OESF Portables Forum

Model Specific Forums => Sharp Zaurus => Zaurus - pdaXrom => Topic started by: Jon_J on January 31, 2007, 10:36:46 pm

Title: Assign Icon To Executable. How?
Post by: Jon_J on January 31, 2007, 10:36:46 pm

I have several packages that installed themselves and then *poof*, they're gone into oblivion.
These particular apps launch fine from a console and are GUI based apps.
How do I assign an icon on the desktop for them.
In Sharp/Cacko, the Tab settings app does this. First you select an executable, then a name and an icon. Then you click [OK] a couple times, and whala!, there's an icon in your selected tab.

Title: Assign Icon To Executable. How?
Post by: Meanie on January 31, 2007, 10:41:14 pm

Quote

I have several packages that installed themselves and then *poof*, they're gone into oblivion.
These particular apps launch fine from a console and are GUI based apps.
How do I assign an icon on the desktop for them.
In Sharp/Cacko, the Tab settings app does this. First you select an executable, then a name and an icon. Then you click [OK] a couple times, and whala!, there's an icon in your selected tab.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=153132\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

look under /usr/share/applications

each desktop file represents an icon in the menu. the icon files go into /usr/share/pixmaps

Title: Assign Icon To Executable. How?
Post by: Jon_J on January 31, 2007, 10:50:38 pm

I knew about the .desktop files, but I haven't had much luck with them.
I mistakenly edited a .desktop file using textedit last night, and it saved it as an RTF type text file.
After cleaning it up in Leafpad, I still cannot get the app to associate itself with it's desktop file.
I was hoping for a click and save GUI app like the Tab settings in Sharp/Cacko.

I also noticed, some of the (working) .desktop files in pdaxrom have a bunch of junk characters in them and some have long lists of stuff that I have no clue what's contained in the long list is used for.

Title: Assign Icon To Executable. How?
Post by: Meanie on January 31, 2007, 11:03:45 pm

Quote

I knew about the .desktop files, but I haven't had much luck with them.
I mistakenly edited a .desktop file using textedit last night, and it saved it as an RTF type text file.
After cleaning it up in Leafpad, I still cannot get the app to associate itself with it's desktop file.
I was hoping for a click and save GUI app like the Tab settings in Sharp/Cacko.

I also noticed, some of the (working) .desktop files in pdaxrom have a bunch of junk characters in them and some have long lists of stuff that I have no clue what's contained in the long list is used for.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=153136\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

essentially, the pdaXrom desktop files have the same format as the Qtopia desktop files. in other words, you can actually use the desktop files from Qtopia in pdaXrom. just make sure you copy the desktop files and images to the correct locations. and one more thing, you need to restart the matchbox-panel in order for it to reload the icons which essentially means you need to restart X.

Title: Assign Icon To Executable. How?
Post by: daniel3000 on February 01, 2007, 04:20:46 am

Quote

I knew about the .desktop files, but I haven't had much luck with them.
I mistakenly edited a .desktop file using textedit last night, and it saved it as an RTF type text file.
After cleaning it up in Leafpad, I still cannot get the app to associate itself with it's desktop file.
I was hoping for a click and save GUI app like the Tab settings in Sharp/Cacko.

I also noticed, some of the (working) .desktop files in pdaxrom have a bunch of junk characters in them and some have long lists of stuff that I have no clue what's contained in the long list is used for.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=153136\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I recommend leafpad (GUI) or nano (console) to edit such files.

I have come accross several reasons why a .desktop file does not lead to a menu entry:

- the Icon entry isn't valid. For example, the GIMP packages from the feeds install only links as icon files in the /usr/share/pixmaps directory, no real files. These links point into nirwana.

- the .desktop file is installed under /usr/local/share/applications instead of /usr/share/applications. It seems that that locatoin is not parsed for .desktop files.

- The TryExec entry, if present, points ot a binary which is not available. The TryExec is used for the menu creation to decide if a menu entry is created or not. If the program in TryExec can be executed, the menu entry is created, otherwise it isn't.


daniel