Xfce Forum

insam

Member

Registered: 2024-02-16

Posts: 3

Launcher and link icons

Hello,
I'd like to know why, since XFCE 16*, it's so difficult to apply a personal icon to launchers and links, too many authorizations are requested and you have to redo them several times before they are validated, and start all over again after a disk cache empty.

It used to be so simple, why complicate things so much?
When you've got bad eyesight, icons are indispensable for locating links, launchers and folders in the tree structure.

I'd also like to know why the .desktop extension has always been displayed, as it takes up space in the file labels in thunar, limiting legibility (again for the visually impaired).

Is there a simple solution to hide it, as in previous versions of XFCE?

Thanks in advance for telling me.

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chang-zhao

Member

Registered: 2023-11-20

Posts: 42

Re: Launcher and link icons

I don't know exactly, but maybe it depends on your particular configuration?

In my experience, I can easily right-click on the desktop and choose "Create Launcher". Then fill the text entries, set an icon and... done. There is a launcher with a proper icon and no ".desktop" extension.

In Thunar however the icon does not appear (and ".desktop" does not disappear) until I try to launch the desktop file - and then Thunar lets me choose to mark the file as Trusted. Then since I do that (or set executable permission with Properties), the launcher would be shown properly. However, sometimes Thunar window (tab) should be refreshed (F5 or Ctrl-R), and sometimes later the icon disappears (and the launcher in Thunar can be shown as ".desktop" again). I think it's some bug related to how Thunar interacts with the filesystem (gvfs?).

Perhaps bugs like you described should be reported to developers?
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce

insam

Member

Registered: 2024-02-16

Posts: 3

Re: Launcher and link icons

Yes, that's exactly what you're describing, the desktop is the only place where the .desktop extension is hidden, in thunar's open windows, the launchers always have the extension displayed, and it's precisely to these launchers that it's difficult to assign an icon and keep it displayed.
I must admit that if it were possible to downgrade XFCE to version 4.14 instead of the current 4.18 in my MX 23.2 , I'd do it without hesitation, as it was more ergonomic and faster.

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chang-zhao

Member

Registered: 2023-11-20

Posts: 42

Re: Launcher and link icons

I tried a couple of alternative file managers:

* Gnome Files (nautilus) didn't show proper icon for a .desktop launcher at all.

* spacefm-thermitegod (that is, recently updated version of SpaceFM) shows the proper icon. It doesn't hide ".desktop" extension, and that's OK. Or maybe there are some settings for that somewhere.

You might like to use SpaceFM instead of Thunar. Or try to bring the problem to the attention of the developers and hope that it would be fixed soon-ish. I myself like Thunar. It has tons of useful functions, so this little inconvenience with launchers is tolerable.

Last edited by chang-zhao (2024-02-17 09:18:29)

insam

Member

Registered: 2024-02-16

Posts: 3

Re: Launcher and link icons

I too love thunar and XFCE in general.
It's just that I'm visually impaired and these 'little' inconveniences are becoming more important to me.
especially as I had no problems with version 4.14 (nor with previous versions.)

Or try bringing the problem to the attention of the developers and hope it will be resolved soon.

If only I knew where to do that...As you can see, I'm forced to use a translator, which means I never know how to navigate a page that isn't in my language, because the possibilities of automatic translators are still a bit too limited.

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