VICE / Bugs / #2067 task bar icon missing on linux mint 22

gpz - 2024-08-28

configure with --enable-desktop-files, that should fix it

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exrom - 2024-08-30

This switch indeed fixed it in my VM.

On my native Linux Mint 21.3, i tried the same, re-cloned svn trunk, built with
./configure --enable-gtk3ui --enable-desktop-files --with-flac --enable-debug-gtk3ui --enable-debug
when i start with src/x64sc i see no icon in the task bar.

Amongst other .desktop files, i see ./build/debian/x64sc.desktop which contains

[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=VICE (x64sc) Comment=Commodore 64 emulator Exec=/usr/bin/x64sc Terminal=false Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/x64sc.svg Categories=Game,Emulator

After sudo make install, i ran x64sc directly but also no task bar icon is there.
A file /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/x64sc.svg is not present.
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gpz - 2024-08-30

did you restart the WM? (some require it)

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exrom - 2024-09-25

I repeated the test with a mint 21.4 VM and a mint 22 VM. I use VirtualBox 7.0.
Both VMs i installed from scratch (hard disk installation, no live system). I installed the guest additions in each.
Then, after apt-get for all dependencies, i run

cd ~ rm -rf vice svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/vice-emu/code/trunk/ vice cd ~/vice/vice ./autogen.sh ./configure --enable-gtk3ui --enable-desktop-files make -j 4 sudo make install ./src/x64sc

in both of them, x64sc comes up without any desktop icon in the task bar. A reboot of each VM does not help. It makes no difference if i start src/x64sc or x64sc (the installed version at /usr/local/bin/x64sc). Console logs attached for each VM.

In both VMs, this file exists:

cat ./vice/vice/build/debian/x64sc.desktop [Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=VICE (x64sc) Comment=Commodore 64 emulator Exec=/usr/bin/x64sc Terminal=false Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/x64sc.svg Categories=Game,Emulator

Though, the reference file does not exist
user@user-VirtualBox:~$ ls /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/x64sc.svg
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/x64sc.svg': No such file or directory

mint_214.txt

mint_22.txt
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gpz - 2024-09-25

I think the files in build/debian are probably only used when you actually build a .deb

If you compile yourself it will use the files from src/arch/gtk3/data/unix/ which are then patched to contain the prefix you used during configure, and installed in /usr/share/applications/

For me (with prefix=/usr/games) it looks like this:

$ cat /usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64sc.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=VICE (x64sc)
Comment=Cycle-exact C64 emulator (Gtk3 UI)
Exec=/usr/games/bin/x64sc
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/games/share/vice/common/C64_1024.svg

... and the icon should point into the install location of VICE ....

$ file /usr/games/share/vice/common/C64_1024.svg
/usr/games/share/vice/common/C64_1024.svg: SVG Scalable Vector Graphics image

@compyx can tell for sure, hopefully :)

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compyx - 2024-09-26

Yes, the files in build/debian are used by the Github Actions to build the .deb packages. they aren't used when building and installing from source. As @groepaz stated the .desktop files are generated during build and installed into /usr/share/applications/ when running make install.

On my Debian machine I have this:

$ find /usr/ -name '*x64*.desktop' /usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64dtv.desktop /usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64sc.desktop /usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64.desktop

That's where the .desktop files should live according the XDG specification, along with ~/.local/share/applications (which is where Steam installs .desktop files it seems).

It's been a while since I looked at any of this, perhaps things have changed or we need an additional command to make the desktop environment "see" the installed files, such as sudo update-desktop-database. I'll install Virtualbox and Linux Mint a VM to see what could be wrong.

I assume Cinnamon is still the default desktop on Mint and you're using that?

Edit: I missed "freshly installed from linuxmint-22-cinnamon-64bit.iso" in the OP, so yes =)

Last edit: compyx 2024-09-26
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yes, it runs cinnamon by default.

$ cinnamon --version
Cinnamon 6.2.7
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Linuxmint
Description:    Linux Mint 22
Release:    22
Codename:   wilma

The files you mention exist here too.

$  find /usr/ -name '*x64*.desktop'
/usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64sc.desktop
/usr/share/applications/vice-org-x64dtv.desktop
/usr/share/app-install/desktop/vice:x64.desktop

sudo update-desktop-database does not solve the problem.

gpz - 2024-10-05

please try again, apparently the category was wrong

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exrom - 2024-10-05

Still not working unfortunately. I tried r45352 with above commands.
Neither sudo update-desktop-database or reboot helps.

