Ubuntu

Modify Desktop Configuration File

Asked by John Rose

I've read the webpage https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles
and created a Desktop Configuration File using gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new which is in a folder in my home directory.

However, I now want to modify it. I assumed that I could so using gedit but there's no option for that when I right click the file in Nautilus. I checked the premissions and iI have Write access to it. How do I modify it? Additionally once I modify it would dragging it (from the Nautilus list) result in Unity's Launcher bar referencing the changed version?

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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#1

What modification you want to do ?

If you right click on the Icon-File you can click "Properties" and modifying the file from there.

If you want you can drag and drop the file to the launcher.

I prefer another location for may custom launchers.. (not the Desktop)

    gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/.local/share/applications/ --create-new

Above is for all users in system to access the application launcher

If you want only yourself , you can create it to

    gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/usr/share/applications/ --create-new

Now , another way to modify the file is to open the .desktop file with gedit

gedit ~/Desktop <the name of application>.desktop

Thanks

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John Rose (johnaaronrose) said : 		#2

If I right click on the icon for the Desktop Configuration File (as shown in Nautilus) in the folder Launchers (in my home directory), there is no entry for 'Open with...' or similar (only for Open - which starts the app).

Also, even though the Unity Launcher shows an app's icon for one where I just dragged the file from Nautilus to the Unity Launcher, neither ~/.local/share/applications/ nor ~/usr/share/applications/ contains a file for it!

I was able to modify a Desktop Configuration File in the folder Launchers using gedit ~/Launchers/name.dsektop.

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samuel (samuel-h) said : 		#3

The unity launchers app icon is just a shortcut to where you dragged it from. The only way of opening a .desktop is using the terminal and launching gedit

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John Rose (johnaaronrose) said : 		#4

I'm so fed up with running CLI stuff for creating/modifying/validating/installing that I'm now writing a GUI for these fuctions.

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John Rose (johnaaronrose) said : 		#5

I've written a GUI for creating, modifying, validating, installing & uninstalling Desktop Configuration Files in Ubuntu. It's written in Gambas3. It should pull down the required Gambas3 components (if there's a version/dependency problem on installation, you may need to add nemh's Gambas3 ppa (see https://code.launchpad.net/~nemh/+archive/gambas3) to your Software Sources when installing it by use of Software Centre or gdebi after downloading it from the link below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3928731/maintaindesktopconfigurationfiles.deb

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