Signal-desktop: Extension doesn't have its own icon on ubuntu sidebar (using chromium)

[ghost]

(It may be related to the fact that I registered a new phone number and didn't link any device, but I'm reporting this anyway)
I'm using Chromium on Ubuntu. The conversation list (and more generally, all the windows that are part of the app) are represented on the sidebar as Chromium pages. In other words, I don't have the textsecure symbol on my sidebar.
I have a friend who's using Chrome on Ubuntu and they do have the textsecure icon.

[liliakai]

I see the same thing with both Chrome and Chromium on Mint, but I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it.

[rhodey]

I'm not able to reproduce this while running Chromium v. 45.0.2454.101 on Ubuntu 14.04, Signal Browser v. 0.0.17

[2-4601]

I experienced this a couple of days ago but procrastinated reporting it and now the icon is suddenly back. Conclusion: Procrastination works.
Ubuntu 15.04, Chromium from default repos.

[ghost]

I wasn't having this issue when using the extension I built myself from github-. Today I installed the official beta on Ubuntu with Chromium though, and this problem is back. If in the extensions page I tell signal to create a shortcut on the desktop, it doesn't have the signal icon (just a chrome one). And if I drag it to the dockbar it turns into a "general" ubuntu icon with gears on it.

[2-4601]

Ubuntu should have a .desktop file for the extension in ~/.local/share/applications/ where the icon (path) is defined.

[ghost]

...so?

[ghost]

@2-4601 what did you mean by that? I have the same problem

[devurandom]

@freelibertas That Chromium should create .desktop files for extensions it installs. freedesktop.org .desktop files provide metadata for applications, for example which icon to show or how to start the application.

[ghost]

Where is this .desktop file? I can't find it in /.local/share/applications/

[2-4601]

~$ ls ~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop
~/.local/share/applications/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.desktop

~$ cat ~/.local/share/applications/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.desktop
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=beta
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Signal Desktop Beta
Exec=env LANGUAGE=tlh /usr/bin/chromium-browser --profile-directory=Default --app-id=bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk
Icon=chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default
StartupWMClass=crx_bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk

~$ find ~/.local/share/icons/ -name *chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default*
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.png
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.png
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.png
~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/apps/chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.png

[devurandom]

I have these files (just the app-id and hence the filenames are different on my system?!), but still the icon displayed in the Plasma Task Manager widget is the Chromium icon instead of the Signal icon.

[ghost]

Well, for some reason I don't have anything in that folder.

[orschiro]

Dear all,

These are the steps I did on Ubuntu 15.10 and Chromium that lead to the following missing icon:

1. Install the app
2. Go to chrome:apps and create shortcuts from there

orschiro@x230:~/Desktop$ cat chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default.desktop 
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Signal Private Messenger
Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser --profile-directory=Default --app-id=bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk
Icon=chrome-bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk-Default
StartupWMClass=crx_bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk

[2-4601]

I tried to find the root cause of this by temporarily removing everything from ~/.local/share/applications/ and ~/.local/share/icons/. Then I installed Signal Desktop from the Chrome Web Store on a new Chromium profile. After installing, both of the directories were still empty. Then I tried to create the shortcuts and icons by clicking _Details -> Create shortcuts... -> Applications menu -> Create_. But even after that both directories remained empty.
Then I tried installing a couple of other popular Chrome extensions and no matter what I did neither icons nor .desktop files were created in ~/.local/share/

Finally I decided to try Google Chrome. I installed Signal Desktop from the store and :boom: ~/.local/share/icons/ and ~/.local/share/applications/ were immediately populated with the missing stuff.

Conclusion: It's Chromium's fault. And it looks like someone has already opened an issue for this. Send your death threats :wink: here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=598160 :kissing_heart:

[orschiro]

Dear @2-4601,

Thank you so much for finding the root cause!

I have provided the links to this and another related conversation to the bug tracker.

Hopefully this will be fixed quickly!

Thankfully,

~Robert