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compyx - 2024-10-06

Apparently the application icons are now supposed to be taken from the .desktop files and not by calling gtk_window_set_icon(), which is now a fallback for older desktops and Windows/Mac and is removed in Gtk 4. The issue seems to be the icons need to be in the /usr/share/icons/hicolor directory and not where we install them ($PREFIX/share/vice/, pointing to files outside the system icons directory (in our .desktop files) doesn't work anymore on modern-ish desktops.

So I'll be looking into using xdg-icon-resource install to install our icons into the appropriate directory and register them with the system. I'll need some make uninstall hook as well to call xdg-icon-resource uninstall to properly remove the icons.

The bit with the proper categories should have fixed the icons showing up the menus, in my Mint 22 VM the VICE icons now show under a "Emulators" category in the main menu.

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compyx - 2024-10-06

This appears to work on Mint 22:

An x64sc.desktop file in /usr/share/applications/ with the following:

[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=VICE (x64sc) Comment=Commodore 64 emulator Exec=/usr/local/bin/x64sc Terminal=false Icon=vice-C64_48.svg Categories=Game;Emulator;

And then running:

xdg-icon-resource install --theme hicolor --context apps --size 48 vice-C64_48.png

(having copied data/common/C64_48.png to vice-C64_48.svg to provide a vendor prefix of "vice").

I'll check if I can update the .deb package files in build/debian/ to use the same format so we won't longer need to generate the .desktop files from a template for --enable-desktop-files. And rework the GResource bundle used for Windows/Mac and the gtk_window_set_icon() fallback to use the (to be) renamed icons.
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exrom - 2024-10-07

Hi compyx,

yes, i confirm, there is a menu entry Emulators (though this itself does not have an icon) where our links are present - with their icons.

After copying data/common/C64_48.png to vice-C64_48.png and running
After creating x64sc.desktop and running

xdg-icon-resource install --theme hicolor --context apps --size 48 vice-C64_48.png

I now see task bar icons on mint 22.
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compyx - 2025-02-15

I finally had some time to try to properly fix this issue and my testing shows the icons working properly in Linux Mint 22 (Cinnamon), Debian (Gnome Shell), Ubuntu 22.04LTS (Gnome Shell) and Ubuntu 24.10 (Gnome Shell and KDE Plasma).

The make install and make uninstall rules now use xdg-icon-resource and desktop-file-install to install and uninstall icons and .desktop files in their correct location and with correct names, running update-desktop-database as a final step to make the desktop environment aware of the changes.

Icons are installed in 32x32, 48x48, 64x64 and 256x256 sizes, which is probably enough for practical purposes (application window icon, toolbar/taskbar of different sizes and menu's).
No 22x22 icons, we have 24x24 icons, but if required I could scale the original icons to that size, but it won't be pretty at that small size.

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compyx - 2025-02-28

status: open --> pending-fixed

assigned_to: compyx
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exrom - 2025-03-02

Hello compyx,

i re-tested it with latest rev 45511 in vbox 7.0.16 with linuxmint-22-cinnamon-64bit.iso

After intall from scratch, i ran the following commands:
sudo apt-get -y install subversion autoconf automake build-essential byacc flex xa65 gawk libgtk-3-dev texinfo texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-latex-extra dos2unix libpulse-dev libasound2-dev libglew-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libevdev-dev

cd ~ && rm -rf vice
svn co https://svn.code.sf.net/p/vice-emu/code/trunk/ vice
cd ~/vice/vice
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-gtk3ui --enable-desktop-files
make -j 4

sudo make install

Then i reboot the system and run x64sc. The icons now shows up correctly in the task bar and the Games section in the desktop menu - see screenshot.
The icon does not show up immediatley after make install without prior reboot (though make install runs several "xdg-icon-resource install", "desktop-file-install" and "update-desktop-database" at the end).
But this is a minor thing. A reboot should be acceptable and a fix would be nice to have...

So many thanks gpz and compyx for fixing this bug!

bye, exrom

vice_4_logo_ok.png

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compyx - 2025-03-03

Good to hear it works. Too bad about the icons not immediately showing up. But afaik we run all required commands to properly install the icons and desktop files, which works well in Gnome and KDE, so this could be a Cinnamon-specific issue.

Instead of rebooting just logging out and logging back in should restart the Cinnamon session and make Cinnamon update its menu structures, should be less annoying than having to reboot.

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task bar icon missing on linux mint 22

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#2067 task bar icon missing on linux mint 22

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