Ubuntu – How to rename gnome-shell launcher application name without Alacarte

alacartegnome

Pity that gnome-shell's launcher shows only a few characters of the application's name. That's why I'd like to rename e.g. "web-browser firefox" into just "firefox".

Previous versions of gnome had a working Alacarte program which allowed to do what I need.
Now Alacarte shows this error while trying to enter the applications preferences:

File "/usr/share/alacarte/Alacarte/MainWindow.py", line 391, in on_edit_properties_activate
    process = subprocess.Popen(['gnome-desktop-item-edit', file_path], env=os.environ)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 679, in __init__
    errread, errwrite)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1249, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception

How do I rename an application without alacarte?

Best Answer

In Ubuntu, apps are described in .desktop files

Gnome Shell, Unity, KDE Plasma, etc use those files to obtain application name.

They do so by looking up on Name parameter in .desktop file.

Most .desktop files are located in /usr/share/applications

So to change an application's display name :

Open gedit and open /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop from gedit // maybe it is firefox-broswer.desktop (not using ubuntu at the moment)
Locate the Name=Firefox Web Browser line and change it to Name=Firefox
Save the file and reload your shell

NOTE: You must open gedit as root :

gksu gedit

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to start an application maximized without decorations in gnome-shell

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This was achieved using devilspie to start darktable maximised, followed by my linked answer to remove the window decoration.

Note - I tried this with the devilspie "undecorate" command but that just left an annoying blank space where the decoration would be

install devilspie

sudo apt-get install devilspie
mkdir ~/.devilspie
nano ~/.devilspie/darktable.ds

copy and paste the following:

  (is (application_name) "darktable")
    (begin
       (maximize)
       (spawn_sync "/home/dad/decoration.py")
       (spawn_sync "/home/dad/decoration.py")
    )

N.B. substitute /home/dad/decoration.py for the full-pathname to the undecorate script. Save.

Finally, make sure devilspie start in your startup-applications.

Linked Question:

Remove titlebar from maximized terminal window

Ubuntu – How to edit gnome/unity menus without using Alacarte

GUI way

You might want to try Menulibre, a new alternative to Alacarte. You can install it via:

sudo apt-get install menulibre

Manual way

Application launchers are located in these three folders:

~/.local/share/applications

(your user only)

/usr/local/share/applications
/usr/share/applications

(all users)

By modifying the .desktop files found in these folders you can edit menu entries directly. Modifications in user-wide folders will require root access:

gksudo nautilus /usr/local/share/applications

Drag and drop .desktop files into a text editor like gedit to edit their contents. If root access is required, use:

gksudo gedit

Delete the files to remove their corresponding menu/dash entries.

Important Caveat: Changes introduced to default – i.e. user-wide – .desktop files might get reverted on the next system update.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to start an application maximized without decorations in gnome-shell

Ubuntu – How to edit gnome/unity menus without using Alacarte

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