How to change permissions for .desktop files?

[Citizen Zed]

I'm in 4.13.3 installed as a metapackage on top of Ubuntu 14.04


Gave up trying to create a shortcut by means of "add widget" and quicklauncher (it puts a Dolphin and a web browser icon rather than letting one pick what one wants). Then I see I can drag program icons out of the Kickoff selector onto the desktop. It makes .desktop files but one cannot rename them (either directly or via text editor). It says I don't have permission.


How does one fix this?

[Citizen Zed]

So additionally, I tried to fix this by installing Root Actions Servicemenu. That done I use it to change ownership to Active User (from root). But get this, I type in a new name and, while it does not change on the desktop (just as before), I see it immediately change in the Dolphin desktop folder. How weird is that?

So on the desktop itself it will not rename... even after rebooting.

[SteveRiley]

Did you change the desktop layout to Folder? That's what I always do. Then it becomes easy to put launcher on the desktop. Navigate to the desired program in Kickoff, right-click the icon, and choose Add to desktop from the fly-out menu.

[Citizen Zed]

Yeah, desktop layout is Folder. But the problem is renaming a short cut, as in "Firefox Desktop Browser" to just "Firefox". It won't let you do it.

But the fix turns out to be, at least one fix, is to get Root Actions Servicemenu in Dolphin which adds a dropdown to change ownership from root to active user. Then, rather than directly trying to rename, open the file in Kate and change the name there.

One adds Root Actions Service menu from Dolphin: Configure Dolphin -> Services -> Download New Services. But before doing this, you have to open terminal and: sudo apt-get install ruby

Absurd and incomprehensible complexity compared to Windows but it can be done.

[OneLine]

A comment

I'm in 4.13.3 installed as a metapackage on top of Ubuntu 14.04...

...Dolphin: Configure Dolphin -> Services -> Download New Services. But before doing this, you have to open terminal and: sudo apt-get install ruby...

Absurd and incomprehensible complexity compared to Windows but it can be done.

Only if you are making it absurd and complex.


With an unbroken Kubuntu/KDE installation - default layout - that is desktop :


1) Unlock widgets if they are locked. Right click the desktop. If there is an option to 'Lock Widgets' then the widgets are unlocked.




2) Add the application to the desktop.






3) Edit the Icons settings - that is edit the desktop file with the build in editor.





Broken installation

The root is owning my files:

Really old link but still a good one: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...ll=1#post74683

Ubuntu Community Rootsudo: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

...But before doing this, you have to open terminal and: sudo apt-get install ruby...

The Dolphin package ( http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty-updates/dolphin ) is recommending package ruby. The Ubuntu is installing the recommended packages as default but the user can change this.

The recommended packages are ( https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-po...tionships.html ):

Recommends
This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency.

The Recommends field should list packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual installations.

[Citizen Zed]

Thank you. However, I guess my new kubuntu installation is not unbroken. Rather than what happens in your picture, when I drag something from Kickoff to desktop it asks if I want to copy or make a link first. But then, no matter which I choose, the slide thing (which I can see sliding out of other unlocked widgets) does not happen at all in this case. Rather, the thing will have either a plus or minus sign in a circle (upper right of icon toggling either way with no apparent effect). So I can't test the wrench settings thing at all.

Anyway, thanks.... I will try to investigate why a brand new installation of kubuntu is somehow broken. Other than this weirdness, I would not have suspected anything was wrong.
.... but now I'm having the nagging intuition that I have no idea how to find out why my installation is broken and/or how to fix it.

[vinnywright]

Thank you. However, I guess my new kubuntu installation is not unbroken. Rather than what happens in your picture, when I drag something from Kickoff to desktop it asks if I want to copy or make a link first. But then, no matter which I choose, the slide thing (which I can see sliding out of other unlocked widgets) does not happen at all in this case. Rather, the thing will have either a plus or minus sign in a circle (upper right of icon toggling either way with no apparent effect). So I can't test the wrench settings thing at all.

