App doesn't show up in app drawer or on desktop

[syberon]

Joplin version:
You already have the latest version 2.8.8 installed.
linux version:
pop_os 22.04
kernel version:
uname -r
6.0.6-76060006-generic
shell
zsh --version
zsh 5.8.1 (x86_64-ubuntu-linux-gnu)

some info the install script checks:
echo "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP"
pop:GNOME

echo $(echo "${XDG_DATA_DIRS}" | sed 's/.*\(xfce\|kde\|gnome\).*/\1/')
gnome

❱ lsb_release -is
Pop
❱ lsb_release -rs
22.04
❱ lsb_release -cs
jammy

Hi

i don't think this is a bug, more a local issue, as, when reading the forum, people using pop_os managed to install it, hence i first ask it here before heading to github.

i installed joplin using the following command (from the website) wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laurent22/joplin/dev/Joplin_install_and_update.sh | bash

it tells me the install was successful and indeed, i find the
~/.joplin
~/.config/Joplin
~/.config/joplin-desktop
directories
as well as the
~/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-joplin.desktop

content of the last file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Joplin
Comment=Joplin for Desktop
Exec=/home/syberon/.joplin/Joplin.AppImage   %u
Icon=@joplinapp-desktop
StartupWMClass=Joplin
Type=Application
Categories=Office;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/joplin;
X-GNOME-SingleWindow=true // should be removed eventually as it was upstream to be an XDG specification
SingleMainWindow=true

The problem i have is that there is no desktop icon, (which i don't mind, my desktop is empty), but when i hit the super key and type 'joplin' i don't get any hits. When looking in my application drawer, i can't find Joplin in there either.

For completeness, i can run the app, if i go to ~/.joplin and run Joplin.AppImage, both from gui as from cli.

❱ ./Joplin.AppImage                                          
xdg-settings: invalid application name
Try 'xdg-settings --help' for more information.
[27620:1210/204308.791439:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(374)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
(node:27579) electron: The default of nativeWindowOpen is deprecated and will be changing from false to true in Electron 15.  See https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/28511 for more information.
(Use `@joplinapp-desktop --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)

followed by the application starting.

running journalctl -d

Dec 10 20:30:21 bancroft systemd[989]: Started dbus-:1.5-org.gnome.Nautilus@1.service.
Dec 10 20:30:21 bancroft gnome-shell[1252]: Ignoring length property that isn't a number at line 4, col 20
Dec 10 20:30:21 bancroft systemd[1]: Starting Hostname Service...
Dec 10 20:30:21 bancroft systemd[1]: Started Hostname Service.
Dec 10 20:30:28 bancroft nautilus[25163]: xdg-settings: invalid application name
Dec 10 20:30:28 bancroft nautilus[25163]: Try 'xdg-settings --help' for more information.
Dec 10 20:30:29 bancroft nautilus[25180]: [25180:1210/203029.319412:ERROR:sandbox_linux.cc(374)] InitializeSandbox() called with multi>
Dec 10 20:30:29 bancroft nautilus[25139]: (node:25139) electron: The default of nativeWindowOpen is deprecated and will be changing fr>
Dec 10 20:30:29 bancroft nautilus[25139]: (Use `@joplinapp-desktop --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
Dec 10 20:30:31 bancroft nautilus[25250]: xdg-settings: invalid application name
Dec 10 20:30:31 bancroft nautilus[25250]: Try 'xdg-settings --help' for more information.
Dec 10 20:30:32 bancroft systemd[1]: tmp-.mount_Joplin2DnfRN.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Dec 10 20:30:36 bancroft systemd[1]: tmp-.mount_JoplinZWJw6x.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Dec 10 20:30:51 bancroft systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Deactivated successfully.

Any help would be appreciated, if required, i will head over to github.

[dpoulton]

Admittedly I never suffered this with Pop_OS but some distros never showed the app / app icon until the user had logged out and logged back in again. It's probably not what is happening here but have you tried it?

[syberon]

Hi

unfortunately i already tried this, even a complete reboot didn’t make joplin appear in my app drawer.

[roman_r_m]

The missing icon might be related to this: [Desktop, Linux] Fix AppImage icon when installing using Joplin_install_and_update.sh by roman-r-m · Pull Request #7346 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub

I tried to fix it (by changing the icon name) but looks like it didn't help. Could be because the icon had incorrect size. This has been fixed but I don't think it's been released yet.

You could try running appimagelint to check for any other issues.

