0

I'm running standard Ubuntu 18.04 (with GNOME desktop). Older X11 applications -- xmessage, xload, xman, xedit, etc. -- work OK, but except xterm and xeyes, their icons in the dock appear as a "no parking" sign, or just a blank square.

It's obvious that GNOME cannot locate most of these icons. Is there a way to make them appear?

pomsky
  • 68,507
Amos Shapir
  • 1

1 Answers1

0

Each icon you see in the Applications overview corresponds with a .desktop file that provides the shell with various information on the application, including the name to display in the menuing system, how the program should be launched, and obviously also what icon should be used to represent the program. These files are merely text files. The information on what icon to use is provided on the Icon= line. There, you can specify either the full pathname (i.e., folder and subfolders + name) of any compatible graphic that you want to be used as an icon or only a file name. In the latter case, a valid icon file is looked for in some standard folders. If no icon is specified, or no valid icon is found, a fallback icon is used.

Thus, you should check the corresponding .desktop file, and ensure that 1) there is a line for the Icon and 2) it points to an existing valid file.

vanadium
  • 88,010
  • The problem now is how to find the icons for these applications. I have found where xterm stores its icon, but not where xeyes or xclock (which do display icons in the dock) store theirs. I suspect most other X11 applications which do not display an icon, just do not have any icon installed at all. – Amos Shapir May 28 '19 at 05:59
  • Indeed, the style of these two icons would let lets me suspect that it might be Gnome-shell defaults for these two apps, or alternatively, it are X-server build-in icons if these icons would also appear in other desktop environments. – vanadium May 28 '19 at 10:30