How to get "Epson Printer Utility" to start from Launcher in Ubuntu?

Question

There is "Epson Printer Utility" that shows ink levels and allows to check nozzles and clean printer heads. This utility appeared not long ago and it is very useful, because there is no other way to see ink levels for printers without LED using Linux systems.

The utility can be downloaded from Epson Drivers Site.

After the deb package is installed the utility can be started by

epson-printer-utility

terminal command.

How can I get set it up to be started a normal way from Launcher or a desktop icon?

Solution 1

You need to create a desktop file for it and change some permissions.

1. Create /usr/share/applications/epson-utility.desktop file with this content:

   #!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
   [Desktop Entry]
   Encoding=UTF-8
   Type=Application
   Categories=Application;Printing;
   
   Name=Epson Printer Utility
   
   Exec=epson-printer-utility
   Terminal=false
   Icon=/opt/epson-printer-utility/resource/Images/AppIcon.png
   

2. Give permissions to this file to be run

   sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/epson-utility.desktop
   

3. There are no permissions to read contents of /opt/epson-printer-utility/resource/Images directory for some reason. You need to grant them.

   sudo chmod 755 /opt/epson-printer-utility/resource/Images
   

Now you will see the utility in your Launcher.

Solution 2

I did alt+F2 and epson-printer-utility and then locked the icon on panel, plain and simple.

Comments

[Pilot6]

This looks like a commentary, not an answer.

[Pilot6]

Is there a need to install gnome-panel just to run one program? The point was that there is an utility and it is possible to make a shortcut.

[Arup Roy Chowdhury]

This provides the easiest way to add to the launcher.

[David Foerster]

I like it. It's short and effective. +1

[Sandip Nath]

Following the steps the icon is visible in the launcher, but its not opening, neither from the terminal. If invoked from terminal its showing Communication daemon down, Error code = -1. What to do?