changing icons

Hello....I would like some help on changing a couple of ICONS on my desktop. I have installed a photo viewer program called "gwenview". After I untarred it, and did the rest, the executable icon is that blue gear.

I guess its OK cause it does the same thing no matter what the icon is, but it is a system icon and I would like to choose something a little different. I tried in past to change icons but it ended up associating every kind of similar file with the same icon and it looked bad.

I would like one step at a time to do this so I dont end up with the little "gimp" guy associated with all my audio files! Thanks ...bob

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Originally Posted by bob58

Hello....I would like some help on changing a couple of ICONS on my desktop. I have installed a photo viewer program called "gwenview". After I untarred it, and did the rest, the executable icon is that blue gear.

I guess its OK cause it does the same thing no matter what the icon is, but it is a system icon and I would like to choose something a little different. I tried in past to change icons but it ended up associating every kind of similar file with the same icon and it looked bad.

I would like one step at a time to do this so I dont end up with the little "gimp" guy associated with all my audio files! Thanks ...bob

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I'm sure you already know most of this but complete instructions to change the icon on a 'desktop' item:
Right click on the desktop item & select 'properties'. Under the 'general' tab, click on the icon. You will get a list of standard icons. If you don't want any of these, , click on 'other icons'. You will get another list. If these are not what you want either, click on 'browse' & browse to find the one you want.
Another, more difficult, way: Open the desktop item in a text editor, find where it sets the icon & edit it.
Gwenview standard icon is a cartoon head with a big pair of glasses called gwenview.png. I tried gwenview on my mandrake system, the icon was located in /usr/share/icons/ hicolor & locolor set, should be in the same place but do a 'find files' for it.

Hi Crashed Again......thanks for the tip...I will try it. I think thats what Idid before but what happened was it also changed every other same filetype to the icon I chose! So instead of executables being represented by the blue gear, they all were now the little "gimp" critter! So i am afraid if I choose an icon for gwenview, which on my desktop i have an executable....a link to the program, which is a picture of a bleu gear. And if I choose another icon, it will change every executable file to whatever I changed the icon too! Am I doing something wrong?

Hi Crashed Again......thanks for the tip...I will try it. I think thats what Idid before but what happened was it also changed every other same filetype to the icon I chose! So instead of executables being represented by the blue gear, they all were now the little "gimp" critter! So i am afraid if I choose an icon for gwenview, which on my desktop i have an executable....a link to the program, which is a picture of a bleu gear. And if I choose another icon, it will change every executable file to whatever I changed the icon too! Am I doing something wrong?

I tried it using your first suggestion, but it still didnt work right....but the second suggestion is actually better, but unfortunatly I cannot do it with an executable......I have 2 script files for running telnet.....I was able to change the icon to a nice little laptop icon.....I couldnt find the icon for gwenview but opened it with editor and found its all gibberish....computer coding and not editable......If i try to change icon thats linked to an executable file, by opening that icon in editor, it wont work. Any other suggestions maybe????? :lol:

There's a very roundabout way to do it, but it's kind of a pain. Hopefully someone else knows of a better way. But you could create a filetype in the File Associations section of KDE Control Center associated with say the *.telnet file extension. Rename your file to end in that extension. Then right click on the script in konqueror and choose open with...then choose /bin/bash and tell it to remember to use that. Then you can copy it over to your desktop and it should work. And since it has it's own unique filetype you can change the icon for it without messing with any existing file types. It's messy but it works.

I'm confused here.
What you should have on your desktop is a 'link to application', not an actual executeable file. If you have the actual gwenview executeable located in /home/user/desktop, you shouldn't! The executeable should be somewhere else (usually usr/bin, /usr/sbin or usr/local/application_directory) and on the desktop should be only a 'link to application' to start it. This link is a plain text file called 'application_name.desktop' which you can edit as necessary.
So, if you have actual executables on your desktop, put them somewhere else, then right click on a plain area on the desktop, create new->file->link to application to start your application. Same for your telenet script file, just create an application link to point to it. If you need to be root (or a different user), just create the link first then edit properties to run as root (or user x) afterward.

Yes I agree and thats part of my troubles.....I still have difficulty trying to focus on where programs actually are. For example in WINBLOWS, most of the time when you install a program, they end up in the "Program Files" folder.....But I still am confused where Linux stores them. Especially if I down load a .tar file. I just download it into a folder that i create in my /mnt/hda3 which is a separate partition for extra storage. So the installed program, I assume stays there. If you download a .tar file, where would you dowload it to? I see you say /usr/bin for example. So like with gwenview, once it was installed, I clicked on the executable file and make a link to desktop, but the link icon is that blue gear which represents executable files! And If I try to change it, say to a camera icon, then it changes ALL the executables everywhere into camera icons!!! I suppose I could create my own file extension then i wouldnt have to worry about this. In Knoppix you are not given the option to "change icon".

Yes I agree and thats part of my troubles.....I still have difficulty trying to focus on where programs actually are. For example in WINBLOWS, most of the time when you install a program, they end up in the "Program Files" folder.....But I still am confused where Linux stores them. Especially if I down load a .tar file. I just download it into a folder that i create in my /mnt/hda3 which is a separate partition for extra storage. So the installed program, I assume stays there. If you download a .tar file, where would you dowload it to? I see you say /usr/bin for example. So like with gwenview, once it was installed, I clicked on the executable file and make a link to desktop, but the link icon is that blue gear which represents executable files! And If I try to change it, say to a camera icon, then it changes ALL the executables everywhere into camera icons!!! I suppose I could create my own file extension then i wouldnt have to worry about this. In Knoppix you are not given the option to "change icon".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bob58

Yes I agree and thats part of my troubles.....I still have difficulty trying to focus on where programs actually are. For example in WINBLOWS, most of the time when you install a program, they end up in the "Program Files" folder.....But I still am confused where Linux stores them. Especially if I down load a .tar file. I just download it into a folder that i create in my /mnt/hda3 which is a separate partition for extra storage. So the installed program, I assume stays there. If you download a .tar file, where would you dowload it to? I see you say /usr/bin for example. So like with gwenview, once it was installed, I clicked on the executable file and make a link to desktop, but the link icon is that blue gear which represents executable files! And If I try to change it, say to a camera icon, then it changes ALL the executables everywhere into camera icons!!! I suppose I could create my own file extension then i wouldnt have to worry about this. In Knoppix you are not given the option to "change icon".

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I avoid installing from tar files unless I have to, it is almost always possible to find a .deb package. Google search 'gwenview' then search within results '.deb' found this link (and others) for gwenview .deb packages.
http://gwenview.sourceforge.net/node/view/44
I.m never really sure that packages installed from tar are properly recorded with apt-get & dpkg. (one exception...Openoffice has it's own installer which works well. I replace the Knoppix -en-de version with the regular version)
When making a link to desktop, don't click on the executeable & link to desktop, do it the other way around. Right click on the desktop & make a link to the executeable. Then you DO have the option the change the icon on the desktop file.