Ubuntu Desktop File

linux doesn't have the definition like “start menu”

for ubuntu system, all invoked desktop files are stored under /usr/share/applications or /usr/local/share/applications or ~/.local/share/applications, precedence in low to high.

it is convenient to install them by using vim (directly editing) or desktop-file-install (third party install).

however, it is way too hard to debug to make sure they work, cause at most time, they just simply don't work, even they have already been checked by desktop-file-validate, because this command can only validate the grammar, it does not have the ability to verify the internal settings.

here comes up with a workaround to tackle this problem, to print out debug info.

Redirect Printout

for example, if we have a desktop file, content with:

# note: case-sensitive
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Gauss View
Exec=/path/to/gaussview %F
Icon=/path/to/gaussview-icon %F
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;

we modify its Exec entry to point to another executable file, and use it call the original executor.

# note: case-sensitive
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Gauss View

# here call third executable
Exec=/path/to/desktop-debug-bash

# or you can simply redirect its error info like:
#Exec=/path/to/your-desktopfile 2> /path/to/debugfile

Icon=/path/to/gaussview-icon %F
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;

inside this desktop-debug-bash file, its content;

echo "Desktop-start-debug" > ~/info.txt

/path/to/gaussview >> ~/info.txt 2>&1

echo "Desktop-done-debug" >> ~/info.txt

Debug Procedure

step 1, edit original desktop file's executable to another debug file

step 2, inside this debug file, redirect printouts & error message to a file

step 3, use information in redirect file to debug the original .desktop

For GNome gedit Chinese encoding problem

Rather than by setting gsettings set org.gnome.gedit.preferences.encodings auto-detected "['GB18030', 'UTF-8', 'CURRENT', 'ISO-8859-15', 'UTF-16']", the simplest solution is to modify its desktop file, where it is stored in /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.gedit.desktop, edit line:

Exec=gedit --encoding GB18030 %U

# super important!
DBusActivatable=false