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desktop: refactor launchers, fix app icons in dock, alt-tab#1732

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brianmcgillion merged 2 commits intotiiuae:mainfrom
kajusnau:app-icons
Feb 17, 2026
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desktop: refactor launchers, fix app icons in dock, alt-tab#1732
brianmcgillion merged 2 commits intotiiuae:mainfrom
kajusnau:app-icons

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@kajusnau
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@kajusnau kajusnau commented Feb 6, 2026

Description of Changes

  1. Refactor custom app launchers config:
    • Moved the repeating application type to global type ghafApplication
    • Added several new options to ghafApplication, closely matching DesktopEntry fields
    • Adjusted most existing launchers so the name matches the runtime app-id
      This allows for most DE tools to find the corresponding desktop entry for the given app-id, and therefore allows proper icon and name resolution.
    • Added desktop entry categories for some launchers. As a side-effect, a lot of previously uncatagorized apps will now be categorized (e.g. Office apps like MS365 and Teams will be in the "Office" category in the App Library)
  2. Adjusted ghaf-open to work with new desktop entries:
    • ghaf-open helper will now look for desktop entries based on the following order:
      • Name= field value matches provided value
      • filename basename matches the provided value

NOTES:

  • Workspaces tool (top left) still does not find the correct app icons. To be investigated separately.
  • VPN app will not display the correct icon

Type of Change

  • New Feature
  • Bug Fix
  • Improvement / Refactor

Related Issues / Tickets

Checklist

  • Clear summary in PR description
  • Detailed and meaningful commit message(s)
  • Commits are logically organized and squashed if appropriate
  • Contribution guidelines followed
  • Ghaf documentation updated with the commit - https://tiiuae.github.io/ghaf/
  • Author has run make-checks and it passes
  • All automatic GitHub Action checks pass - see actions
  • Author has added reviewers and removed PR draft status

Testing Instructions

Applicable Targets

  • Orin AGX aarch64
  • Orin NX aarch64
  • Lenovo X1 x86_64
  • Dell Latitude x86_64
  • System 76 x86_64

Installation Method

  • Requires full re-installation
  • Can be updated with nixos-rebuild ... switch
  • Other:

Test Steps To Verify:

  1. Open some virtual, some non-virtual apps
  2. Verify apps open without issues
  3. Verify app icons and names show up properly in the Dock and while Alt-Tabbing
  4. (Optional) Verify ghaf-open functionality

@kajusnau kajusnau self-assigned this Feb 6, 2026
@kajusnau kajusnau changed the title WIP: desktop: enable app icons in dock, alt-tab, etc. desktop: refactor launchers, fix app icons in dock, alt-tab Feb 9, 2026
@kajusnau kajusnau marked this pull request as ready for review February 9, 2026 13:51
@kajusnau kajusnau added the Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify label Feb 9, 2026
@milva-unikie
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jenkins-pre-merge has some failures caused by app process name changes. I will fix those in tests after the release testing is done.

@kajusnau kajusnau marked this pull request as draft February 12, 2026 07:20
@kajusnau kajusnau removed the Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify label Feb 12, 2026
@kajusnau

This comment was marked as resolved.

@kajusnau kajusnau added the Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify label Feb 12, 2026
@kajusnau kajusnau marked this pull request as ready for review February 12, 2026 11:30
@kajusnau
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Rebased on top of refactor, with some minor additional changes.
Should be good to go now.

@milva-unikie
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Tested on Darter Pro (new image)

  • Icons work very nicely in the Dock and with Alt+Tab. This PR improves usability significantly. Thank you!
  • I disagree with some of the app categories, but we can discuss that separately. In any case, users can change the categories if they want.
  • The test automation changes are ready and need to be merged along with this @brianmcgillion.

@milva-unikie milva-unikie added Tested on System76 and removed Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify labels Feb 13, 2026
- fixed icons not showing in dock, alt-tab
- refactored applications/launchers config
- added more options to ghafApplication type
- added known app-ids to custom launchers wherever possible

Signed-off-by: Kajus Naujokaitis <kajus.naujokaitis@unikie.com>
- search for apps based on Name field and filename
- added verbosity to search and execution

Signed-off-by: Kajus Naujokaitis <kajus.naujokaitis@unikie.com>
@milva-unikie
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Verified that everything is still working on Darter Pro after refactoring.

All jenkins-pre-merge runs are currently failing due to signing issues, we will have to wait for the signing to be fixed before rerunning them.

Reminder to @brianmcgillion: I need to merge test automation changes with this.

@brianmcgillion brianmcgillion merged commit 0154482 into tiiuae:main Feb 17, 2026
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4 participants