[Solved] How to run set_launcher_icon the right way?

86ul

Dear fellow users of Zotero,

tldr/solution: In my case the launcher ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop was broken. After deleting the launcher (manually), and redoing ln -s /opt/zotero/zotero.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop, the launcher is set properly...

Recently I did a fresh install of Mint 20.1 and installed Zotero according to your own guideline (tar > /opt/zotero). Thus I have to run `set_launcher_icon` but as a nontechny newbie I fail to do so. Before I mess anything up, I decided to ask for help.

After downloading it manually form your website, I ran the followings to install Zotero and set the icons according to your guideline:

cd ~/Downloads
sudo mkdir /opt/zotero
sudo tar -xvf Zotero-5.0.96_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2 -C /opt/
(copy the files from /Zotero-5.0.96 to /zotero manually, because I still do not know how to rename the extracted folder)
cd /opt/zotero

But I am stuck on how to run set_launcher_icon. Neither (sudo) sh ./set_launcher_icon, nor (sudo) bash ./set_launcher_icon are succesful. They results either in set_launcher_icon: 7: Bad substitution, or nothing.

Thus how do I successful run the set_launcher_icon file to setup the icons?

dstillman

If you're not comfortable on the command line, I would recommend just using the zotero-deb package, assuming it works on your system.

86ul

Thanks @dstillermann, iff I am "not comfortable on the command line", then I would stay with Windows. But here I am on Linux and hoping to learn how to use the command line properly.

Thus I would like to ask again, "how do I successful run the set_launcher_icon file to setup the icons?"

dstillman

It's a shell script. You run it like any other shell script. Again, if you don't know how to do all of this, you should use the zotero-deb package.

emilianoeheyns

If zotero-deb does not work that's something I'd want to look into.

86ul

Hum, then what I did whas right, right? But I still have no icon in the menus.

I did the following to try to get a launcher in the start menu, but with no positive result:
computer:~$ cd /opt/zotero
computer:/opt/zotero$ bash set_launcher_icon
/opt/zotero/zotero.desktop is not writable

computer:/opt/zotero$ sudo bash set_launcher_icon

computer:/opt/zotero$ sudo bash set_launcher_icon.sh
bash: set_launcher_icon.sh: No such file or directory

computer:/opt/zotero$ ./set_launcher_icon
/opt/zotero/zotero.desktop is not writable

computer:/opt/zotero$ sudo ./set_launcher_icon

computer:/opt/zotero$ sudo su
computer:/opt/zotero# ./set_launcher_icon

Even the following does not work:
computer:~$ zotero
zotero: command not found

Edit: It seem that what I did was indeed according to your guidelines, but in my case the launcher ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop was broken. Thus I deleted it manually and redid it, with positive results. Zotero is now indeed in the launcher...

mlame

Well done you, @86ul !

hoanganhle

@86ul thank you very much, I met the same issue and resolved it by your post

mahmoudsorour

Thank you @86ul for the post.

The right way is to type ./set_launcher_icon. You will notice that the address to the icon in the zotero.desktop file changes to include the path to the Zotero folder on your computer.

you can create the symlink to zotero.desktop in the ./local/share/applications by simply giving the ABSOLUTE (not relative because the relative creates a broken symlink) path to the zotero.desktop file in the Zotero folder.