Desktop Icons

Hi, I'm new to linux and just got my acer aspire one last week. I love its simplicity, but from what I've read, it may be set up to be too simple.

All I would like to be able to do, to complete this gorgeous piece of kit is to have adobe reader 8 and picasa as icons on my desktop. PLEASE, if anyone can write and tell me how to put these on, step by step (and I really mean step by step as I am truly a total beginner) I'd be really grateful.

Thanks,
Andrew.

 

Search the forum for "group-app.xml"

You have to edit it. It's a bit of a pain but easy enough when you get the hang of it.

Start by typing the following at the terminal,

Code:

sudo mouspad ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml

Or if you want to give up on the Acer desktop and go back to a normal looking desktop with drop and drag icon placement, try this:

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=4310&p=28777#p28777

 

Thanks... but no I don't want to use a different desktop... I actually really like the simplicity of this one (Plus I am bored of windows style desktops after 10 years) but would just really like to know how to get those two applications onto the current desktop - these files are slightly different as they are not usr/share but have a root called opt. Any more help would be much appreciated

Thnx.
Andrew.

 

search how to modify your group app!!! your desktop don't change!

 

I know picasa drops its app destop file into

Code:

/usr/local/share/applications

instead of the more usual

Code:

/usr/share/applications

Its name is simply picasa.desktop.

So if you edit group-app.xml to add it to your desktop the address you need to add would be.

Code:

/usr/local/share/applications/picasa.desktop

The Opera browser drops its opera.desktop file in the same location too.

 

I just searched for "group-app.xml" in all sections and received no hits.

Can you help me?

 

The file resides within the hidden folder .config/xfce4/desktop (any file or folder with a period preceding the name is hidden in linux)


Open a terminal : (Alt + F2 opens the Run Application Dialogue. In the window type 'terminal' and click Run.)


In terminal type :

Code:

mousepad /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml

mousepad is the xfce text editor.

You can work out the syntax for this file by looking at the entries already in it.
But you need to find the section within the file for the FUN applications ie the section with media master in it.
Add the following line replacing the # with the number you would like the icon to appear in the section (0 is the first position)
Make sure that there are no duplicate numbers within that section of the file. (because 2 Icons will overlap).

Code:

<app sequence="#">/usr/local/share/applications/picasa.desktop</app>

save the file and close mouspad. Restart your AA1 and the picassa icon should be within the FUN section of your desktop menu.

Just as a caution, before editing the file it would be wise to make a copy of it as group-app.xml.bak just in case you screw it up.

 

Here is the relevent section from my own group-app.xml file.
You will notice that the order of applications in the list has no relation to the order of the icons on the desktop.
The first icon on my desktop (within the FUN section (<id>7</id>)) is Vlc media player :- <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/livna-vlc.desktop</app>.
whilst the last icon on my destop FUN section is Acer Photo Manager :- <app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/pcmphoto.desktop</app>.
You will see that picasa lies second :- <app sequence="1">/usr/local/share/applications/picasa.desktop</app>.

Any line that begins is ignored.

Code:

<group>
       <id>7</id>
       <sequence>6</sequence>
       <directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Fun.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-large.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-back.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="1">/usr/local/share/applications/picasa.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/pcmmvp.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/pcmphoto.desktop</app>
         
         <dir sequence="2" dir_id="1">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Games.directory</dir>
         <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/ucview.desktop</app>
         
         <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/kolourpaint.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/livna-vlc.desktop</app>
<!--         <app icon="internetradio.png" name="Internet Radio" sequence="11">/usr/share/applications/realplay.desktop</app>
         <app icon="picture.png" sequence="12">/usr/share/applications/gthumb.desktop</app>-->
</group>

I hope that this is of some use to you.

 

or you could enable the advanced menu and right click..... find adobe under "office". See the whole thread to set new paaswd etc etc etc .....
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1502&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

So, I read this thread and added the following to the "fun" section of my mousepad:

<app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/pidgin.desktop</app>

I changed the file under it to "5" so that it wouldn't duplicate the pidgin icon.

However, now there is just a space where the pidgin icon should be, and no icon. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I don't have pidgin installed so I wouldn't know for definite.
But a gap on your desktop would indicate to me that the the pidgin.desktop file is either named something different or it resides in a different location to the usual /usr/share/applications try looking in /usr/local/share/applications with the file manager.
If you need to edit the .desktop files properties, you can call up the file manager with root (admin) privileges by typing

Code:

sudo  thunar

Into a terminal or the Run Application diologue box.


As for putting it in the FUN section of group-app.xml thats a personal choice, but you can put it in any section you like. The Connect (web) section being an appropriate one.

 

So.

I booted my acer today, and now all my fun icons are gone. There's no "fun" category at all. :|

Here is my current code for that section.

Code:

<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/
.directory</directory_file>
       <background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-large.png</background_picture>
	 <app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-back.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/pcmmvp.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/pcmphoto.desktop</app>
         
	 <dir sequence="2" dir_id="1">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Games.directory</dir>
	 <app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/ucview.desktop</app>
         
	 <app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/pidgin.desktop</app>
         <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/kolourpaint.desktop</app>
<!--         <app icon="internetradio.png" name="Internet Radio" sequence="11">/usr/share/applications/realplay.desktop</app>
         <app icon="picture.png" sequence="12">/usr/share/applications/gthumb.desktop</app>-->
</group>

 <group>

Help? I'm willing to grind this out and learn it, but I'm completely new to this OS. Love the computer though, so I'm not even THINKING about trading it in or installing XP. I'll go line by line to memorize the code if I have to, but I'm out of my depth at this point. :geek:

Thanks for help ahead of time.

 

The section should begin:

Code:

<group>
<id>7</id>
       <sequence>6</sequence>

And end:

Code:

</group>

The following line in your file:

Code:

<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/
.directory</directory_file>

Should read:

Code:

<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Fun.directory</directory_file>

Notice the 'Fun.directory' part of the line.

Remember that linux is nearly always case sensitive so Fun should be Fun and not fun or FUN.

Nothing else jumps out at me but I have just got up for work so I may not be firing on all cylinders yet.
If you do get the file repaired remember to make a back up of it. I find that if I screw something up (and we all do it) It can be easier sometimes to just start again from the original file.

 

I think pidgins .desktop file may actually be called fedora-pidgin.desktop
I think this because I installed HomeBank from the package manager on a friends AA1 today and it's .desktop file was actually fedora-homebank.desktop even though it showed up in thunar as homebank.

 

It's not - I checked my Fedora Rawhide install. /usr/share/applications/pidgin.desktop is the filename

 

Thanks Rock Doctor.

 

I've been spending a lot of time at the command line, exploring around, and tweaking the desktop config file. In doing so, I learned that mousepad is much easier to use than vi . In typical Unix fashion, I got tired of typing "mousepad" and long path names over and over again, so I added a couple of aliases to .bashrc to save my fingertips, and reduce chances of errors.

To do this, shell out to terminal, then type:

Code:

mousepad .bashrc

Add the following lines to the .bashrc config file:

Code:

alias mp=mousepad
alias ui='mousepad .config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml'

Save and reboot. Now, to invoke mousepad, all I need to type is "mp" and I can edit the desktop config file by typing "ui".

You can create as many command line aliases as you want; the only caveat is to make sure that any alias you add doesn't conflict with an existing Linux command (although looking at .bashrc, you may notice that aliases can be used to modify the way native commands work).