Openning Zotero on Debian 13 (on zotero.desktop)

iagogv · 2026-02-08T10:33:57+00:00

What is

exec=bash -c "$(dirname $(realpath $(echo %k | sed -e 's/^file:\\/\\///')))/zotero -url %U"

in zotero.desktop? It does not works

Let's assume I follow the suggestion and save zotero in /opt/zotero. Then,

exec=bash -c "/opt/zotero/zotero -url %U"

works. But, what the first command tries does not produce this...

iagogv · 2026-02-08T10:44:23+00:00

I assume that it is related to https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/4691, https://github.com/zotero/zotero/pull/5019 and https://github.com/zotero/zotero/issues/5014

Maybe not, only related to icon, but maybe related to https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/129644/zotero-icon-in-desktop-pane-is-not-visible-with-dark-adwaita-xfce-4-20-and-debian-13#latest

KaKooDa · 2026-02-16T06:20:11+00:00

I am facing the same problem. Here is some debug info:

$ desktop-file-validate zotero.desktop
> zotero.desktop: error: value "bash -c "$(dirname $(realpath $(echo %k | sed -e 's/^file:\//\\///')))/zotero -url %U"" for key "Exec" in group "Desktop Entry" contains a non-escaped character '$' in a quote, but it should be escaped with two backslashes ("\\$")
zotero.desktop: error: value "bash -c "$(dirname $(realpath $(echo %k | sed -e 's/^file:\//\\///')))/zotero -url %U"" for key "Exec" in group "Desktop Entry" contains a non-escaped character '$' in a quote, but it should be escaped with two backslashes ("\\$")
zotero.desktop: error: value "bash -c "$(dirname $(realpath $(echo %k | sed -e 's/^file:\//\\///')))/zotero -url %U"" for key "Exec" in group "Desktop Entry" contains a non-escaped character '$' in a quote, but it should be escaped with two backslashes ("\\$")
zotero.desktop: error: value "bash -c "$(dirname $(realpath $(echo %k | sed -e 's/^file:\//\\///')))/zotero -url %U"" for key "Exec" in group "Desktop Entry" contains a quote which is not closed

System specs:

Zotero version: 8.0.3 
OS: Ubuntu 24.04 (& Trisquel)

poettli · 2026-02-16T06:28:24+00:00

I get the same output with the command desktop-file-validate .local/share/applications/zotero.desktop, but it does not prevent the file to work as expected.

Zotero 8.0.3
Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS

KaKooDa · 2026-02-16T18:12:55+00:00

@poettli
Thanks for pointing that out, turns out I'm able to run Zotero from the menu item as well. (i.e. by clicking on menu -> Zotero). But when I try to open them from Application launcher (Alt+f2) it fails. Changing the exec to direct path (/path-to-zotero/zotero) fixes the issue.