KDE Icon Settings and personal .desktop files broken ??

English Applications
#1

I have searched bugs.kde.org, this forum, and a general google search, but haven’t found an answer. Lots of people talk’n about broken/missing icons, but I didn’t find any resolutions.

When I upgraded from 42.1 to 42.2 last night, the panel icons were gone. .desktop files use to be in .local/share/applications. I now found them in ~/.local/share/plasma_icons.
For each file I changed “icon=application-x-desktop” to “icon=X”, where X was gimp, firefox, kate, konsole etc. and the icons on the panel appeared. Yeh! Just to note, I could also right-click the icon/applications on the panel and click “icon settings” and modify properties. Yeh! All was good, but…

I didn’t do much else, just looked at “Configure Desktop” and added the PRINTING repository for hplip. Some time within 24 hours, the right-click “icon settings” changed. For all intents and purposes its’ functionality is gone (only shortcut appears). Also .local/share/pasma_icons is gone… along with all my personal .desktop. :frowning: :frowning:

When I add an icon/application to the panel (right-click -> add to panel) it seems the following files are updated:
.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
.cache/plasma_theme_default_v5.25.kcache
.cache/icon-cache.kcache.

I’ve been using Kate for testing purposes.

Everything seems to point to /usr/share/applications/org.kde.XXX.desktop or /usr/share/applications/XXX.desktop. In the past when an icon/application was added to the panel a XXX.desktop file was added to .local/share/applications. If you didn’t want it in the menu, but only on the panel you added “NoDisplay=true”.

  1. Where are the personal .desktop files stored now? When I add an icon/application to the panel, I normally want to change the applications options. I don’t want to change them in the
    menu/launcher, only my personal .desktop that I added to the panel.

  2. How do I fix the right-click “icon settings” so I can view and edit properties, both on the panel and on the Desktop.

My desktop layout is “Desktop” (not Folder). If I add the icon/application to my Desktop, I cannot customize it via right-click (again, only shortcut appears).

Any pointers to bugs, fixes, corrections would greatly be appreciated.

kde plasma versio: 5.8.3
kde framework version: 5.26.0

#2

I also have Tumbleweed installed and kde plasma seems to NOT be BROKEN, unlike leap 42.2.

In Tumbleweed, there isn’t a right-click -> icon settings, but rather a right-click -> properties, which lets the user change properties.
And .local/share/plasma_icons/ is back again.

I’m getting really confused where desktop files are suppose to be located ;-), and I have not found a source that clears it up. :frowning:

Tumbleweed
kde plasma version 5.9.2 (leap 5.8.3)
kde frameworks version 5.30.0 (leap 5.26.0)
qt version 5.7.1 (leap 5.6.1)

#3

It is not broken, it is missing completely.

Icon plasmoids didn’t have a way to edit the properties, this has only been added back in Plasma 5.9 (that’s why it works in Tumbleweed).

And .local/share/plasma_icons/ is back again.

I’m getting really confused where desktop files are suppose to be located ;-), and I have not found a source that clears it up. :frowning:

Since 5.9, icon plasmoids store their (modified) .desktop files in ~/.local/share/plasma_icons/.

The menu entries are located in /usr/share/applications/ (and/or ~/.local/share/applications/) since years.
If you want to modify them, you could just as well use the menu editor though that is reachable via right-click on the application menu.

#4

Thank you. I tried searching bugs.kde.org and bugzilla.novell.com initially but didn’t find a hit.

Ok, Leap is missing functionality untill 5.9. In Tumbleweed, I don’t have a ~/.local/share/applications/ (which is where modifed panel desktop files resided in 4 — which is still the desktop in production), but I do have a .local/share/plasma_icons with those files. I use to be able to rename those desktop files. Now it appears the names are fixed. I also couldn’t change the name on a right-click->properties. The textbox next to the icon isn’t editable. The main reason I did that in the past, might not be true now. I’m still testing.

#5

A workaround would be to create your .desktop files in a folder view applet or containment though.
You can then right-click and select “Properties”.

#6

No.
Modified application menu entries are still located in ~/.local/share/applications/, and you can edit them by right-clicking on an entry in the application menu or by running kmenuedit.

You were talking about icons on the desktop though or icon “shortcuts” in the panel, didn’t you?
Those were never stored in ~/.local/share/applications/.

I use to be able to rename those desktop files.

Why would you want to rename those files?
They are Plasma internal, and store the properties for that particular “Icon” widget. (if you’d rename them, the widget wouldn’t find its “settings” any more)

You should be able to modify the displayed name in the “Application” tab though (for application shortcuts at least).