PND software can be put on the desktop or the menu, which is great! But sadly the built in firmware applications are stuck only on the menu. What if you want your launcher to be in a handy place without having to mess around?
In this example we'll put the CPU overclocking utility right there on your desktop.
You'll need the terminal for this, as you require admin (or root) privileges to work with the needed files (otherwise this would be a drag-and-drop procedure).
Open up your terminal. Now type the following and hit enter:
What folder is this? Well /usr/share contains various files that are shared by all the users of your Linux system. For example, themes are in /usr/share/themes and icons are in /usr/share/icons. The file heirarchy was created for mainframe systems decades ago, and they were quite eccentric people... probably best not to ask too many questions!
All the shortcuts for our applications, including the PND files on the SD cards are right here in '.desktop' format. If you're a Windows user, they're essentially the same as a program shortcut (but they contain lots of data, for example what part of the menu they should go into).
We need to find our application within this list of files, and this may require some trial and error (if in doubt, just repeat this entire procedure till you've done the correct one). Unless you fancy reading the '.desktop' files in a text editor, just take your best guess from the list of file names. No harm will be done, and you can delete it from your desktop at any time.
To see a readable listing of the directory we're in, type the following and hit enter:
What is ls? It lists the contents of the directory, like 'dir' in dos.
What is less? Less is a terminal based program to browse through a a bunch of text in scrollable form.
What's that funny character? It's called a pipe, by putting a pipe in the middle you've sent the output from ls to less. Less loads the listing of the directory and allows you to scroll through it in the terminal.
Use 'up' and 'down' on the D-Pad to look through the files until you find one that looks likely. When you've finished hit ctrl-z to quit out of Less.
If you're like me, you won't remember the full filename you want. You can type 'ls' again with a partial match and it will give you a smaller list of files with a similar name.
For example, type the following and hit enter:
What does the asterix do? Well, it represents 'anything'. Kind of like the blank letter in a Scrabble set only it can be more than one letter. By putting 'op*' we're asking for any file that begins with 'op' and ends with... anything/everything!
From the listing, I can see a file which looks like the overclocking utility. Can you see it?
It's called 'op_cpuspeed#5.desktop'
Now we need to copy this to the desktop (terminal style!).
Type the following, but DO NOT hit enter yet (you'll see why):
Typing in a long file names seriously sucks, but Linux/Your Terminal has auto-completion! Just type in enough for it to identify it and hit TAB.
Hit TAB now, we get the following:
Now we need a destination. Type the remainder of the command and hit enter. It should look like this:
You now need to enter your password. Do that, and hit enter. Everything is done! Check your desktop and it should automatically appear there.
What is sudo? It means 'superuser do' and enables you to run an admin command without having to be logged in, and have all those powers all the time. For example, any script you run cannot do nasty things to your system without requiring a password from you. For this example we had to use sudo because the areas of the filesystem used are locked out from normal users.
What is cp? Copy command, like in dos. You specify the original file first, then the destination.
What is '~/' It's the systems shorthand for your current home directory. It saves you having to type it all out or remember what user you're logged in as at the moment.
In this example we'll put the CPU overclocking utility right there on your desktop.
You'll need the terminal for this, as you require admin (or root) privileges to work with the needed files (otherwise this would be a drag-and-drop procedure).
Open up your terminal. Now type the following and hit enter:
Code:
cd /usr/share/applications
What folder is this? Well /usr/share contains various files that are shared by all the users of your Linux system. For example, themes are in /usr/share/themes and icons are in /usr/share/icons. The file heirarchy was created for mainframe systems decades ago, and they were quite eccentric people... probably best not to ask too many questions!
All the shortcuts for our applications, including the PND files on the SD cards are right here in '.desktop' format. If you're a Windows user, they're essentially the same as a program shortcut (but they contain lots of data, for example what part of the menu they should go into).
We need to find our application within this list of files, and this may require some trial and error (if in doubt, just repeat this entire procedure till you've done the correct one). Unless you fancy reading the '.desktop' files in a text editor, just take your best guess from the list of file names. No harm will be done, and you can delete it from your desktop at any time.
To see a readable listing of the directory we're in, type the following and hit enter:
Code:
ls | less
What is ls? It lists the contents of the directory, like 'dir' in dos.
What is less? Less is a terminal based program to browse through a a bunch of text in scrollable form.
What's that funny character? It's called a pipe, by putting a pipe in the middle you've sent the output from ls to less. Less loads the listing of the directory and allows you to scroll through it in the terminal.
Use 'up' and 'down' on the D-Pad to look through the files until you find one that looks likely. When you've finished hit ctrl-z to quit out of Less.
If you're like me, you won't remember the full filename you want. You can type 'ls' again with a partial match and it will give you a smaller list of files with a similar name.
For example, type the following and hit enter:
Code:
ls op*
What does the asterix do? Well, it represents 'anything'. Kind of like the blank letter in a Scrabble set only it can be more than one letter. By putting 'op*' we're asking for any file that begins with 'op' and ends with... anything/everything!
From the listing, I can see a file which looks like the overclocking utility. Can you see it?
It's called 'op_cpuspeed#5.desktop'
Now we need to copy this to the desktop (terminal style!).
Type the following, but DO NOT hit enter yet (you'll see why):
Code:
sudo cp op_cpu
Typing in a long file names seriously sucks, but Linux/Your Terminal has auto-completion! Just type in enough for it to identify it and hit TAB.
Hit TAB now, we get the following:
Code:
sudo cp op_cpuspeed#5.desktop
Now we need a destination. Type the remainder of the command and hit enter. It should look like this:
Code:
sudo cp op_cpuspeed#5.desktop ~/Desktop
You now need to enter your password. Do that, and hit enter. Everything is done! Check your desktop and it should automatically appear there.
What is sudo? It means 'superuser do' and enables you to run an admin command without having to be logged in, and have all those powers all the time. For example, any script you run cannot do nasty things to your system without requiring a password from you. For this example we had to use sudo because the areas of the filesystem used are locked out from normal users.
What is cp? Copy command, like in dos. You specify the original file first, then the destination.
What is '~/' It's the systems shorthand for your current home directory. It saves you having to type it all out or remember what user you're logged in as at the moment.