Launcher problems... bugs or am I just too stupid to get it?

[Ric Moore]

On 05/12/2012 07:39 PM, Paul Smith wrote:
> I'm having a hard time working with the Launcher.
>
> For example I have a proprietary application I use at work for source
> code control.  It has a Linux GUI client (written in Java with a shell
> script wrapper to launch it) but it doesn't come with any desktop
> integration at all, so I've written my own very simple .desktop file for
> it that I've been using the Gnome Panel for years.
>
> So now I've upgraded to Ubuntu 12.04 64bit and added the .desktop file
> and I see the icon in the Dash.  I click it and the application starts,
> but sometimes no icon at all is added to the Launcher.  Other times, I
> get two empty spaces where icons would go, then the icon itself in a
> third space; when I exit the app all three "spaces" are removed.  Still
> other times, I get just the single icon I expect.  These seem to me to
> pretty clearly be bugs but I can't come up with any reliable reproducer
> (although I get bad behavior at least half the time).
>
> Now if I right-click on the icon that is created (when it is) and "Lock
> to Launcher", then I try to click on the icon in the Launcher, it throbs
> a couple of times but my application is never started.  I replaced the
> application with a script that writes to a temp file and the temp file
> is never created, so obviously it's not running the program that I
> specified in my .desktop file.  I have no idea what it IS running... is
> there any way to see what actions the icons in the Launcher are bound
> to?
>
> Now if I instead open the Dash and drag the icon onto the Launcher, it
> stays and when I click THAT my application does launch... yay!  However,
> it throbs (like it doesn't recognize that the application launched) and
> then I get ANOTHER icon on the Launcher, put there by the application.
> And every time I click the dragged/locked icon, instead of taking me to
> the existing application instance it starts a new one.  I checked the
> desktop spec and it mentions setting StartupWMClass.  Would that help?
> How do I find out what the WM Class is for this application?
>
> I can't figure out this new-fangled Launcher!  It's behavior just
> doesn't make sense to me.  I just want an icon on the Launcher such that
> when I click it, my application launches, I don't get extra icons in the
> Launcher for it, and when I click the icon again it takes me back there
> (the same behavior as the other icons in the launcher).  Is that not
> possible?
If you installed xfce I wonder if you would get the icon behavior you 
expect?? Ric



-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
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