RogerTa
June 16th, 2013, 06:49 PM
Hi all,
How do I use the value of environment variables inside Unity launcher application items? I have found several web pages explaining how to use "env" to set a variable, but I don't want to change anything, I just want to use an existing variable.
Use case: I run Google Chrome to browse the web and have its icon locked to the launcher. I also remotely access my machine with nx. If I leave Chrome running on the local desktop and start an nx remote desktop session, then clicking the Chrome launcher icon from inside the nx session causes a new window to appear on the local desktop. This has to do with the way that Chrome detects if an instance is already running. A "simple" fix would to change the Exec line in the google-chrome.desktop file:
From:
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome %U
To:
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --user-data-dir=.config/google-chrome/$DISPLAY %U
where $DISPLAY is the X Windows display environment variable. However, the Unity launcher does not expand $DISPLAY. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a better way to achieve my goal? Thanks!
My system:
$ uname -a
Linux Chlorine 3.5.0-34-generic #55~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 7 16:25:50 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS"
How do I use the value of environment variables inside Unity launcher application items? I have found several web pages explaining how to use "env" to set a variable, but I don't want to change anything, I just want to use an existing variable.
Use case: I run Google Chrome to browse the web and have its icon locked to the launcher. I also remotely access my machine with nx. If I leave Chrome running on the local desktop and start an nx remote desktop session, then clicking the Chrome launcher icon from inside the nx session causes a new window to appear on the local desktop. This has to do with the way that Chrome detects if an instance is already running. A "simple" fix would to change the Exec line in the google-chrome.desktop file:
From:
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome %U
To:
Exec=/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --user-data-dir=.config/google-chrome/$DISPLAY %U
where $DISPLAY is the X Windows display environment variable. However, the Unity launcher does not expand $DISPLAY. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a better way to achieve my goal? Thanks!
My system:
$ uname -a
Linux Chlorine 3.5.0-34-generic #55~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 7 16:25:50 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS"