Plank icon to startup script

Question

I want to run the script temp-throttle (https://github.com/Sepero/temp-throttle) at startup and show a custom Plank icon.

The script will throttle CPU frequency at 79 celsius if run like so

sudo ./temp_throttle.sh 79

As it needs the temperature to be specified as above after cd in the path of the script, a second script is needed.

#!/bin/bash

cd "path-to-the-folder//temp-throttle-stable"
terminator -e 'sudo ./temp_throttle.sh 79' --geometry=300x80 -p hold 

I have called that temp-throttle and put it in $HOME/bin, as indicated here.

In order to have some info on the situation, I have integrated the command in a terminal command and added -p hold that sets a terminal profile to keep terminal window open.

If I add that script to startup applications list, the icon used in Plank is that of the terminal.

I would like it to run at startup and show in Plank my custom "temp.png" icon

For that, I have created the file ~/.local/share/applications/temp-throttle.desktop with the following lines:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=temp-throttle
Icon=temp
Categories=System;Monitor;
Exec=temp-throtle

Executing that directly (double-click) it shows the terminal icon in Plank.

I can make the dock use the custom "temp" icon by executing the .desktop file from the applications search&launch tool (e.g. Slingshot) or with the command gtk-launch temp-throttle (as suggested here).

After that, the custom Plank icon can of course be pinned to the dock (right-click, "Keep in Dock"). That creates the file /home/cipeos/.config/plank/dock1/launchers/temp-throttle.dockitem with the lines

[PlankDockItemPreferences]
Launcher=file:///home/cipeos/.local/share/applications/temp-throttle.desktop

as suggested in the pauljohn32's answer. He also seems to suggest in a comment that the important thing here is to have the exact same names for all files involved: all my file are called temp-throttle.

The problem is how to run a .desktop file at startup: if I simply add the desktop file at startup it will not run at all. If I add the startup command gtk-launch temp-throttle.desktop it will still use the terminator icon.

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This question is close to this: Apply icons to bash scripts, but different, as the answers under that (use a .desktop file) will not work if the command/script/desktop-file is run at startup.

It seems that at startup the final command/script is run without taking into account the Icon= line in the .desktop file, no matter the method used to run the .desktop launcher.

I have tested many answers under this question (Running a .desktop file in the terminal) but they will not keep the icon specified in the .desktop file if that is run at startup.

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THIS answer provides a solution for Unity, but it doesn't work as such for Plank.

Answer 1

configure a new renamed desktop file that does what you want. Change session manager to launch that one instead of other. Only difference b/t config file will be icon selection.

Here is a concrete example.

1. Open a terminal, run

   $ charmap

Notice the character map pop into the Plank?

2. Right click on the icon, choose "keep in dock".

3. In terminal, cd to ~/.config/plank/dock1/launchers

You should see "gucharmap.dockitem". Edit that file, change the name of the desktop file it is using.

4. You better go create that desktop file you referred to in step 3, or else, well, this whole thing is no fun ;). I had some fun, for example, by changing the icon for gucharmap in my dock to look exactly like firefox! The top of my desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Character Map
Comment=Insert special characters into documents
Keywords=font;unicode;
Exec=gucharmap
Icon=firefox

All I did was replace the icon with firefox, and now my plank looks twice as awesome. I think I might make all of the icons look like firefox.

Now, about your custom script, it is important to get the Exec line correct, or else Plank won't find your script and associate it correctly. But I think you can get this done.