On 07/31/2011 10:47 AM, Stan Goodman pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

I have a Java applications which I use frequently, and for which I have placed hard links on the Desktop, to make them easier to start. The icons are generic, and therefore confusin, and I would like to replace them a recognizable images. I have such images in png and other formats, but it is not clear to me how to assign them to the applications. Howcan I do this?

Right click on the desktop icon and select properties. Then click on the icon picture to change it. -- Ken Schneider SuSe since Version 5.2, June 1998 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:23:13 Stan Goodman wrote:

On 07/31/2011 06:24 PM, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 10:47 AM, Stan Goodman pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

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I have a Java applications which I use frequently, and for which I have placed hard links on the Desktop, to make them easier to start. The icons are generic, and therefore confusin, and I would like to replace them a recognizable images. I have such images in png and other formats, but it is not clear to me how to assign them to the applications. Howcan I do this?

Right click on the desktop icon and select properties. Then click on the icon picture to change it.

Something may be missing from the above.

I click MB2 (i.e. "Right-click" for right-handed people) on the generic icon, and choose Properties in the menu that appears. I leave this window on its General page. I then click on the png file -- which opens the png file in Gwenview, but does nothing else. Have I misunderstood something?

i believe he meant for you to click on the icon picture in the properties window of the desktop icon sc -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:

On 07/31/2011 07:52 PM, sc wrote:

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On Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:23:13 Stan Goodman wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 06:24 PM, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 10:47 AM, Stan Goodman pecked at the keyboard

and wrote:

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I have a Java applications which I use frequently, and for which I have placed hard links on the Desktop, to make them easier to start. The icons are generic, and therefore confusin, and I would like to replace them a recognizable images. I have such images in png and other formats, but it is not clear to me how to assign them to the applications. Howcan I do this?

Right click on the desktop icon and select properties. Then click on the icon picture to change it.

...

Something may be missing from the above.

...

I click MB2 (i.e. "Right-click" for right-handed people) on the generic icon, and choose Properties in the menu that appears. I leave this window on its General page. I then click on the png file -- which opens the png file in Gwenview, but does nothing else. Have I misunderstood something?

i believe he meant for you to click on the icon picture in the properties window of the desktop icon

sc

I've tried that too, clicking on the icon picture after choosing Properties, then clicking on the png file.

Clicking on the png file knows only one trick, which is opening Gwenview.

Strange. When I click on icon, I'm getting the dialog box "Select Icon". There I can select any png file (single click) and after pressing "OK" this image replaces previous icon. Alternatively, as Vojtěch wrote, you can find ".desktop" file for your application (in your $HOME/Desktop directory) and edit "Icon" line there changing it to full path to your image. Regards, -- Mark Goldstein -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:

On 07/31/2011 08:49 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

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Strange. When I click on icon, I'm getting the dialog box "Select Icon". There I can select any png file (single click) and after pressing "OK" this image replaces previous icon.

That is not what happens here.

Do you mean there is no "Select Icon" dialog? When I click left mouse button once on the icon in "property" dialog, "Select Icon" is opened.

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Alternatively, as Vojtěch wrote, you can find ".desktop" file for your application (in your $HOME/Desktop directory) and edit "Icon" line there changing it to full path to your image.

Perhaps the behavior is related to the fact that the name of the exec file has an additional dot: <~/Desktop/genj.sh.desktop>. I can change that, of course, it's just a historical relic.

No, this doesn't help. Changing the name of genj.sh to genj (there was no other file with that name), and writing a new link:  ln genj ~/Desktop/genj   does make a new icon in Desktop Folder, but it is a text file, despite that fact that its permissions are rwx for everybody. I do not understand this, perhaps someone can explain it.

Don't change the file name. Open it with some text editor (I opened it using mc F4 key). This file should have a number of lines, one of them should look like Icon=xxxxxx Change xxxxx to the full path to your image (like /home/user/pic.png) If there is no such line, I guess you can just add it. Regards, -- Mark Goldstein -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 07/31/2011 10:16 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 08:49 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

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Strange. When I click on icon, I'm getting the dialog box "Select Icon". There I can select any png file (single click) and after pressing "OK" this image replaces previous icon.

That is not what happens here.

Do you mean there is no "Select Icon" dialog? When I click left mouse button once on the icon in "property" dialog, "Select Icon" is opened.

That is what I have been saying. It doesn't happen here.

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Alternatively, as Vojtěch wrote, you can find ".desktop" file for your application (in your $HOME/Desktop directory) and edit "Icon" line there changing it to full path to your image.

Here is the complete content of the file ~/Desktop/genj (the changed neame); cd ~/bin/javaapps/genj export CLASSPATH=./lib/genj.jar:./lib/jhbasic.jar java genj.app.App Changing the filename back again and making the link, causes the link to be an executable file that starts the application. Its content is now: cd ~/bin/javaapps/genj export CLASSPATH=./lib/genj.jar:./lib/jhbasic.jar java genj.app.App Hard to see a difference. This file doesn't resemble at all the other files; it doesn't even begin with the line [Desktop Entry] as do all the others. Why does the link work at all? And if it works, why doesn't it work when I change the name? IOW, where is the gremlin? If I need to construct a proper file, what exactly must it contain? Vojtěch says it doesn't need everything in his model, which is nice, but what exactly are the essentials? Since this file was made by the system, without any request for input from me, why is it defective to the point of lacking all form? How could I have avoided this?

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Perhaps the behavior is related to the fact that the name of the exec file has an additional dot:<~/Desktop/genj.sh.desktop>. I can change that, of course, it's just a historical relic.

