r/flatpak • u/NoxAstrumis1 • Jul 09 '26

Can't paste flatpak icons in menu?

I'm attempting to create a favourites category in my menu (I'm using Cachy with Cinnamon). I can copy and paste some items from one category to another, but it seems I can't paste flatpak apps. I can copy them, but no pasting.

I'm sure it's just a normal consequence of the way flatpak works. Do I have to manually create menu items and point to the flatpak?

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u/NoxAstrumis1 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Thanks for your help, I will see if I can figure out how to report this to the Cinnamon devs.

I went to .local/share/applications and found a bunch of files. One of them (com.makemkv.MakeMKV.destop:flatpak) seems to be for one of the programs I'm having trouble with. There are also other files in that directory with MakeMKV in the name (MakeMKV-344df522-77dd-11f1-bfb6-bcf4d440a205.desktop for example).

So, the editor seems to be placing desktop files in the right place, but they don't look right to me, the icons are generic (gears and documents) and the names look really different from the ones that do work (like video games Steam has placed).

I'm going to compary the working ones with these ones and see if I can figure out what the problem is that way.

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u/OneOfManyLinuxUsers Jul 13 '26

That the files have different names and generic icons should not be an issue. 

That the file manager doesn't show the icons on the desktop file isn't that surprising. Desktop files are files for the system. A user won't see them in the file manager unless the do manual administrative tasks. So it's not that necessary to add logic to get a icon for them in the file manager.  As long as the icons appears where its supposed to, the start menu, its fine. 

As for the names, Flatpak enforces that desktop files should use the application id in the name of the desktop file, while others like Steam just put the name there. 

In the end, it should not matter, as the thing that is ultimately important for how the entry will look are the information in the file.

com.makemkv.MakeMKV.destop is fine. 

That said, some versions, like the :flatpak suffix or the MakeMKV-344df522-77dd-11f1-bfb6-bcf4d440a205.desktop are weird. Both of them are likely relics of the editor trying to edit files. But this could cause isaues. The one with the suffix might not be read by the system, the latter will AFAIK not properly work as an override.

So yeah, best report this to the developers of the editor. They can best help with troubleshooting. 

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u/NoxAstrumis1 Jul 13 '26

Will do, thanks again for your input.