Using Dash to Dock | adding a link to open a shell script | Gnome 42

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I try to make me a link and just feel as i would be a really beginner with computers.

what i did:

In /home/myuser/.local/share/applications i have the following content in a file saved:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=NM-Edit
Comment=NM-Edit
Icon=/path/to/icon.xpm
Exec=~/bin/nmedit 
Terminal=true

I made it executable but i see nada …

Should i not at least get the name showed up when i type it? I do … it but it is just linked as a text file. And change with an other app it also not works.

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2

Where are you looking? desktop files in ~/.local/share/applications are used to add new entries to the applications menu.

A few things to check:

  • in Exec, I’d give the full path. I’m not sure if desktop files expand ~ to $HOME etc. That’s a shell construct as far as I know.
  • I’m also not sure if one needs to log out and back in after adding the files. Worth trying.

I have this, for example, and this works:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Neomutt
Icon=evolution
Exec=/home/asinha/bin/neomutt-compose-wrapper.sh %u
Terminal=true
StartupNotify=true
Categories=Office;Email;X-Internet;
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.23
Comment=A text mode mail user agent
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3

My first troubleshooting step when working on an issue with a desktop file is to run desktop-file-validate against it.

Have you tried that yet?

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4

Thanks a lot for the fast answer. Now i could make it work. The tools desktop-file-validate was a big help. @dalto :bluethumb:

This is quite annoying, especially for someone who makes this the first time …

Solution to avoid relogin:
sudo desktop-file-install --rebuild-mime-info-cache nm-edit.desktop

And of course , to keep it in the dock, pin to dash while right clicking.