How To Create Desktop Launchers in Ubuntu 11.10(Oneiric)
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First you need to install gnome-panel package using the following command from your terminal
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel
Create new launcher
Open the terminal and run the following command
gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new
This will open create laucher dialog box here you can give a suitable name for the launcher.In the Command field , type in the command to launch the application Then, click OK to create the desktop launcher.
Example
We will create nautilus launcher open the terminal and run the following command
gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new
This will open create laucher dialog box here you can give a suitable name for the launcher and in the command field enter nautilus and click ok
You can see it will create shortcut on desktop
If you want to add to launcher just Drag it on to launcher
I’ll leave ubuntu when 11.04 isn’t supported anymore. What happened to backward compatibility.
I am just now installing 11.04. I’ve used Ubuntu since 5.04, I’ve dabbled in Linux since it was first released by SLS.
I have to say that Unity is not really helping the image of Ubuntu or Linux in general because it is not yet complete. If it is not yet complete, why is it being offered as the primary UI?
I do hope 12.04 will correct this oversight. Unity tends to show that Linux and Ubuntu are NOT ready for the real world.
Oh, and thanks for the tip on making a proper launcher. 🙂
“I do hope 12.04 will correct this oversight. Unity tends to show that Linux and Ubuntu are NOT ready for the real world.”
I’m affraid there is too much to do in such short time. This 50% really should not have been published.
For years Ubuntu was leading the linux usability development, now they went back at least a decade. And the whole linux world is suffering.
A little conspiracy theory; Ubuntu’s Unity is for Microsoft to get away people from Linux to Windows again and itself a lesson not to leave Windows at all!
🙁
Hi everybody,
could anyone give me a short tutorial how to create a starter/application that opens the “new starter” dialog? I just tried to create a new starter with the given command line in the “command” input field but it doesn’t work.
Well, I wont jump on the bandwaggon and complain, but how can I add to launcher and not have on desktop as well? If I add to launcher and remove from desktop, it also deletes from launcher.
Thanks for the post on creating a shortcut. I previously had a shortcut on the desktop for Eclipse. I moved Eclipse, and could not alter the location, so I used your instructions and created a new shortcut. It does not however show the Eclipse icon which the previous shortcut did show. Can this be done (show icon)?
move the launcher file from the ~/Desktop folder to some other folder. Then use nautilus, open the folder you put the launcher file in, drag and drop it onto the launcher.
Cool
Exactly what I needed.
Just one little thing. When I launch the shell script that strats the application it creates a second icon in the launcher. When the app closes it disappears again.
Can I avoid this?
Cheers,
if you click icon in the create launcher, it allows you to enter or browse to your icon file
Why would they delete this feature anyway?? This kind of annoying
Why is Ubuntu choosing to go backwards by removing this deature?
I can’t get this to work:
gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ –create-new
I get:
file:///home/stefan/Desktop does not have a .desktop or .directory suffix
luckyme and Brendan:
It’s upstream (GNOME) rather than Ubuntu (or Debian).
Sadly, they really do believe that removing the ability to do things such as this is being faithful to the purity of their new desktop paradigm.
Only when their corporate masters (Red Hat) think otherwise will this change.
You’re retarded. Why would I want an icon on my desktop AND on the launcher. MORON
Yea, me too – at least with Eclipse.
If there is an answer for this, I’d really like to hear it!
Linux for the masses, huh?
THIS is what makes my and my clients job so much more difficult (i try to sell new computers with open source alternatives preinstalled). The absence of features like this just scares people away.
I unlike many others like unity, thou it took a whilr to get used to, but many things became so much more difficult…
Hi every time i try to do this it asks for my password and then it wont take my password the cursor just flashes ? can you help.
cheers.
Right Click on Applications
Edit Menus
Find the place you want to add the new Launcher
Click New Item
Enter the information for your new Launcher
Click Close
Open Applications and browse to the Launcher you added.
Drag it to the Desktop
when i run this:
# gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ –create-new
i found:
# gnome-desktop-item-edit: file:///root/Desktop does not have a .desktop or .directory suffix
i could not creat my own shoortcut on desktop,
plz reply if any one knew the solution of this problem
when i run this:
# gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ –create-new
i found:
# gnome-desktop-item-edit: file:///root/Desktop does not have a .desktop or .directory suffix
i also fed up with this problem
look at it this way:
gnome-desktop-item-edit^~/Desktop/^–create-new
where ^ is a space
those who left out the space overlooked that.
^^^^^^donovan
It’s because you don’t have ~/Desktop/ (name of your desktop) folder.
I think that you have Ubuntu installed with your national language. In my system it’s called ~/Pulpit/ for example.
Thank you.
thank u so much now ,onwards i will be an die hard linux-UBUNTU follower .
On Ubuntu 13.04 Gnome Fallback, clicking and dragging the shortcut from the Applications onto the panel worked just fine.
This method to create a launch icon works great! That is once I find out where the item is that I want to run. 😉
I would like to go one step further and create an object to run this as well, so I don’t have to open a terminal and type in that long string.
The best I have been able to do so far is create something that flashes a terminal window and then closes, but I don’t get the entry window.
Apparently, when I tried to add my question earlier and then correct my email address, I ended up with only a comment about the earlier incorrect address. So I’ll try to get it right this time.
The description of how to create the launcher works just fine. I would like to go one step further, and create a launcher object on the desktop without having to switch to terminal and typing in the string which is prone to typos.
I tried creating a file with that string in it, and created a launcher for it, first with no extension, and then later with .sh and .desktop extensions. I also tried it simply by typing in that string as the command to be executed.
But so far I either get a message about not being able to start the application or I get a brief flash of a terminal window and nor new create launcher window.
I’m very new to Ubuntu Linux, so I’m not familiar with where things belong and how to access them.
Thanks…..