Create a custom launcher for Unity in Ubuntu 11.04

I have a few applications that I have installed without going through the Ubuntu repositories. One such application is RubyMine, which is not necessarily “installed” as such – it’s just a Java program that is downloaded.

What I did pre-Natty was create a new menu item, which Gnome-Do would find. Easy.

However, I now use Natty and Unity, and it’s not immediately obvious how you go about adding a new application launcher into the dash. After some digging around, it’s actually quite simple…

1. Create a .desktop file

Create a desktop launcher (or shortcut) for your application.

touch rubymine.desktop

For RubyMine, mine looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_GB]=/home/ed/Installs/RubyMine-3.1.1/bin/RMlogo.svg
Name[en_GB]=RubyMine
Exec=/home/ed/Installs/RubyMine-3.1.1/bin/rubymine.sh
Name=RubyMine
Icon=/home/ed/Installs/RubyMine-3.1.1/bin/RMlogo.svg

2. Move the .desktop file to the right location

Now we just need to move the file and make sure we have the right permissions and owner. Assuming you’re in the folder containing your .desktop file:

sudo mv rubymine.desktop /usr/share/applications
cd /usr/share/applications
sudo chmod 644 rubymine.desktop
sudo chown root:root rubymine.desktop

3. You’re done!

Open the Unity dash, and under Applications you should find your application launcher. If you can’t see it, search for it and it will show up.