GUI to launch Jin on 'Lisa'

[oldal]

It is easy to launch Jin with Mint12 'Lisa' from CLI and it works well. Jin is a chess client for Free Chess Server, written in Java.

However, to get it from CLI it is necessary to open 'Terminal' and enter the pointer to the file 'jin' - a fairly slow process. It is surely possible to put an icon on the desktop, and d-clicking it invoke 'Jin', but how to do it with gnome3 desktop?

[kabads]

I have my Desktop set to be handled as the ~/Desktop folder - so perhaps you could place a soft link from the binary to the Desktop

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ln -s /usr/bin/jin ~/Desktop/jin

might do it (I have no idea where jin is, so this is theoretical.

[oldal]

I have my Desktop set to be handled as the ~/Desktop folder - so perhaps you could place a soft link from the binary to the Desktop

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ln -s /usr/bin/jin ~/Desktop/jin

might do it (I have no idea where jin is, so this is theoretical.

I think it should be possible to place an icon on the desktop such that a d-click on it would launch the program. Incidentally, on my system in CLI the following entry launches the program 'Jin':

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  /np1/Documents/chess/jin-2.14.1/jin 

The directory 'Documents' is mounted on '/np1' and is shared between several Linux distros that are installed on my system,

Thanks for having a go at the solution of this query. I think it is simply my total lack of familiarity with the Mint12/gnome3 method of organizing the desktop and a read-up is indicated. What is a good place to read instructions about Mint12/gnome3 desktop?

[AlbertP]

You can make a symlink to your home folder as well with the ls command, so that you can use 'jin' instead of '/ns2/Documents/...'.

[oldal]

You can make a symlink to your home folder as well with the ls command, so that you can use 'jin' instead of '/ns2/Documents/...'.

Sure. However, it surely is possible to launch a program from GUI, or is it? (It is so easy in kubuntu... You just right-click on the desktop and create a link-to-application. I can not believe that something similar is not possible in such fine distribution as Mint!)

Thanks for your effort!

[AlbertP]

Here's a how-to on creating desktop icons: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2011/11/cre ... ic-ocelot/
It's about Unity but should work as well on Mint 12's Gnome 3.

[oldal]

Here's a how-to on creating desktop icons: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2011/11/cre ... ic-ocelot/
It's about Unity but should work as well on Mint 12's Gnome 3.

Hi, AlbertP!

Your post brings the solution much, much closer. The following is a dialog that follows the two steps in the reference:

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xx@yy ~ $ sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel
[sudo] password for xx: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
gnome-panel is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 265 not upgraded.
xx@yy ~ $ gnome-desktop-item-edit  --create-new  ~Desktop
gnome-desktop-item-edit: file:///home/xx/~Desktop does not have a .desktop or .directory suffix
xx@yy ~ $ 

The above dialog is a faithful copy of activity on terminal with user name and computer changed to xx and yy respectively. It seems to me that it is necessary to create a Desktop.desktop or Desktop.directory, probably in my /home/xx directory. Can you supplement my guess work?

Thank you for bringing the solution very close to completion. It is strange that such a basic GUI function (of enabling gui access to a program) is not readily available on the family of the "improved" desktops. It would indeed be useful to be able to reach the [SOLVED] state in this thread - not only to me, but many other users!

[oldal]

Here's a how-to on creating desktop icons: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2011/11/cre ... ic-ocelot/
It's about Unity but should work as well on Mint 12's Gnome 3.

Hi AlbertP et. al!
I took the punt and created a Desktop.desktop directory with the following command:

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mkdir Desktop.desctop 

I now have a 'Jin' icon on my desktop and can start a chess game by clicking the icon, then logging into Free Chess Server. So, Albert, your help has solved the create-shortcuts-icons problem! +1 to your post!

Thank you!