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It's hard to explain this without a picture, so I'll add one. Basically, I installed IntelliJ IDEA using this PPA on 16.04. After installting, I found that typing "idea" in the standard program seach was turning up nothing, though the command intellij-idea-community was launching the program correctly.

So I created a .desktop file at /usr/share/applications/intellij_idea.desktop with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=IntelliJ IDEA
Type=Application
Exec=/opt/intellij-idea-community/bin/idea.sh
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/intellij-idea-community/bin/idea.png
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Development;IDE;
Name[en]=IntelliJ IDEA
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.22

And now, IDEA start showing up in search. So far so good.

I have an annoyance, though. Once IDEA starts up, the icon gets replaced by the ugly default question-mark thing (see the last icon in Unity):

enter image description here

Everything works fine. It's just that this icon is an eyesore. Also, if I lock this icon to launcher and then close IDEA and click on the icon to start the IDE, it doesn't. Instead, I just see a "busy" animation of this icon. To launch, I again have to type "idea" in the search and click on the png icon.

Any explanations for this?

ankush981
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2 Answers2

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What happened

intellij-idea-community installs a perfectly working .desktop file: /usr/share/applications/intellij-idea-community.desktop. Sometimes however, a freshly installed application needs a log out/in to show up in Dash.

This is apparently the case in your situation. I tried installing it with the same result. Simply log out/in did the job:

enter image description here

Your home-made launcher does start up the application, but does not connect to the window, so a generic icon shows up to represent the window.

How to fix

Remove your own made launcher from /usr/share/applications/intellij_idea.desktop, log out and back in.

important note

In any way, since you tried lock the (incorrect?) icon to the launcher, make sure to remove any Intellij IDEA - related .desktop file from ~/.local/share/applications, since possibly remaining .desktop files will overrule the global one.

Community
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Jacob Vlijm
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Try these steps:

  1. get rid of the .desktop file you created earlier
  2. start intellij idea
  3. go to tools and select Create desktop Entry..
  4. say yes to override whatever was there before and select the option create for all users in the dialogue box

And you should see an icon in dash. It appears you didn't do this after installing the app.

George Udosen
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  • This will not fix the issue whatsoever. 2. intellij-idea-community installs a perfectly working .desktop file in /usr/share/applications already. Creating another one locally, what you propose, will increase the mess. Remeber he installed it from ppa.
    • – Jacob Vlijm Dec 02 '16 at 08:40
  • @Jacob Vlijm, It does not create another one it simply overrides whatever one is there already... This is what is done when updating to a newer version, I do this all the time. I agree with the log out advice it does that at times. – George Udosen Dec 02 '16 at 08:42
  • Please read the question, he installed it *from ppa* with a globally installed .desktop file. Your proposal will create one locally. His own file (differently named) will still exist, is not overwritten (created globally), causing issues since it is named differently, calling the same application. – Jacob Vlijm Dec 02 '16 at 08:44
  • @Jacob Vlijm, I see what your saying. Sorry didn't put my head into the question. Yes you answer should do the trick. – George Udosen Dec 02 '16 at 08:45
  • No problem, glad I could convince you :) – Jacob Vlijm Dec 02 '16 at 08:46
  • @Jacob Vlijm, selecting the create for all users option might also override the previously created one, right? – George Udosen Dec 02 '16 at 08:48
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    In principle, but his own file is differently named. The issue is that file, which is corresponding to the same application, but differently named. That one will still exist. – Jacob Vlijm Dec 02 '16 at 08:49
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – George Udosen Dec 02 '16 at 08:53