Quick and dirty fix for the disappearing icon issue on Linux

senusretankh

Hi! I use Lubuntu with LXQT for a desktop environment. Like other users, I had the issue of the disappearing icon after updating. I updated from Zotero directly, and the icon in the system tray quick launch section disappeared (blank square instead). Same thing in the Applications menu.

I saw on other entries and the manual that the solution should be to run the set_launcher_icon script again and reboot, but that did not do anything in my case. So I looked at the menu entry directly (right-click + copy + paste in Featherpad) and I saw that in the parameters the path was:

Icon=/home/senusretankh/Utilitaires/Zotero_linux-x86_64/chrome/icons/default/default256.png

Then I looked at my Zotero_linux-x86_64 and saw two problems:
- that "chrome/icons/default/" path does not exist ;
- anyway, I have no default256 icon in the "icons/" directory at all (just the 32, 64 and 128 versions) so I suspect I can change the path all I want, that won't do anything.

Henceforth, quick and dirty way to solve the problem was:
- manually creating the "chrome/icons/default/" path in the Zotero_linux-x86_64 directory ;
- downloading the 256 icon from the Zotero Brand page (https://www.zotero.org/support/brand), renaming it and putting it in the path.

Just putting that here to help if other people are looking for a way to fix that without having to reinstall.

S.

dstillman

No, this is a misunderstanding, and these steps are incorrect.

set_launcher_icon replaces the Icon= line in the bundled zotero.desktop file with the correct path to the icon file, which is also bundled. For Zotero 7, the icon is at icons/icon128.png. chrome/icons/default/default256.png is the path in the Zotero 6 tarball.

You should make sure you symlinked the desktop file into ~/.local/share/applications/, as per our instructions. If you copied it, that file will never be updated with necessary changes, and set_launcher_icon won't have any effect on it.

The icon on the brand page is the Mac icon. That's not intended for use on Linux.

senusretankh

> You should make sure you symlinked the desktop file into ~/.local/share/applications/, as per our instructions.

I didn't, because I found the instructions unclear to be honest. I understood it's required if you *install* via tarball, but since it was an old install and I since upgraded from the Zotero menus and did not manipulate a tarball, I had no idea what operations the upgrader did or did not.

Since the installation instructions mention that « you may need to re-run set_launcher_icon after certain Zotero updates. » I did just that. I tried to have a look at the symlink in ~/.local/share/applications/ but got an error message mentioning too many levels of links so I couldn't check where it pointed and wasn't keen on touching it.

I moved the old symlink and then recreated it as you suggested and it seems to point to the default icon now. Launching Zotero via the Applications menu does not work anymore though, but that's probably another problem whatsoever. It still works from quick launch tray, what the fuck, but that's the mystery of LXQt menus for you.

Thank you for your answer!