Added a .desktop file to ~\.local\share\applications which exec’s a private script. The script runs fine when called from shell. Validated .desktop with desktop-file-validate, no errors. Executing with gtk-launch gives the error gtk-launch: no such application <.desktop filename> (maybe different…

Try [Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Type=Application Terminal=false Icon=/home/USER/Pictures/IconsPNG/imagename Exec=bash /home/USER/scripts/mount-backup Name=Mount USB Backup Comment=Mount the backup file as nobis folder I created the the text file with code echo “Hi” For the Exec command, n…

I would start by fixing those quotes in the Exec line. Those aren’t double-quotes. It is always a good idea to run desktop-file-validate against any .desktop you create or edit by hand. Interestingly, I do get errors when I run it against that text. Specifically, I get: error: value ““~/script…

Thanks for answering! Those aren’t double-quotes. In my emacs they are. Must have been converted when I copied them into this page. As I wrote, desktop-file-validate does not show an error on the original file (and yes, I got an error on an earlier version of the file without quotes). I would …

Running update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications also does not help. When using a non-existent filename with gtk-launch, I get the same error - why would gtk-launch not find a file which has been completed by the shell? The .desktop file has -rw-r–r-- permissions for me. Does it have to …

[image] no broker: Does it have to be executable? It shouldn’t be required. If you look in /usr/share/applications you should see that many of them are not executable.

[image] no broker: Must have been converted when I copied them into this page. For future use - if rather than blockquoting like this: foo = “bar” you instead use triple-backticks to make a code fence like this: foo = "bar" then it should avoid any conversion to curly quotes.

[image] dalto: I would start by fixing those quotes in the Exec line. Those aren’t double-quotes. That could be a result of copy-pasting when using the new rich text editor mode. That would cause regular quotes to be converted to curly quotes as the looks “nicer”. It may also copy double mi…

[image] dalto: If you look in /usr/share/applications you should see that many of them are not executable. On my system, they are all executable, either ELF binaries or shell scripts.

Thanks @ptrck4193 - and to all of you! The problem was the Exec - adding bash makes or breaks the desktop shortcut. It won’t accept scripts as such, it seems. If the Icon spec is wrong or missing, a generic icon is displayed (different ones for the desktop application list and the Gnome Tweaks sta…

[image] no broker: The problem was the Exec - adding bash makes or breaks the desktop shortcut. It won’t accept scripts as such, it seems. I have scripts and bash in .desktop Exec (iirc it doesn’t pass desktop-file-validate): Programs with flags: Exec='/bin/bash' -c "WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSIT…

.desktop file does not appear in gnome-tweak list of apps - why?

Ask Fedora

virtualnobi (no broker) February 22, 2026, 5:42pm 7

Here

I read about $XDG_DATA_DIRS and $XDG_DATA_FILES. Neither of it contains ~/.local/share in my case. $XDG_DATA_FILES is empty.

Should I be worried about this?

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.desktop file does not appear in gnome-tweak list of apps - why?

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