git gui and gitk not showing git icon in launcher

[Keith]

On 1/9/26 11:54 AM, Tony Arnold wrote:
> On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 11:33 -0600, Keith via ubuntu-users wrote:
>> On 1/9/26 9:58 AM, Colin Law wrote:
>>> On Fri, 9 Jan 2026 at 15:50, Colin Law <clanlaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 9 Jan 2026 at 15:46, Tony Arnold <a.c.arnold at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I've just installed git-gui and run it from the command line
>>>>> using the
>>>>> command 'git gui'. A window pops up with the repository
>>>>> information as
>>>>> expected.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm running Ubuntu 24.04 with the default gnome desktop and
>>>>> using
>>>>> Wayland.
>>>>>
>>>>> You could try switching between Xorg and Wayland to see if that
>>>>> makes
>>>>> any difference.
>>>>
>>>> It runs fine. When running it doesn't show a good icon in the
>>>> launcher.  Do you see a git icon of some sort?
>>>> I will try Wayland, but my graphics doesn't like it much.
>>>
>>> I don't get an icon in Wayland either.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Colin L.
>>>
>>
>> The icon file is located here: /usr/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.ico
>> As Robert said, just create a .desktop file and use the above
>> location
>> for the icon path. I think gnome can display .ico files in the dash.
>> If
>> not, you may have to convert it to a .png file.
> 
> I created ~/.local/share/applications/git-gui.desktop containing:
> 
> [Desktop Entry]
> Type=Application
> Name=Git GUI
> Comment=Git GUI
> Icon=/usr/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.ico
> Exec=git gui
> 
> Now if I click on the 9-dots and type git I see an icon from which can
> launch git-gui.
> 

Instead of "Exec=git gui" I think "Exec=/usr/lib/git-core/git-gui" may 
launch the gui directly without having to type anything. I don't know 
for sure since I don't have git installed. To find the icon file I used 
"apt-file list git-gui".

You could try the above git-gui path from the command-line first to see 
it works. If it does, I'd would create a symbolic link to it to be 
placed in /usr/bin so that it's included in $PATH. Then the Exec line 
would be "Exec=/usr/bin/git-gui"

-- 
Keith