[syberon]

The problem isn't that the icon isn't showing;it's that it isn't even shown in my app drawer or anywhere else.
I have to launch it from cli.

i checked the link you suggested, i don't think this is relevant to me; the icon already is 'at'joplin-desktop and i also don't use appimage launcher. I only used the recommended script.

I ran the update-desktop-database with verbosity, maybe this helps someone?

[[ command -v update-desktop-database ]] && update-desktop-database -v ~/.local/share/applications && update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/icons -v
Search path is now: [/home/{{user}}/.local/share/applications]
File "/home/{{user}}/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-pcloud.desktop" lacks MimeType key
File "/home/{{user}}/.local/share/applications/userapp-Firefox-EYMFW1.desktop" lacks MimeType key
Search path is now: [/home/{{user}}/.local/share/icons]

[syberon]

I managed installing it, the way it should be, with appimagelauncher (meaning: registered in applications and application drawer)
i can now hit the super key, type 'jop' and select the application.
But preferably, i would use the installscript, as it is the recommended method.

[roman_r_m]

You could compare the .desktop file created by appimagelauncher against the one generated by the script to see if there are any obvious differences.

[syberon]

i found the issue; joplin doesn't adhere to the freedesktop xdg standard.
i configure these to keep a clean home folder, but joplin ignores these. I confirmed this by placing the files in the folder my os expects and voila, it shows up.

export XDG_CONFIG_HOME='$HOME/.config'
export XDG_DATA_HOME='$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/local/share'
export XDG_CACHE_HOME = '$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/'

once i knew this was the issue, i found following github and forum posts:

Follow the Freedesktop XDG base directory standard

Adherence to XDG Base Directory Specification

Personally I think there is a good reason for Joplin to fully support the XDG Base Directory Specification. There was a previous PR raised for this but it was closed (Desktop: Resolves #6085 Add initial support for XDG Folder Specs by BeatLink · Pull Request #6152 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub) as well as a number of other GH "issues" and a forum post that gained no traction so this isn't a new topic by any means, I'm most certainly not the first who has brought this up or thought about it. It ha…

for now, i will leave this as is, but i don't know if i'll be able to update joplin from within the app, now it's not in the expected directory.
should i not be able to update it, i'll use appimagelauncher.

but tbh, i do think, programs should adhere to this as it wouldn't break anything. everybody has these defined by default; i just changed the location of these variables.

[CalebJohn]

It seems like the fix for this is pretty small, currently Joplin hardcodes the desktop file location as ~/.local/share/applications. If that is instead changed to use $XDG_DATA_HOME (with .local/share as a fallback) then this should solve your issue without breaking for anyone else. I'll make a PR with this change.

Fully conforming to the freedesktop standard is more challenging because it requires moving the Joplin database (which should be under $XDG_DATA_HOME).

edit: Desktop, Linux: Use XDG_DATA_HOME for the .desktop file on linux by CalebJohn · Pull Request #7456 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub

[syberon]

@CalebJohn

• the developer marked the github bug (of october 2022) as "won't fix", so not sure he will pull it in.

as as @Daeraxa mentioned in his post (ideally, if you follow standards):

• ~/.config/Joplin should be in $XDG_CACHE_HOME
• ~/config/joplin-desktop should be in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (for most people, this is .config)
• ~/.joplin should be in ~/.local/bin

I just make this comment, in the hope @laurent22 sees this and the concept gains traction.

tbh, i've uninstalled Joplin and am exploring other tools, as i like the idea of "1 app, 1 file" but if standards are not followed and i want to change/remove something, I'm stuck in the same boat as now: I'll be running find on my laptop to search for files i need to remove.

it could be I'm returning as i can't find a better tool, but I'll try first.

[tomasz86]

@syberon

as as @Daeraxa mentioned in his post (ideally, if you follow standards):

• ~/.config/Joplin should be in $XDG_CACHE_HOME
• ~/config/joplin-desktop should be in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (for most people, this is .config)
• ~/.joplin should be in ~/.local/bin

I just make this comment, in the hope @laurent22 sees this and the concept gains traction.

Just a comment, but this isn't a Linux-only problem, e.g. the paths used by Joplin in Windows are also all over the place . For example, %USERPROFILE%\.config\joplin-desktop should be %APPDATA%\Joplin, the current %APPDATA%\Joplin should be %LOCALAPPDATA%\Joplin (or even %TEMP%\Joplin as these are just Electron files created automatically on start), etc.