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Firstly I apologize if my question is too basic but, my knowledge about Linux is limited. I've been using Linux for general purposes for a while and finally, I decided to install and use it as my main os.

I have installed Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 and everything looks to be fine until I realize that many icons just disappeared. At this moment I can't found the icons for many utilities like Settings or printers that were in Gnome Shell once. I'm sure that those applications are installed because I'm able to launch the GUI for system-config-printer by a terminal.

I appreciate any help you can provide me and please let me know if you need further information. Regards.

Carlos
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  • When you say the icons are missing, do you mean you cannot see the applications when you view the application list? Or do you see the names, but not the icons? Have you installed any themes or done any software updates recently? –  Jan 26 '21 at 15:15

1 Answers1

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I'm able to launch the GUI [ ... ] by a terminal.

Good. In that case, while the desired GUI window is open, the "Dock" (the "icon bar" on the — by default — left side of the screen) will show the icon of the application. (When you close the window, its icon normally disappears.)

But while the icon is in the Dock: right-click it, and in the appearing context-menu click "Add to favourites". This will persist that icon in the Dock.

To conveniently find the launchers of further programs you can follow this procedure:

  1. Hit the left-side "Windows" key
    • this opens up the Activities Overview screen with a search field near its center-top.
  2. Type the first few letters of the desired application's name
    • This will offer up the icon of the application.
  3. Even when there several results, the desired application's icon often shows up in the first place, already indicated as selected, by a faint lighter-shade rectangle around it. In that case it's enough to hit Enter, and the program launches.
    • To get your application into the first position in the result set, input just the next character of the application-name to allow for a closer match.

This, written down as such, may seem complicated, but in actuality it's goes really fast...

You can customize what will be part of this search-result set on the Activities Overview screen by opening the "Settings" app, and selecting / deselecting items on the "Search" tab.

If you, after all this, for some reason still want to put application launcher icons on your desktop, you can read this thread: How can I create launchers on my desktop?

Levente
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