Desktop launchers launch applications in xterm instead of x-terminal-emulator

[Peter Berry]

Version: Mint 14, MATE 64-bit

When you create a launcher on the desktop and set its type to "Application in Terminal", the terminal it runs the application in should be x-terminal-emulator, which by default is set to mate-terminal. However, it actually ignores x-terminal-emulator and uses xterm instead.

A potential workaround (which I haven't tried) would be to uninstall xterm and add a symlink at /usr/bin/xterm to /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator. Unfortunately this breaks the dependencies of the Debian package for Steam, which depends on xterm | gnome-terminal | konsole.

[abdullahc (sneetsher)]

mate-terminal does not have a xterm wrapper, try install gnome-terminal which has one. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/419641/panel-apps-try-to-launch-in-xterm-even-though-it-isnt-installed/

[Peter Berry (pwberry)]

Actually, it apparently does have one, or at least did have one: https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-terminal/issues/9

[abdullahc (sneetsher)]

I could confirm that Mint 16 contains mate-terminal.wrapper. thank you Peter.

For earlier releases:

    - mate-terminal.wrapper could be downloaded from source repository of mate-terminal, set it up using update-alternatives.

    - just install other alternative desktops terminal which have a wrapper like gnome-terminal, xfce4-terminal,.. . Any of them will configure the x-terminal-emulator to its own wrapper.

[Peter Berry (pwberry)]

Confirmed in Mint 17 as of now. Steps to reproduce:

1. Right click on the desktop and select "Create Launcher..."
2. Select type "Application in Terminal". Type "bash" in both name and command, then press OK. After the dialogue closes, a launcher icon named bash should appear on the desktop.
3. Double click the launcher.

Expected result: x-terminal-emulator starts, running bash.

Actual result: xterm starts, running bash. You can confirm that it's xterm by running the command "pstree | grep bash".

[Raphaël Halimi (raph)]

It's actually a Glib bug, see: https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-panel/issues/57 (last comment from gpolitis, thanks to him/her for spotting the origin of this).

I opened a bug in the Debian BTS, and submitted a patch: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=773915

I'm attaching the patch here as well.

Regards,

--
Raphaël Halimi

[Oliver Joos (oliver-joos)]

Thank you very much for fixing this long-lasting bug!
I see it fixed in Linux Mint MATE since February 2018.