Ubuntu – How to make a link to a .desktop [Desktop Entry] file

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I made a link on my Desktop to the launcher file "Compiz" in /usr/share/applications/. When I try to execute it I get:

"The application launcher "Link to compiz.desktop" has not been marked as trusted. If you do not know the source of this file, launching it may be unsafe."

So my question is how to make such a launcher on my Desktop?

Otherwise, what kind of file are these [Desktop Entry] files and how can they be executed (by double clicking on them) if they have permissions such as:

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 396 2010-12-17 15:23 compiz.desktop

Best Answer

As a security policy you can't "execute" .desktop files from nautilus unless they have +x (execute permission). Because you have created a symbolick link you must set the +x on the original desktop file, open a terminal and execute:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/share/applications/compiz.desktop

Please note that the +x maybe lost if the compiz package get's updated, it's probably a better idea to copy the .desktop file and set the +x on your copy.

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