HOWTO: Change icon for specific file types in Gnome

**artships** · December 3rd, 2006

You make it sound so easy, and it was under breezy, but it hasn't under edgy.

I'm trying to associate an icon, gnome-mime-video-ty.png, with tystreams. I've edited /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml to include:

<mime-type type="video/ty">
<comment>Tivo transport stream</comment>
<acronym>TY</acronym>
<expanded-acronym>Tystream</expanded-acronym>
<glob pattern="*.ty"/>
</mime-type>

Executed: sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

Sure enough, nautilus describes Doctor Who-Rose.ty as:

Type: Tivo transport stream
MIME type: video/ty

I put my icon in ~/.icons/Nuovo/24x24/mimetypes as gnome-mime-video-ty.png, and in gnome-theme-manager->Theme Details->Icons I selected Dropline Nuovo, noticing when I did that the folder icons in nautilus changed to the distinctive yellow icons. (Note: Dropline Nuovo "Inherits=gnome".)

The icon associated with *.ty files is, however, the gnome one that looks like /usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/mimetypes/video-x-generic.png, to which gnome-mime-video.png is symlinked. It is the same icon associated with Doctor Who-Rose.ty.vob, described in nautilus as:

Type: MPEG video
MIME type: video/mpeg

What do I have to name my icon to get nautilus to use it for tystreams?

**quanta** · May 23rd, 2008

Originally Posted by lllSpylll

...

1) Go to the folder where your icon theme is installed. Mine is in ~/.icons/Vista-Inspirate_1.0

hi lllSpylll,

I am using Fedora 9
There is nothing in ~/.icons folder:

Code:

$ ls -la ~/.icons
total 12
drwxrwxr-x   2 quanta quanta 4096 2007-12-22 04:35 .
drwx------ 107 quanta quanta 4096 2008-05-23 23:09 ..

I have followed your way except for manipulate with /usr/share/icons folder, but not succeed.

I found the topic.
Nothing in ~/.local/share/mime/packages folder except for Override.xml.

I have inserted some code like below:

Code:

        <mime-type type="application/x-chm2">
		<comment>chm document</comment>
		<glob pattern="*.chm"/>
	</mime-type>

In /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml, I changed:

Code:

<mime-type type="application/x-chm">
    <comment>CHM document</comment>
    <acronym>CHM</acronym>
    <expanded-acronym>Compiled Help Modules</expanded-acronym>
    <glob pattern="*.chm"/>
  </mime-type>

to:

Code:

<mime-type type="application/x-chm2">
    <comment>CHM document</comment>
    <acronym>CHM</acronym>
    <expanded-acronym>Compiled Help Modules</expanded-acronym>
    <glob pattern="*.chm"/>
  </mime-type>

after that I copied kchmviewer icon to: /usr/share/icons/Fedora/48x48/mimetypes and renamed it to gnome-mime-application-x-chm2.png, logout and login back but nothing happen. Everything icons of *.chm file not change.

Is there any other way to change file type icon?

**nooblot** · July 5th, 2008

so is there a better & easier way to achieve this in the "latest and greatest" Gnome 2.22.2 ???

**dangermouse28** · September 11th, 2008

I figured it out!!!

Check out the How-To here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=916847

**wolterh** · December 28th, 2008

There is a gui for making this mimes called assogiate. You can download it from the Add/Remove... application tool.

**nathanpc** · May 26th, 2009

Thanks very much now i can use my custom icons for Ruby, Ruby on Rails and Java!!!!!

Thanks For All,
Nathan Paulino Campos

**sdaau** · January 29th, 2011

Hi all,

Thanks for all the suggestions - especially for:

Originally Posted by woli

There is a gui for making this mimes called assogiate.

I installed it under Lucid, and wanted to add icons for *.v (which doesn't have associated) and *.vhdl (which has standard association as a text/source file). First, I created a mimetype for *.v as 'text/source', and my icons as '/usr/share/icons/icon-verilog.png' and '/usr/share/icons/icon-vhdl.png' -- and tried to assign these as default icons via assogiate. Assogiate would show the icons in its window, but nautilus would not apply them at all (even after logout / sudo service gdm restart)!

Then I copied these icons as ~/.icons/gnome-mime-application-x-verilog.png and ~/.icons/gnome-mime-application-x-vhdl.png and tried to assign these as default icons - still no dice!

