Intellij launcher doesn't work on unity?

Question

Under /usr/share/applications I created:

intellij.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/path/To/idea.sh"
Name[en_US]=Intellij
Name=Intellij
Icon=/path/to/intellij.png

Then I drag it to the Unity launcher bar. I click it, but nothing happens. How can I make it work?

JAVA_HOME is set correctly, other Java apps (like Eclipse) work and click idea.sh.

---

My configuration:

• Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit (Desktop)
• Oracle JDK 1.7
• IntelliJ Community 12

Answer 1

You can use "tools" > "create desktop entry", in IntelliJ itself.

Answer 2

In order to have just one IntelliJ icon on the Launcher you need to add following line to your idea .desktop file:

StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea

My working sample idea.desktop file looks like:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=Idea13
Icon=/usr/local/bin/idea13/bin/idea.png
Exec=/usr/local/bin/idea13/bin/idea.sh
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea

Answer 3

event with create desktop entry there still an error, because the launcher is not reading JDK_HOME configuration.

so after creating the desktop entry , right click on the launcher and select properties then add bash -i before double quote in command input text exp :command [ bash -i " /home/me/ides/idea/bin/idea.sh" %f ]

Answer 4

I just came across this and I want to add to the answer something for people who may need it.

You can use "tools" > "create desktop entry", in IntelliJ

like in this picture: if you open intellij the first time you should create a new project to do this. it took me a while to figure that out

Answer 5

Another alternative:

1. cd /bin
2. ln -s <path to idea.sh> idea - now it is available in the dash under "idea"
3. open dash, type idea and start IntelliJ
4. right click on the icon in the sidebar and add it to the starter

Answer 6

Just posting in case some other people come across this issue.

For me all I had to do right click the entry and go to properties and in the Application tab under Work path I put the full path to the bin folder.

For example /home/teodorvecerdi/Development/idea-IU-172.3317.76/bin/.

Answer 7

I normally just create a runner under the normal menu (right click on start menu and choose edit) that points to something like bash -i ~/bin/idea/bin/idea.sh

I use bash -i to have it read .bashrc where I have JAVA_HOME set up correctly. That works like any other program.

bin/idea is always a link to the latest version so I never have to recreate this start menu item.

Answer 8

On my machine running Ubuntu 17.10 and having Intellij installed using snap i couldn't find any Create Desktop Entry option.

As it turned out, i had to copy the .desktop file from /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications to .local/share/applications.

Answer 9

For Ubuntu users,

This can be due to a change to the location of idea.sh file.

As a first step, you can just run the idea.sh file and make sure it's working as expected.

In the application launcher it typically has a ".desktop" file extension and contains information about the application(it's name, icon, command to run the application, and other metadata).

In Ubuntu operating system, the location ~/.local/share/applications typically points to a directory in a user's home folder that contains desktop application launchers or shortcuts. You should find the .desktop file for JIdea in the same location.

Check and confirm the paths for the Exec is correct (and Icon if it's applicable). If it's not correct it and that should do the trick.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition
Icon=/home/user/Software/ideaIU-2020.3/idea-IU-203/bin/idea.svg
Exec="/home/user/Software/ideaIU-2020.3/idea-IU-203/bin/idea.sh" %f
Comment=Capable and Ergonomic IDE for JVM
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea
StartupNotify=true

If this file is not there, you can create a fresh one as well. Just copy the above content and make sure the paths are correct

Answer 10

create file jetbrains-datagrip.desktop

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/jetbrains-datagrip.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=DataGrip
Icon=/home/gilcierweb/DataGrip/bin/product.png
Exec="/home/gilcierweb/DataGrip/bin/datagrip.sh" %f
Comment=Develop with pleasure!
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-datagrip

Answer 11

For new installation, create desktop entry from: Tools > Create Desktop Entry

If you are upgrading IntelliJ to a new version do the following:

ll ~/.local/share/applications | grep idea

You should see these two files

-rw------- 1 user user  315 Mar 28 17:06 jetbrains-idea-ce.desktop
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user  311 Mar 28 17:06 jetbrains-idea.desktop

Open both files and update newly installed IntelliJ path in both of them

[Desktop Entry]
  Version=1.0
  Type=Application
  Name=IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition
  Icon=/home/user/Downloads/idea-IU-181.4203.550/bin/idea.png
  Exec="/home/user/Downloads/idea-IU-181.4203.550/bin/idea.sh" %f
  Comment=The Drive to Develop
  Categories=Development;IDE;
  Terminal=false
  StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea-ce

Answer 12

1. Open a terminal, in /path/idea/bin folder
2. Start IntelliJ with ./idea.sh
3. Tools -> Generate Desktop Entry
4. Close IntelliJ
5. In the terminal, start nautilus as admin (gksudo nautilus)
6. Go to /usr/share/applications
7. Drag the new icon for IntelliJ to your launcher

Answer 13

For starting IntelliJ IDEA from launcher
1. Create an idea.desktop file and include the following in it.

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=IntelliJ IDEA
    Comment=IntelliJ IDEA IDE
    Exec=/{installation directory}/idea-IC-129.713/bin/idea.sh
    Icon=/{installation directory}/idea-IC-129.713/bin/idea.png
    Terminal=false
    StartupNotify=true
    Type=Application
    Categories=Development;IDE;

2. Add permission file to be executable (right click on file in permissions tab and check the execute permission) [or sudo chmod +x idea.desktop]
3. Copy that file to /usr/share/applications (in the command line, do sudo cp idea.desktop /usr/share/applications)
4. Copy that file to ~/.local/share/applications (command line, sudo cp idea.desktop ~/.local/share/applications)

Now check in dash.