{"id":61930,"date":"2024-01-05T13:17:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T12:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/61930\/linux-mint-add-entries-to-the-start-menu\/"},"modified":"2024-01-07T16:34:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T15:34:21","slug":"linux-mint-add-entries-to-the-start-menu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/61930\/linux-mint-add-entries-to-the-start-menu\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux Mint: Add entries to the start menu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How can I add entries to the Linux Mint start menu?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A few applications are only available for Linux as a &#8220;portable version&#8221; as a ZIP archive. Such as my Git application &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.syntevo.com\/smartgit\/\">SmartGit<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Simply unpack and then start. But it&#8217;s cumbersome, so I would have liked to add the programme to the &#8220;Start menu&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of content<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/61930\/linux-mint-add-entries-to-the-start-menu\/#Video\" >Video<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/61930\/linux-mint-add-entries-to-the-start-menu\/#Where_can_I_find_the_programme_shortcuts\" >Where can I find the programme shortcuts<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Video\"><\/span>Video<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gKmPk-E61wI?si=8_zm5UNGnNySLhcc\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Where_can_I_find_the_programme_shortcuts\"><\/span>Where can I find the programme shortcuts<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The Start menu entries are located in the following folder:<\/p>\n<pre>\r\n\/usr\/share\/applications\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>These are text files with the file extension &#8220;.desktop&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"663\" height=\"452\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61914\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_1.png 663w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_1-300x205.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 663px) 100vw, 663px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>These can therefore be easily opened with a text editor. The content looks like this, for example, for FileZilla:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"539\" height=\"507\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_2.png 539w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_2-300x282.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 539px) 100vw, 539px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We see that the thing has a name, different languages are also possible. We can define an icon, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a template for creating a new entry:<\/p>\n<pre>\r\n[Desktop Entry]\r\nName=SmartGIT\r\nGenericName=SmartGIT\r\nExec=\/home\/da\/Tools\/smartgit\/bin\/smartgit.sh\r\nTerminal=true\r\nIcon=\/home\/da\/Tools\/smartgit\/bin\/smartgit-64.png\r\nType=Application\r\nCategories=Programming;\r\nVersion=1.0\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>We can see here that we are running a shell script, Terminal is set to &#8220;True&#8221;, i.e. another terminal opens. Otherwise enter &#8220;False&#8221; here.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s create the template, e.g. with the VIM editor:<\/p>\n<pre>\r\nsudo vim \/usr\/share\/applications\/SmartGit.desktop\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>We now add our customised template here and save it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"422\" height=\"228\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61922\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_3.png 422w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_3-300x162.png 300w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_3-420x228.png 420w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 422px) 100vw, 422px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Done! The entry then appears in the Start menu.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"254\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_4.png 499w, https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/start_4-300x153.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can I add entries to the Linux Mint start menu?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1555],"tags":[2443,3458,2073],"class_list":["post-61930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software-en","tag-linux-en-2","tag-mint-en","tag-ubuntu-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ekiwi-blog.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}