How to create a desktop shortcut for a command?

Question

I use a dongle for using internet on my kubuntu desktop. But to use the dongle, everytime I have to run MobilePartner from /usr/local/airtel/MobilePartner using terminal. Is there any way I can create a desktop shortcut for the command above.

Can a app do it?

Solution 1

You can create a .desktop file in your /home/user/Desktop/ directory that looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=x.y
Name=ProgramName
Comment=This is my comment
Exec=/home/alex/Documents/exec.sh
Icon=/home/alex/Pictures/icon.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Utility;Application;

This the user must be owner of this file and the executable permission must be set, see my example:

And here the file:

user@host:~# ls -la /home/user/Desktop/firefox.desktop
-rwx------ 1 user user 9177 Dec 27 08:27 /home/user/Desktop/firefox.desktop

For more information see the wiki.

Solution 2

Normally, Mobile Partner application makes a Desktop Shortcut. Certain times it may become invisible for some reasons. To solve this:

• Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal. In the prompt type, gksudo gedit and make a space infront.
• In file browser go to the folder /usr/share/applications. Here find if there a Mobile Partner Icon.
• If present Drag and Drop it to the terminal. Then press Enter
• In the resulting text file, go to the line starts with Exec=. At the end of this line it should be %F. Change the content.
• Then go to the line starts with NoDisplay=. It should be NoDisplay=false. If present is true, change it.
• Then save the file and close.

If there is no such icon (Desktop configuration file) in /usr/share/applications, You need to create a new one.

For that, run :

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/MobileParter.desktop

In the resulting empty text file, Copy and Paste the following and save.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Mobile Partner
Comment=Mobile Partner Airtel 
TryExec=sudo /usr/local/airtel/MobilePartner
Exec=sudo /usr/local/airtel/MobilePartner %F
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/local/airtel/mobile.png
NoDisplay=false
MimeType=applications/php

There will be the icon in dash now.

Comments

[user228116]

but every time i have to run the command from terminal as root,how can i get root access in the above method.

[chaos]

Then use gksu. Write the Exec-part like this: Exec=gksu /usr/local/airtel/MobilePartner.