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I just upgraded from Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04 and I am quite disappointed!

It looks like you cannot start a program shortcut from the any folder! If the shortcut is on the desktop, you can right click on it and "Allow Launching" the program ... but that option does NOT exit for folders, even for the system folder "/usr/share/applications" !!!

Is there a way to allow all the shortcuts to launch?

lelorrain
  • 53

2 Answers2

1

Probably from the point of view of security and organization, nautilus does not anymore support executing a file by double clicking it. The idea is that applications should be started from an icon in the Application overview, or from a command in the Alt+F2 run dialog or the terminal.

Custom launchers therefore should reside in your ~/.local/share/applications folder or in system wide folders. From there, they are automatically included in the application overview, and can be placed on the dock as a favourite, or arranged in folders in the application overview.

Still, you could configure your desktop to launch applications when double-clicking a .desktop launcher in the file manager.

  • Install dex. This is a command line tool that allows running any .desktop file from the terminal. Install from the command line with sudo apt install dex
  • Create a .desktop launcher for dex in .local/share/applications that launches dex according to Exec=dex %U (see example below).
  • In your file manager, associate .desktop files with that launcher using Right-click, Properties, "Open with" tab.

Following is an example .local/share/applications/dex.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Run desktop launcher
Comment=Runs .desktop files
Exec=dex %U
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;

A more fundamental approach would be to move to a file manager that supports launching executables, or switch to a different desktop that supports this out of the box.

vanadium
  • 88,010
  • I like your suggestion about DEX and I'm going to try it. I find that Canonical did a bad move with gnome. It was working fine before there was no reason to change that feature. – lelorrain May 31 '21 at 21:34
  • I can't get it to work ... the ./local/share/applications/dex.desktop shortcut is correct as far as I know, I set it to execute from terminal and I see the terminal windows flashing when I start any other shortcut, but the requested program is not starting! – lelorrain May 31 '21 at 21:39
  • Does not need to be executable. Instead, you need to associate desktop files with it in the file manager. – vanadium Jun 01 '21 at 08:06
  • the desktop shortcut are associated with DEX, the problem is that I see flashing the terminal windows in which DEX execute, but the program shortcut that started it does not execute. – lelorrain Jun 03 '21 at 14:38
  • I added an example desktop file which is still on my system. I usually test my answers first. – vanadium Jun 03 '21 at 15:12
  • I replaced my own dex.desktop file with yours and it works! Thank you. – lelorrain Jun 07 '21 at 15:11
  • Please "accept" the question (check the mark next to the question) if this worked for you. – vanadium Jun 07 '21 at 15:55
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If you want to create a shortcut on desktop home screen then you just have to go to Menu > Test App > Right Click > Add to Home Screen. If this still doesn't work then check the app properties in /home/user/desktop/app > Properties and then configure the app type, if it's in wrong format then check it's in correct path or not /usr/bin/app-name %U. If it still doesn't work, try launching from terminal and creating that a text executable file on desktop, the format can be like this: type the exact system-name for the application - $app-name.

Hope this will help you add a desktop shortcut :)

Sushant
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  • I don't see where to start here. What is this "Menu" you refer to? And then what is that "Test App"? I think it will be difficult for readers to follow. – vanadium May 21 '21 at 10:07