How are programs executed in Ubuntu?

Jim Byrnes jf_byrnes at comcast.net
Fri Jan 29 21:00:04 UTC 2016


On 01/29/2016 03:16 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> On 29 January 2016 at 01:39, Jim Byrnes <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>> Running Ubuntu 14.04.
>>
>> I recently started to learn the programing language livecode. I have
>> completed a couple of tutorials and got them to run in the ide.  Then I
>> compiled them as standalone apps. Now I would like to launch the standalone
>> version.
>>
>> My preferred method of starting programs is put them on the launcher or put
>> them in a program called "Drawers" that sits on the launcher and contains
>> programs to launch. The livecode programs will not start from either.
>
> You need to make a .desktop file and put it in
> .local/share/applications, then it will appear in the dash and/or you
> can put it on the launcher.  See
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UnityLaunchersAndDesktopFiles
>
> Colin
>

Thanks Colin,

After much stumbling around I finally got this to work. The first thing 
I did wrong was to create a file called myprog.desktop based on the link 
you gave above and drop it in /local/share/applications. That did not work.

Then I tried using the utilities mentioned in the link above, but they 
could not find the file even I was looking at it in Nemo.  Finally I 
used ls in a terminal and it showed up as myprog.desktop.desktop. 
Apparently that location adds .desktop by default but Nemo did not 
display it.

Once I fixed that the desktop utilities put it in the proper location 
and I was able to put it on the launcher.

At this point I could still not get it to work in the Drawers launcher. 
Then I noticed a Drawers.desktop file.  Looking at it I saw an entry for 
each of the items I had put in the Drawers launcher.  Using them as a 
template and a bit of guessing I was able to manually add myprog and it 
now works from Drawers.

Thanks again,  Jim





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