Finally, I changed the parent type of verilog from 'text/source' to 'Multipurpose file' - and finally (after logout) the icons DID show in nautilus - even without an explicit "default icon" link via assogiate! Did the same for the vhdl - since vhdl is already 'text/source' in standard, I simply added another mime-type, same name (x-vhdl), just under a 'Multipurpose file' parent type (so it becomes 'application/x-vhdl') - and the *.vhdl files showed the new icon in Nautilus as well (again, after logout or gdm restart).

Thanks again to everyone for this thread,

Cheers!

References:

EDIT 28 Feb: After a few reboots, I realized that VHDL icon doesn't show anymore: on right-click/Properties, Nautilus would show 'VHDL document (text/x-vhdl)' as 'Type'. Then I first made an appropriate copy of the icon:

Code:

cp ~/.icons/gnome-mime-application-x-vhdl.png ~/.icons/gnome-mime-text-x-vhdl.png

... but that, on its own, didn't seem to help..

Then, I went to 'assogiate' (Applications/System Tools/File Types Editor), and there, opened up the 'Text and Source Code' entry for 'text/x-vhdl'; and in there, under 'Related Types' tab, I simply added the previously made 'application/x-vhdl' under 'Aliases'; as soon as that passed, icons for .vhdl files reappeared after simply refreshing the directory view in Nautilus

**Meneer Jansen** · June 15th, 2011

Changing an associated icon in Gnome is a nightmare. Pfffffff. Here's what worked for me. Notice that:

I use Gnome 2.30 (Ubuntu Lucid).
The icon theme that I use did not have "mime types" associated w/ it.

Most methods on the internet, and in this forum (i.e. Assogiate), assume that the icon theme that you use is "complete" in the sense that it has an direcory called "mimetype" in /usr/share/icons/your_icon_theme. Mine did not. So nothing seemed to work for me.

What worked for me in the end was:

Check mimetype w/ right mouse button in Nautilus (click: "properties -> type"). Example: application/pdf.
Create a folder called "mimetypes" in '/usr/share/icons/your_icon_theme/scalable/' if it does not exists yet.
Place icon in that dir. Make sure it has the right filename! Example for PDF: gnome-mime-application-pdf.svg

And the hat trick:

Code:

$ sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/my_icon_theme/
[sudo] password for user: 
gtk-update-icon-cache: Cache file created successfully.

No need to re-log-in or restart Nautilus. Just click on 'Refresh' button and if you're lucky the right icon will pop up.

**Meneer Jansen** · June 15th, 2011

Made a little shell script that works for me. See my post above. Do you like it?

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Shell script to change the associated icon of a mimetype (= an application) in Gnome 2.30.
# This script is writtn for Ubuntu because it uses 'sudo'.

# 1. Give Theme name:
echo "Type in the (icon) Theme name that u use in Gnome:"
echo "   Hint: use 'gnome-appearance-properties' to determine your icon thme."
read themename
echo " "

# Path to icons:
location="/usr/share/icons/$themename/scalable"

# 2. Give location/name of icon to copy:
echo "Give location and name of icon to copy."
echo "   Hint: use the command 'locate' to locate a nice icon for ya and"
echo "   copy/paste it into this console"
read iconname
echo " "

# 3. Give mimetype-icon name"
echo "Type in the name that the mimetype icon should get."
echo "   Hint: use Nautilus' file properties dialog screen to determine"
echo "   the proper filename."
echo "   Example: the (mime)type of a PDF file is: application/pdf."
echo "   So the Gnome icon name of that mimetype is: gnome-mime-application-pdf.svg."
read mimetype_iconname
echo " "

# 4. If not exist, then create folder "mimetypes""
folder="$location/mimetypes"
if [ -d $folder ]; then 
        echo "Not gonna create directory 'mimetypes' because it already exists. See"
	echo "output of ls:"
	ls $folder
	else 
	echo "No folder called 'mimetypes' found. Gonna create it:"
	sudo mkdir $location/mimetypes
	sleep 3
fi

# 5. List data:
clear
echo --------------------------------------------------- 
echo "Theme name:"
echo "   $themename"
echo "Path to theme:"
echo "   $location"
echo "Name of icon to copy:"
echo "   $iconname"
echo "The icon name you chose for the icon:"
echo "   $mimetype_iconname"
echo ----------------------------------------------------
echo " "
echo "Press CTRL-C to abort! Else: press the Any key."
read blabla

# 6. Copy icon to theme dir.
sudo cp $iconname $location/mimetypes/$mimetype_iconname

# 7. Now update Gnome's icon database:
sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/$themename