Unable to launch zotero by zotero.desktop though able to launch by ./zotero

alephpi · April 1, 2023

Hi, I have installed zotero with the official tarball. I have following all the steps, but the symlink I create doesn't work. I mean when I click the .desktop it doesn't open zotero whereas I can open zotero by running ./zotero. Any insight?

dstillman · April 1, 2023

We can't help with that, but if you're having trouble you can just use zotero-deb:

https://www.zotero.org/support/installation#linux

alephpi · April 1, 2023

thanks for your comment, I come to find it has something to do with the setting of .desktop where by default it assumes a gnome enviroment but I am actually using another one.

alephpi · April 2, 2023

well it turns out nothing to do with desktop environment. When I change the `exec` parameter in the .desktop to absolute path, it launches successfully.

westonstewart · May 17, 2024

Just noting that this is still an issue ... also experienced and documented by someone here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/741721/a-question-on-exec-parameter-in-desktop-file

I would note that, with #3 in that post, my working directory must be "/opt/zotero" for that to work. I chose to go with #4 as my permanent solution, which does work.

Deewens · May 18, 2024

Yep, it is an issue using for me as well, using Zotero 7.0.0-beta.79+95d5a5417.
I am on Fedora 40 using GNOME 46 on Wayland.

The problem does not occur on my other machine, running the latest version of Linux Mint Cinnamon. I had to change the Exec parameter to give the absolute path directly.

samvimes · May 18, 2024

It might be related to this: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/105590/7-beta-cannot-start-zotero-via-desktop-file

I found that I couldn't start via Desktop file if the file path contained spaces.