I just came from reading the accepted answer to this question -- and I've done all that; it worked for one application but not for another.
Background: I used Kubuntu 14.04 until early 2017, switched to Ubuntu Mate 16.04, and recently (last weekend) came back to Kubuntu on 20.04.1. A few things changed from KDE 4 to Plasma 5 (can't get the window frame theme I loved!), but overall it works about the same way.
So, after reinstalling stuff, I tried to create an Application Launcher entry for Kerbal Space Program -- this program installs from a .zip file, much like a tarball installation. Just extract the contents into a suitable folder, and launch with a direct link.
Except it won't launch. If I use Dolphin to navigate to its folder, and double click on its launcher executable, it starts and runs correctly. If I open Konsole in that folder, and type ./KSPLauncher.x86_64 it works as it should. If I launch either the script (see below) or the application launcher directly from a command line, even when working in my /home, it starts. But if I create an entry in the Application Launcher menu for it and click (as I do for software that was part of the install, as well as packages I've installed via apt or Discover or Synaptic), I'll see a flicker, a fraction of a second, of the feedback icon, and then nothing. I have another launcher I created (for GURPS Character Sheet) which, as far as I can see, is identical in every way except the command and work folder -- and it works.
I've tried bypassing the symbolic link (my /home is in a separate partition from my install, and I have an "All Users" folder where I keep Documents and Downloads -- originally so I could switch back and forth between Linux versions, but also handy to easily carry over stored information past a reinstall) by using an absolute path, without any joy. I've verified the ownership of the folder (correct for my current install's user) and launcher file. I've set the work path correctly (KSP won't run correctly unless it's started from its own folder; I used to use a two-line script to launch it after learning Mate didn't let its desktop files specify the work path). No joy.
Further confounding fact -- I dug in the desktop folder for my old install's user and copied over the (Mate) launcher icon to my own desktop, and it works there; in addition, creating a "Link to Application" now works. Even weirder, the launch item in Application Launcher, freshly created, now works. smh.
What am I missing?
0 Answers