App Icon in Linux?

General
1

Is there anyway in XoJo code wise, to force Linux to use the App Icon Added to the XoJo project contents?

2

On linux you need to create like Linux desktop installer. Icon belongs to that and not the application

3

Can you recommend a Linux Installer?

4

I don’t know if there is one.

I struggled for longest time making it, and i so rarely do it that I have to re-learn it every time.

I guess you need to google how to make Linux desktop file for debian based Linux, or better yet how to make the .deb pack. (the desktop file is inside of that)

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5

The instructions to create a .desktop file for the Xojo IDE are shown here:
https://documentation.xojo.com/resources/system_requirements_for_current_version.html#Linux_Notes

I typically use this as a base and change the details to point to my app.

To create the installer file - which distro are you targeting?

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6

I’ve been just zipping everything up in a VM running the latest Linux Mint and testing it on my Linux Laptop also running Mint. Seems to work just fine. Given the feedback so far, I think I’ll just stick to the Zip file and let people install needed libraries on systems that don’t already have them. Typically, Linux people are more techie anyway and I’m not sure how large my Linux audience would be anyway.

Thanks!

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7

Instead of using zip, think about using tar with the -P argument. This allows you to maintain the absolute path location for things.

Install your app and associated helpers/support folders where they should be. In a Terminal:

sudo -s
cd /

call out the full path in the tar command with the -P as part of the command

tar -czPvf ~/MyApp.tgz /usr/local/bin/helper1 /usr/local/bin/helper2 \
    /usr/share/applications/myapp.desktop /opt/MyApp /usr/local/etc/myapp.conf

In your install readme and docs, instruct the user to install the app using:

sudo tar -xzPf ./MyApp.tgz

This will make sure that all of your parts are where they are expected to be.

You could also look into “zenity” to put a UI wrapper around these steps

3 Likes
8

Also - I forgot that this will also place your .desktop file into the proper location for it to be automatically picked up by your desktop manager’s start/applications menu.

1 Like
9

Tim,

Thanks for your suggestions! I’ll need to take some time to look at this. I’m not super knowledgable on Linux at this point. What I’ve been doing that seems to be working well, is copying the zip file to the desktop or desired folder on the Linux target system and then right clicking and choosing “Extract Here”. So for, that has worked every time.

1 Like