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I am running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and am having a persistent, obnoxious problem with Chrome and Hangouts. If I attach a Chrome shortcut to the launcher and/or search for Chrome, it insists that it is Hangouts (I use the Hangouts extension in Chrome), and does not give me options that I need to use (web developer), namely "Launch Incognito." Screenshot of what comes up when I search "chrome" in Applications:

chrome is hangouts

Similarly, if I add a shortcut to Launcher (via drag/drop from the search) and then hover, this shows:

chrome launcher hover

If I right-click the icon in the Launcher, I don't get any of the usual options for launching Chrome in Incognito mode, etc.:

enter image description here

I have tried removing/reinstalling Chrome several times (using instructions from this question) and every time, it still comes back as "Hangouts" instead of good old Chrome.

Currently running Chrome version 64.0.3282.167 (64-bit), with Hangouts extension version 2018.123.418.2.

I am aware of keyboard shortcuts in Chrome for launching new tabs and windows in Incognito mode, but I don't feel like I should have to use these. Can anyone help?

EDIT
Adding results of cat /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop: 

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Google Chrome
# Only KDE 4 seems to use GenericName, so we reuse the KDE strings.
# From Ubuntu's language-pack-kde-XX-base packages, version 9.04-20090413.
GenericName=Web Browser
GenericName[ar]=متصفح الشبكة
# .... many other languages for GenericName ....
# Gnome and KDE 3 uses Comment.
Comment=Access the Internet
# .... many other languages for Comment....
Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable %U
Terminal=false
Icon=google-chrome
Type=Application
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml_xml;image/webp;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;

[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=New Window
# .... many other languages for Name ....
Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=New Incognito Window
# .... many other languages for Name ....
Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --incognito

EDIT 2
I've upgraded to 18.04 LTS and this problem persists. I just completely uninstalled Chrome, reinstalled it (from the .deb package), and when I attempt to launch Chrome from the new Activities thinger, this madness occurs:

enter image description here

Postman is an app I use for HTTP testing. It was originally a Chrome extension and then I installed it as a native application. I have searched my system high and low for any references to it and have removed them, but this problem STILL persists.

AJ.
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  • Try clearing the activity log. Run activity-log-manager from the command line, click on "Files & Applications" then "Clear Usage Data" from all time. – stumblebee Feb 23 '18 at 02:54
  • Also what is the output of cat /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop – stumblebee Feb 23 '18 at 05:35
  • @stumblebee Please see my edit on the OP, thank you for your time. Also, clearing usage data from activity-log-manager had no effect. – AJ. Feb 23 '18 at 15:07
  • google-chrome.desktop looks ok. Does the problem persist if you add and log in as that new user? – stumblebee Feb 24 '18 at 02:46
  • @stumblebee I don't understand what you mean....what new user? – AJ. Feb 27 '18 at 16:10
  • What I meant was to create a new user sudo adduser username then log in as username That will narrow the problem down to a user or system wide configuration problem. – stumblebee Feb 28 '18 at 06:01
  • @stumblebee Finally got back to this. I just upgraded to 18.04 LTS and the problem persists. I made another user and Chrome worked as expected so it's definitely user-related. I'm starting to think it has to do with Postman, which I had previously installed as an extension and now as a native app. I'm trying to uninstall everything and start over. – AJ. May 11 '18 at 13:51

2 Answers2

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I ended up completely reinstalling Ubuntu (upgraded to 18.04). I know this isn't really a solution, but at least now the question can be closed.

AJ.
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1

The same thing happened to me, and after much frustration, I had checked the folder ~/.local/share/applications, where all the desktop configuration files reside. The google hangout extension had overwritten the desktop configuration file for google chrome.

Solution to this is just replace the

~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

file with the original copy of desktop configuration file from

/usr/share/applications

cp -t ~/.local/share/applications /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
user830979
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