wrong' in it.

[Jalaska13]

GOT IT TO WORK. ...have no idea why. Here's what I did (not sure which steps are the key ones, though):
Created launcher on the desktop and selected the icon while the launcher was still on the desktop. Dragged to sidebar. Moved the launcher to ~/.local/share/applications. The icon disappeared from the sidebar when this happened. Then I dragged it to the sidebar from the applications folder and it worked.

[mc4man]

GOT IT TO WORK. ...have no idea why. not sure which steps are the key ones, though):


Created launcher on the desktop and selected the icon while the launcher was still on the desktop.
Moved the launcher to ~/.local/share/applications.
dragged it to the sidebar from the applications folder

[Jalaska13]

Created launcher on the desktop and selected the icon while the launcher was still on the desktop.
Moved the launcher to ~/.local/share/applications.
dragged it to the sidebar from the applications folder

Do you happen to know why that step in particular? And why did it work when I removed it from the sidebar, moved the launcher to applications folder, and added it back?

[chrisgerow]

Im having trouble placing the launcher in the application folder. No permission. Folder belongs to root? This maybe a newbie question but how do I place the launcher in the root owned folder?

I'm using a launcher just to launch separate firefox profiles.

[stinkeye]

The folder should not belong to root.
Are you sure your opening the right folder?
In the terminal

nautilus ~/.local/share/applications

[clockworkpc]

Hey guys, maybe this will help someone.

I'm on Ubuntu 12.04:

I created an desktop icon to launch a game via Dosbox (Heroes of Might and Magic if anyone is interested) and found that even though the custom icon appeared in Nautilus, it didn't carry over to the dock:

Long story short, the problem lay in the .desktop file, which had two Icon entries:


[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_AU]=gnome-panel-launcher
Name[en_AU]=Heroes of Might and Magic
Exec=/bin/bash homm1.sh
Name=Heroes of Might and Magic
Icon=/usr/share/icons/homm.pngAll you have to do is comment out the one you don't want or just delete it:


[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
#Icon[en_AU]=gnome-panel-launcher
Name[en_AU]=Heroes of Might and Magic
Exec=/bin/bash homm1.sh
Name=Heroes of Might and Magic
Icon=/usr/share/icons/homm.pngHope this helps.