Anyway, thanks.... I will try to investigate why a brand new installation of kubuntu is somehow broken. Other than this weirdness, I would not have suspected anything was wrong.

do you have your desktop set to "folder view" ,,,,the actions will be diferent.

VINNY

[Citizen Zed]

"Folder view" I think yes. If I right click desktop the bottom most thing is "Folder Settings"... if I click that, it says layout is Folder.

[vinnywright]

what is it you are trying to do again ,,,,,,,,rename a launcher you added to the "folder view" desktop ?

VINNY

[vinnywright]

if so ,,,,,,,,,,right click the launcher>root actions>open as text>inter password>in the kate window that will open and in the "name Field" enter the name you want and click save ,,,,,,,done.

VINNY

[Citizen Zed]

Yes "Folder View" (and if what I want to call a shortcut is instead called a launcher). In one sense I have solved the problem (post 4 above). However, according to OneLine I must have done a dorky work-around to a broken installation of kubuntu.


Here is a sequence of my difficulty in creating desktop shortcut/launcher things:
1 > I tried to do it by adding a widget called quicklaunch in the panel (it has a rocket picture). But this adds things automatically like a Dolphin icon and a web browser icon instead of letting me pick a program and so I gave up trying to figure it out.
2 > I then discovered I could drag program icons out of Kickoff onto desktop. But I had no ability to rename them... no "permission". This remained the case if I tried to use Kate
3 > I installed Root Actions Servicemenu into Dolphin. This added dropdown features to where I could assign permissions to Active user rather than root.
4> Then, while I could see both the icon on the desktop and the icon in Dolphin's desktop folder, I right clicked the icon on actual desktop to rename it. But the rename only appeared in Dolphin and stayed the same on the desktop.
5> Rather than right click/rename, I then opened the .desktop file in Kate and changed it's name there. That worked.


So again, for me the immediate problem is solved. But I am wondering if my installation is broken (after OneLine's pictures above [since my .desktop icon files do not unfold a slide thing out with a wrench thing as other widgets do - and renaming invokes root permissions in the first place]) in such a way that will hurt me somehow later.

[Snowhog]

Make sure Widgets are unlocked. Change the desktop layout from Folder View to Default Desktop. What you are trying to do will work.

[Citizen Zed]

Make sure Widgets are unlocked. Change the desktop layout from Folder View to Default Desktop. What you are trying to do will work.

So that works... to the degree that a slider with wrench thing now unfolds out of launcher icon and I can rename directly (without doing things I mentioned above)

But now I can't control icon text color or turn off the shadow effect.... or at least I can't figure out how to do that.

Exhausting trying to control/modify the simplest things. I will probably go back to "Folder View", since there I "solved" the problem and could find a way to control icon properties

[SteveRiley]

I played around with this in Folder view, and here's what I learned.

If you right-click an icon in Kickoff and choose Add to desktop, the resulting icons are just symbolic links to .desktop files in /usr/share/applications/*. The actual files are owned by root. As such, you can't change properties of the symbolic link.

If you drag an icon to the desktop, a fly-out menu appears, allowing you to create a copy or a link. A copy becomes yours -- you have complete control over it and can rename it as you wish. A link behaves the same as what happens in the previous paragraph.

[vinnywright]

I played around with this in Folder view, and here's what I learned.

If you right-click an icon in Kickoff and choose Add to desktop, the resulting icons are just symbolic links to .desktop files in /usr/share/applications/*. The actual files are owned by root. As such, you can't change properties of the symbolic link.

no ,,,,,,,but you can rename the *.desktop file it points to and so the link as I described in post #10

hear are the visuals of it .................................................. ..................




this is after changing it to just firefox from the default "firefox web browser" ,,,,,or whatever it was

all this is also assuming we have the default folder to display in "folder view settings" as ~/Desktop ,,,,,,,,,,you can have it displaying any location ................................. say ~/




or / even



of course the links you make will go to whatever location is being displayed .

If you drag an icon to the desktop, a fly-out menu appears, allowing you to create a copy or a link. A copy becomes yours -- you have complete control over it and can rename it as you wish. A link behaves the same as what happens in the previous paragraph.

true .........


VINNY