Ubuntu – Adding a launcher item for a terminal program that has no UI

launcherunity

Please see the edit at the bottom!

I have followed here for adding an item to the launcher. Here are the contents of my new .desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=OpenRefine
Comment=2.6-rc.2
Path=/home/foo/openrefine-2.6-rc.2
Exec=/home/foo/openrefine-2.6-rc.2/refine
Terminal=true
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;Application;

(no icon supplied by the application so none included, hopefully a default one will be used). desktop-file-validate passes without errors. So does desktop-file-install. Yet the new program does not show in dash 🙁

I have started out saving the .desktop file to .local/share/applications, so it is also confusing whether it should remain there after the desktop-file-install or rather it should have been created in some temporary place to begin with, rather than there.

Thanks for clarifying how this should be done.

Edit:

Notably, this program, OpenRefine, when started in a terminal, does not open a UI window. It only starts a web server and launches the default browser against it.

Best Answer

You can use "Main Menu" app (install with sudo apt install alacarte).
Run it from Dash or from Terminal (alacarte).
Then you can add launcher item:

  1. Choose category from list on left
  2. Click "New item" button
  3. Insert needed information into fields
  4. Click "OK" and close.

Now you should have your icon on launcher.

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