Ubuntu – Add Virtualbox Shortcut in Unity Launcher to boot to a VM

Setting up a Minecraft launcher on Ubuntu 12.04, these steps worked for me, mostly pieced together from the various other tips.

In a terminal, first fetch a Minecraft image icon:

cd /usr/share/icons; sudo wget http://images.wikia.com/yogbox/images/d/dd/Minecraft_Block.svg

Then create a minecraft.desktop file (using the gedit text editor to keep it user-friendly; just enter the whole "gksudo ..." command at the command line):

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop

and paste in these contents, and then Save of course:

[Desktop Entry] 
Name=Minecraft
Comment=
Exec=/opt/minecraft.sh
Icon=Minecraft_Block
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

(Note: you can also paste directly into the file by using

sudo sh -c 'xsel -ob > /usr/share/applications/minecraft.desktop'

if you have xsel installed.)

Finally (almost), open up your file manager and go to /usr/share/applications - either click the Home Folder icon in your launcher and navigate, or here's the terminal quickie:

nautilus /usr/share/applications &

Locate your new Minecraft entry, and drag it over to your launcher bar.

At this point, you're practically done, except in this case I've created a little Minecraft starter script, saved in /opt/minecraft.sh, which assumes the minecraft.jar file is also saved in /opt. You can change all these "/opt" references to be wherever you've saved the original minecraft.jar file (be sure to change the Exec value in the minecraft.desktop file too).

The minecraft.sh file needs to contain just these three lines:

#!/bin/bash
cd $(dirname "$0")
java -Xmx1G -Xms512M -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap

(NOTE: for versions older than 1.6.1, you will need to use net.minecraft.LauncherFrame instead of net.minecraft.bootstrap.Bootstrap. The internal structure of the file and classes has changed as of 1.6.1.)

and of course that script needs to be executable, e.g. with the command

sudo chmod a+x /opt/minecraft.sh

If you have a system with more memory or notice poor performance when playing with higher render distances, you can increase the value of the -Xmx1G flag as desired. This tells Java the maximum amount of memory it's allowed to use. -Xmx1G means that it has a cap of 1 GB. -Xmx2G would be 2 GB, -Xmx3G would be 3 GB, and so on.

That's it! Using the starter script, and ensuring it cd's to the folder that contains the minecraft.jar file, seems to be a helpful step that other instructions overlooked.

For Unity

You can search for the application you like to create a desktop shortcut for in the dash and drag it to the desktop. It is best done when your dash is not fully maximized and there are no maximized windows in the background as well.

For Unity-2D

Currently, you can't drag and drop from the dash to create a desktop shortcut. A bug report has been filed regarding this behaviour.

However, you can use gnome-desktop-item-edit to create a new desktop shortcut.

Enter the following command in a terminal:

gnome-desktop-item-edit Desktop --create-new

You will then get the above pop up. Enter the command and other particulars of the application that you are trying to create a desktop shortcut for.