No, this doesn't help. Changing the name of genj.sh to genj (there was no other file with that name), and writing a new link: ln genj ~/Desktop/genj does make a new icon in Desktop Folder, but it is a text file, despite that fact that its permissions are rwx for everybody. I do not understand this, perhaps someone can explain it.

Don't change the file name. Open it with some text editor (I opened it using mc F4 key).

I've been using vim.

This file should have a number of lines, one of them should look like Icon=xxxxxx

This is free-form? E.g, the short filename less the extension?

Change xxxxx to the full path to your image (like /home/user/pic.png) If there is no such line, I guess you can just add it.

Anything else that must be present? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 07/31/2011 11:10 PM, Ken Schneider - openSUSE wrote:

On 07/31/2011 03:02 PM, Stan Goodman pecked at the keyboard and wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 08:49 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

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On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 07:52 PM, sc wrote:

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On Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:23:13 Stan Goodman wrote:

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I've tried that too, clicking on the icon picture after choosing Properties, then clicking on the png file.

Clicking on the png file knows only one trick, which is opening Gwenview.

Investigating further:

Right clicking on an "icon" in a "desktop folder" will allow for changing of the "icon" picture.

However, if the "icon" is actually a "widget" located on the desktop then it appears that you cannot change it.

It seems clear that it is not an "icon" in the sense that kde4 understands the term; evidence for that is the fact that it can't be modified in the same way that "real icons" can be modified. One needs to understand the psychology of icons, widgets, plasmoids, ectoplasm, and hobbits to fathom this, because the system's response is only silence. As I wrote in my original query, I am dealing with a Java application that I have been using for many virtually trouble-free year, formerly under OS/2, and since under openSuSE. I start it by using a very short and ordinary script that is buried in the file system. Perhaps naively, I thought to place a link on the desktop, so that starting the application would be less inconvenient. For whatever reason (and I would like very much to know what it is), this simple act seens not to have produced a "real link", but a pseudolink that does start the application, but is immutable, because its ~/Desktop/____.desktop file is very unlike that of other "icons" on the Desktop Folder. Back in oS v11.1 (i.e. in kde3) I ran into this problem very briefly, and found it simpler to put the application into a second Panel, along with some other applications (both KDE and otherwise) that I was using. That option is, as I understand it, no longer available, because panels are ONLY for widgets anymore. To summarize, what I really want to do is to be able to start this application from somewhere on the desktop (including, but not limited to, the Desktop Folder). I hope that someone can suggest a way of doing that. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On 31/07/11 21:13, Stan Goodman wrote:

On 07/31/2011 10:16 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

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On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Stan Goodman wrote:

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On 07/31/2011 08:49 PM, Mark Goldstein wrote:

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Strange. When I click on icon, I'm getting the dialog box "Select Icon". There I can select any png file (single click) and after pressing "OK" this image replaces previous icon.

That is not what happens here.

Do you mean there is no "Select Icon" dialog? When I click left mouse button once on the icon in "property" dialog, "Select Icon" is opened.

That is what I have been saying. It doesn't happen here.

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...

Alternatively, as Vojtěch wrote, you can find ".desktop" file for your application (in your $HOME/Desktop directory) and edit "Icon" line there changing it to full path to your image.

Here is the complete content of the file ~/Desktop/genj (the changed neame);

cd ~/bin/javaapps/genj export CLASSPATH=./lib/genj.jar:./lib/jhbasic.jar java genj.app.App

Changing the filename back again and making the link, causes the link to be an executable file that starts the application. Its content is now:

cd ~/bin/javaapps/genj export CLASSPATH=./lib/genj.jar:./lib/jhbasic.jar java genj.app.App

Hard to see a difference. This file doesn't resemble at all the other files; it doesn't even begin with the line [Desktop Entry] as do all the others. Why does the link work at all? And if it works, why doesn't it work when I change the name? IOW, where is the gremlin?

If I need to construct a proper file, what exactly must it contain? Vojtěch says it doesn't need everything in his model, which is nice, but what exactly are the essentials?

Since this file was made by the system, without any request for input from me, why is it defective to the point of lacking all form? How could I have avoided this?

...

...

Perhaps the behavior is related to the fact that the name of the exec file has an additional dot:<~/Desktop/genj.sh.desktop>. I can change that, of course, it's just a historical relic.

No, this doesn't help. Changing the name of genj.sh to genj (there was no other file with that name), and writing a new link: ln genj ~/Desktop/genj does make a new icon in Desktop Folder, but it is a text file, despite that fact that its permissions are rwx for everybody. I do not understand this, perhaps someone can explain it.

Don't change the file name. Open it with some text editor (I opened it using mc F4 key).

I've been using vim.

...

This file should have a number of lines, one of them should look like Icon=xxxxxx

This is free-form? E.g, the short filename less the extension?

...

Change xxxxx to the full path to your image (like /home/user/pic.png) If there is no such line, I guess you can just add it.

Anything else that must be present?

What you have there is a shell script, not a desktop application link. Which is why you can't change the icon, or place it in the panel, etc. 1) Move ~/Desktop/genj shell script to ~/bin or some other suitable location off the desktop. 2) In your ~/Desktop folder, right click and select Create New -> Link to Application 3) Under the 'Application' tab, next to 'Command', browse to where you moved the genj shell script to 4) Under the 'Advanced Options', check 'Run in terminal' 5) Fill in name, comments etc as you see fit When when you click this file (it should show up on the desktop now too), genj should launch as before. But now if you open the properties of this file you will be able to change the icon via the methods already described. You should also be able to drag-n-drop this icon to the panel (with widgets unlocked) or anywhere else you want. Regards, Tejas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org