Objective
The objective is to show how to create desktop shortcut launcher on Ubuntu 18.10 Bionic Beaver Desktop using the default GNOME user interface.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish
- Software: – GNOME Shell 3.30.1
Requirements
Privileged access to your Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish System as root or via sudo command will be required to install new software.
Difficulty
EASY
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of
sudocommand - $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Instructions
In this tutorial we will be creating an example desktop shortcut launcher for a previously installed Skype application.
Preparation
Before we can begin you will need the following information for any given application you wish to create shortcut for:
- Path Application Icon: /snap/skype/23/usr/share/icons/hicolor/256×256/apps/skypeforlinux.png
- Application name: Skype
- Path to executable binary: /snap/bin/skype
To obtain a full path to executable binary of any program use which command eg.:
$ which skype /snap/bin/skype
In regards to the application icon, the choice is yours. You can either head over to /usr/share/icons/hicolor/ directory and search for any relevant icon to use, or simply download new icon from the web.
Create Desktop Launcher
The gnome-desktop-item-edit command may be missing as it is not installed by default. You can install it by opening up terminal and entering the following linux command:
$ sudo apt install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel
To create a new desktop shortcut launcher on Ubuntu 18.10 execute the following linux command:
$ gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new
OK 
Trust and Launch
Properties. Next, click on the shortcut icon and choose path desired icon.