bug#35594: GNOME: Application icons are not displayed immediately after installation

[Mark H Weaver]

Hi,

sirgazil <address@hidden> writes:

> I installed the GNU system in a real machine using Guix 1.0 ISO
> installer
> (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz).
>
> Whenever I install a desktop application, the application icon does
> not show up immediately in the list of available applications. I have
> to log out and log in again to be able to see it.

Indeed, this has always been the case on Guix, and I agree it would be
good to fix it.  FWIW, another way to refresh the list of available
applications from GNOME Shell is to type: Alt-F2, and then enter the
single letter "r" as the command.  That should restart GNOME Shell
without affecting your other applications.  (Unfortunately for me, this
only works under Xorg, not Wayland.)

A related issue is that if you upgrade a program in Guix, and then
launch it using GNOME Shell, it will launch the old one.  That's because
our installed desktop files are specifically rewritten to launch the
program via an absolute path name /gnu/store/xxxxx/bin/* instead of
simply looking in PATH, and GNOME Shell continues to use the old desktop
files until it's restarted.  This was implemented back in 2016, here:

  
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/commit/?id=d31860b9de07810e114490db5cc160a8b078c58d

I remember thinking it was a bad idea at the time, but I didn't have
enough energy to speak up about it.

      Mark