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Accepted
BretD
Asked: 2012-01-12 20:23:20 +0800 CST

How do I change the VLC icon on the launcher?

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I am trying to change the default orange cone icon for the VLC media player on the Unity bar in 11.10. I have tried following similar posts in this forum, but without any luck. I changed the vlc.png icon I found in the /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps directory (which i assume is the icon used on the unity bar) by copying a different .png file to it with the same name. It is also a 256x256 pixel .png file. I restarted Ubuntu and the orange cone is still there. I've read tidbits online about having to recompile the program or something, so I don't know if this is more complicated a process than I assumed. I'd also like to be able to do this for other programs, but this one specifically (for now at least). I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

  • I updated my icon cache and the vlc icon is changed in dash, but not when I place it on the unity bar. I've noticed that certain applications have icons stored in different directories and I'm wondering if I'm missing something. I tried out a new icon for google chrome and that one worked, but VLC won't.

  • Well I tried placing an icon in 128x128 and that didn't work either. Is it possible the icon is some how hardcoded into the program? I've also now succesfully changed firefox's icon as well...so I don't think I'm doing something wrong

unity

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If it isn't an issue with the theme you're using, then have you tried updating the icon cache with sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/hicolor ? (replace "hicolor" by whichever theme you're using. You'll need to put the icon in the appropriate theme folder as well)

    As a bit of extra information. In /usr/share/applications you'll find a vlc.desktop file. You could change the following line:

    Icon=vlc

    With another Icon of your choice (I prefere to set a svg file in the "scalable" directory rather than a rasterized x by y png ). After that you have to do the update command I gave earlier.

    If you encounter any issues with the update command try appending the -f -t options.

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  2. You can't change it for now as long as VLC team has not gotten rid of the systray icon hardcoding. Actually it is reported as bug : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vlc/+bug/530797

    Pleace mark the bug as affecting you if so.

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