I have .desktop files (shortcuts) on a RHEL 8.8 machine that are set up correctly and work on other RHEL systems, but for some reason, whenever trying to launch (double click) on these desktop files FROM the GUI it opens them in gedit.
There used to be an option when right clicking on these files to “Allow Launching” which was part of our installation instructions for customers but that doesn’t exist in the RMC menu anymore for any of the .desktop files.
They are all set to executable. I installed the GNOME Tweaks and other add-on extensions and it’s all set to use shortcuts. My software’s shortcut is proprietary so I’m sharing one for Perforce.
Getting a crash course in MIME types and GNOME desktop, but nothing is helping. I am comparing the /usr/share/application and /usr/share/packages locations and so far everything matches the systems where this functionality WORKS.
Here’s an example of one of the .desktop files:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
MimeType=application/x-desktop
Name=P4V
Icon=/home/tcgllc/Perforce/p4v-2023.4.2558838/lib/P4VResources/icons/p4v.svg
Exec=/home/tcgllc/Perforce/p4v-2023.4.2558838/bin/p4v
Terminal=false
Path=/home/tcgllc/Perforce/p4v-2023.4.2558838/bin
One crazy aspect of this is that double clicking on them in the Files app (opened to ~/Desktop) works! It’s JUST the .desktop files, in ~/Desktop, via double clicking on the gui.
Tried all of the following:
Copied P4V.desktop to /usr/share/applications
gio set P4V.desktop metadata::trusted true
gio set P4V.desktop metadata::trusted yes
xdg-mime default P4V.desktop application/x-desktop
update-desktop-database /usr/share/applications
update-mime-database /usr/share/mime
xdg-desktop-menu install /usr/share/applications/P4V.desktop --novendor
when I run file --mime P4V.desktop the output is
/home/tcgllc/Desktop/P4V.desktop: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
I have the free RHEL Developer subscription but it’s self supported, RHEL Knowledgebase has been searched. I’ve been pulling my hair out for 2 days. I’ve tried everything I could find on google and I’m screaming uncle.
If anyone can help me with this issue I would be immensely grateful!
TIA
KL