How can I change the Google Chrome webapp icon?

Question

So I've got the AskUbuntu chatroom (I'm just using this as an example, I've got other webapps that I've got the same issue with) saved as a "Application Shortcut" in Chromium, and the icon is really (And I mean really) low resolution. Example:

The top one is the default icon that's used for the Application Shortcut, the bottom is the AskUbuntu lens - so my question is, how can I use the icon that's used for the AskUbuntu lens.

Solution 1

With daily chromium builds and recent BAMF you can (if you look closer to that screenshot, you can see an example with my site and high-res icon). But in the current state of chromium you need to do some hacking to make it support this easily:

• Make chromium generate a .desktop file for the application Menu too (if you don't want you to create one by scratch).
• Get your chromium app window WM_CLASS with xprop | grep WM_CLASS | awk '{print $4}' (if it's just "Chromium Browser" or something similar you need to update chromium).

• Edit that .desktop file (located into ~/.local/share/applications) with gedit or any other text editor; the file should contain:

  StartupWMClass=$APP_WM_CLASS_Found_on_step_2
  Icon=~/your/icon/file/name/or/path
  

  i.e. (for an app pointing to http://mail.google.com with google_mail.png in ~/.local/share/icons):

  StartupWMClass=mail.google.com
  Icon=google_mail.png
  

• Restart bamfdaemon or unity at all; now when you'll run an application with that WM_CLASS the settings defined in the desktop file you've just edited will be used; icon included ;)

Solution 2

Here is the easiest and fastest way.

Install Menu Editor:

sudo apt install menulibre

Open Menu Editor, Select App, Click on icon to select a new icon:

Solution 3

The easiest way for me was to install Alacarte (free from the Software Center) and edit the icon from there. It looks like an application to edit regular GNOME 2/GNOME Classic icons, but it works for Unity Launcher icons as well. The Chrome webapps are under "Chrome Applications", at least in my machine.

Comments

[jrg]

Been trying with no luck. :l Using Chromium nightly, and also using a Up-to-date Unity install. :(

[Treviño]

@James Gifford: the currently bamfdemon package available in natty has not updated yet. You need to compile it from bzr to get this working.

[Treviño]

@James, now bamfdaemon package in natty should be updated. Give it a try again! ;)

[Forty-Two]

the xprop trick doesn't work. It just returns "google-chrome" . Update of course doesn't fix it.

[Matt Pengelly]

this was the easier way for me for sure. Thanks,

[iGadget]

The method described above is complex and outdated. Consider installing menulibre instead, as indicated below by @Akashar Patel. Works like a charm.

[iGadget]

Awesome tool, should come standard.