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hotnuma

Member

Registered: 2025-04-12

Posts: 10

[Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

Hi there,

I'm currently testing XFCE under Debian Unstable with Wayland / Labwc.

I've installed Firefox from Mozilla archives in the /opt directory following the instructions from Mozilla and uninstalled Firefox from Debian repositories. It works perfectly expect for one thing, the Firefox icon doesn't show in the tasklist, aka Window Buttons.

I have a valid desktop file :

cat /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop | grep Icon

Icon=/opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default32.png

The icon is displayed in the application menu, but not in the tasklist. If I restart a session under X11, the Firefox icon is displayed in the tasklist as it should.

So, what kind of black magic is needed to show the Firefox icon in the tasklist under Wayland ?
I had the same problem when I tested Thorium browser some time ago, so it's not a problem with Firefox but rather with Wayland.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by hotnuma (2025-05-04 17:01:03)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,016

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

Maybe this? What version of libxfce4windowing are you running?

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Tamaranch

Member

From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 389

Website

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

Or maybe it's solved by this additional fix, not released yet: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4wi … b6fed07c83

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hotnuma

Member

Registered: 2025-04-12

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

I have version 4.20.2-1, I'll see if I can build the library from git and see what it gives.

Thanks a lot.

Added later 5 h 47 min 39 s:

Or maybe it's solved by this additional fix, not released yet: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4wi … b6fed07c83

I've managed to build the library from git but it doesn't solve the problem, indeed the desktop file is found but it seems the problem is to load an icon from an absolute path in the desktop file.

Last edited by hotnuma (2025-05-04 16:42:10)

hotnuma

Member

Registered: 2025-04-12

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

I did more tests and it confirmed that xfce4-panel's tasklist has troubles with absolute icon paths in desktop files.

Firefox install instructions :
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/in … nced-users

Desktop file to use :
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mozil … ox.desktop

Then a workaround is to install the icon in /usr/local :

sudo cp /opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png \
/usr/local/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/firefox.png
sudo update-icon-caches /usr/local/share/icons/*
sudo sed -i -e 's,/opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png,firefox,g' \
/usr/local/share/applications/firefox.desktop

This should fix the problem.

Last edited by hotnuma (2025-05-04 16:55:30)

Tamaranch

Member

From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 389

Website

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

I did more tests

Did you test with libxfce4windowing-git ?

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hotnuma

Member

Registered: 2025-04-12

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

Yes but it didn't fix the problem.

I added this test in _xfw_g_desktop_app_info_get :

    desktop_id = g_strdup_printf("%s.desktop", app_id);
    app_info = g_desktop_app_info_new(desktop_id);
    
    if (app_info != NULL)
    {
        char *icon_path = g_desktop_app_info_get_string(app_info, "Icon");
        if (icon_path)
        {
            syslog(LOG_ERR, "%s: Icon=%s\n", app_id, icon_path);
            g_free(icon_path);
        }
    }

The g_desktop_app_info_new function succeeds and syslog shows the  icon path.

When the Icon key is like Icon=firefox and the icon is installed then the icon is displayed in the Tasklist.

When the Icon key is an absolute path such as /opt/firefox/browser/chrome/icons/default/default128.png, the icon is not displayed in the Tasklist, but it is displayed in the application menu, it seems that the menu gets the icon in a different way.

Is it a problem in xfw_window_get_icon when there is an absolute path ?

https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-pane … eads#L2777

Last edited by hotnuma (2025-05-05 09:32:19)

Tamaranch

Member

From: France

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 389

Website

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

Well yes, libxfce4windowing just lacks support for absolute icon paths globally, I'll look into it.

Added later 3 h 21 min 22 s:
Fixed in https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4wi … 9e1cdfa37d

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hotnuma

Member

Registered: 2025-04-12

Posts: 10

Re: [Solved] xfce4-panel : missing application icon in the tasklist

It works, thanks a lot. Have a nice day.