Ubuntu – How to get Unity to recognize installed applications it doesn’t list

unity

Firstly, I should say I am enjoying the new Unity interface. It's not without it's peccadilloes, however. My main concern, for the purposes of my question, is that there are a couple of applications that I have installed which do not appear in the Application list accessed on the Unity Launcher. Is there a way to force Unity to acknowledge these skipped over programs?

One of the programs I am having trouble with is Ryzom, a online role playing game. It's a game that doesn't require a traditional install like most programs. You simply extract to a folder in your Home directory and run the client program. Perhaps Unity doesn't recognize programs that aren't "installed". Can I add Ryzom to the Applications list so I can start it without resorting to Terminal? I've tried using the Main Menu function in System, but apparently that has no bearing on what applications show up in Unity. That would explain why all the program I had hidden in Main Menu are showing up in Unity.

Thanks for any insight you can give.

Best Answer

I think you need to create a .desktop file in your /usr/share/applications/ folder. Have a look at any .desktop file and create a new one with what you need.

Here's my Banshee.desktop. Only replace Exec, Name, Icon and a few things.

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=banshee-1 --redirect-log --device-activate-play=%u
NoDisplay=true
MimeType=x-content/audio-cdda;
Version=1.0
Name=Banshee Media Player
GenericName=Media Player
X-GNOME-FullName=Banshee Media Player
Comment=Play and organize your media collection
Icon=media-player-banshee
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Audio;Music;Player;AudioVideo;X-Ximian-Main;X-Novell-Main;X-Red-Hat-Base;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=banshee
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=General
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=1.7.6
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=banshee

I think also you can create in "alacarte" (the Menu Editor) a launcher (it creates it self a .desktop file).

For 11.04 and earlier:

Unity does support custom launchers from .desktop files. To create custom launcher from a .desktop file you need to create a *.desktop file for your program.

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/name.desktop

The .desktop file should look something like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=the name you want shown
Comment=
Exec=command to run
Icon=icon name
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true

In your file manager open your home folder and navigate to: (You may need to press ctrl+h to show hidden files to see the .gconf directory.)

.gconf-> desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favourites

you'll see a bunch of folders starting with "app-". you need to create a folder for your program. Use the same name.desktop you used in /usr/share/applications. Go into 1 of the folders for something that is already on the dock & copy the xml file and paste that into your new folder. Open it with your text editor and change the name of the *.desktop to your name.desktop.

Open gconf-editor (you can open gconf by running the command gconf-editor in the Terminal) & go to:

desktop-> unity-> launcher -> favorites

Double click the list on the right & add your name.desktop.

Log out & back in and you should see your launcher. (thank you kerry_s on the Ubuntu Forums for helping with this answer)

Unity also has a feature called Lenses. By default, you have two in Unity: Applications and Files. In the future, you will be able to install and create a lot more. There is some info about that on the Ubuntu wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity/Lenses

Ubuntu – way for non-experts to create new lenses/drawers for the Unity launcher

Unfortunately there's no easy way to customize lenses, people need to write them. On the plus side they're easy for people to write, for example the Ask Ubuntu lens is about ~350 lines of code.

Please add your idea here; I'm constantly on the lookout for people to write lenses so put down some detail on what you'd like to see in the lens and maybe we'll get lucky and find someone.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand

For 11.04 and earlier:

Ubuntu – way for non-experts to create new lenses/drawers for the Unity launcher

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