How to add an icon to a custom shortcut in Silverblue

Ask Fedora
1

hello,
I am trying to add a custom shortcut to a Silverbue’s program menu, the program launches, but the icon of a program do not show. How to add an icon?
Thank you.

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=instant-meshes
Comment=instant-meshes starter
Exec='/var/home/none/APPs/prog/program'
Icon='/var/home/none/APPs/prog/icon.png'
Terminal=false
2

To modify a .desktop file in silverblue (and as recommended for workstation and others) copy the desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications/.
Then edit that file to point to the actual icon to be displayed.
On my workstation system that means the .desktop file is in the directory named above, but since it is a python app the icon is at ~/.local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prog/share/icon.png

3

I think on a workstation I placed icons in .local/share/icons/, but how it is done on Silverblue?

4

On Workstation and other distros I put icons/pngs in ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/64x64/apps (or other sizes)

Depending on what that program does, it might be helpful to include something like StartupWMClass=osclient.exe (or no .exe/extension if native) to make sure any extra windows also stay on the same launcher icon on GNOME overview.

5

Yesterday, before going to bed I put the icon in a program’s directory and changed location to:

Icon=icon.png

and today after boot it showed in menu. Yey! :slight_smile:

6

Also maybe someone knows why after an upgrade to fedora 40 custom shortcuts disappeared from:
~/.local/share/applications
but icons stayed in:
~/.local/share/icons
now I am making backup of my custom shortcuts :smiley:
and how to quickly refresh GNOME applications menu to see changes?

7

Oh. I think my custom shortcuts disappeared after the upgrade to fedora 40, because of my own fault - I used bleach bit to clean OS and with marked “broken desktop files” it deleted custom shortcuts as well (most probably). :frowning:

8

Yeah after seeing some inconsistency with BleachBit clearing browser stuff on Windows I stopped using it and just clean my own files :stuck_out_tongue:

I figure it’s probably not the best idea to have files deleted based on decisions I don’t fully understand, and I don’t particularly feel like reading the inis to find out.

At the most on Linux I just do a GUI search for stuff like mesa_shader_cache and delete those folders manually since I know they’re re-ceated and safe to delete.

With Firefox I use that vacuum tool or profile cleaner in about:support and clear start-up cache through it.