Create .desktop files for Ubuntu
Let's start with OBS. On 20.04 and because I'm using a Wacom Tablet, there is a magic incantation required when it runs. By creating a .desktop file for it, I can add that and run it from the usual launcher rather than needed a special terminal script or alias.
The file is ~/.local/share/applications/obs.desktop and looks like this:
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Encoding=UTF-8 Name=OBS Studio Icon=/path/to/images/obs-logo.png Exec=env QT_XCB_TABLET_LEGACY_COORDINATES=1 obsI also have this one pinned as a favourite so it launches on a Super + [number] keyboard combination!
Another example is the webpages-as-apps I've been packaging lately [blog post coming on that too I promise but tl;dr try nativefier!], the executables are in a weird path and since I expect to re-package fairly often, I don't want to have to copy things around all the time. No problem! The desktop file doesn't care, and puts them in my proper launcher regardless:
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Twitch Stream Manager Exec=/wild/long/and/unlikely/path/StreamManagerLJ Icon=/path/to/images/twitch-logo.pngHopefully now I've written this down, I'll remember how this works next time without having to come and look up all the instructions ... AGAIN :]
Also published on Medium.