Need help making a desktop shortcut for Rack. Error finding res directory

I get the following error when trying to run Rack from a desktop file I made so it would show up in my normal applications folder. Rack launches fine when I double click on the binary but I want the application to show up with my other apps.

“Rack’s resource directory “./res” does not exist. Make sure Rack is correctly installed and launched”

vcvrack.desktop file that I created is located here and contains:

home/.local/share/applications

[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Name=VCV Rack Comment=Modular Synthesis Icon=/home/evan/Software/Rack/res/icon.png Exec=/home/evan/Software/Rack/Rack Terminal=false Categories=Audio;Music Keywords=Music

Can anyone help?

I am on Pop OS 20.04

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[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=VCV Rack
Comment=Modular Synthesis
Icon=/home/evan/Software/Rack/res/icon.png
Exec=/home/evan/Software/Rack/Rack
Terminal=false
Categories=Audio;Music
Keywords=Music

what OS is that?

on Linux (rack used to have rendering issues running from other location ) I have a script to run the rack from a hidden folder then I have a launcher for the script (I use the common menu editor for it)

#!/bin/sh
cd .Rack
./Rack

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On Linux, the Rack system folder is the working directory, so you need to set it with

Path=/path/to/Rack
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^Clicking the Rack binary here opens to program as expected.

So what I thought I needed to do to make Rack show up with my other applications was create a Desktop Entry and place it where my other application shortcuts are. I am able to see the shortcut to Rack when I super key with my other applications but when I click on the icon I get the error message

image

“Rack’s resource directory “./res” does not exist. Make sure Rack is correctly installed and launched” image

It obviously does exist because I can open it fine when I manually click on the binary as described in the beginning.

I am open to doing it another way, I just want to see Rack alongside my other applications.

Pop OS is a branch of Ubuntu.

Linux n00b too by the way.

did you tried set as Andrew described?

Yes! I modified my desktop entry file with

Path=/path/to/Rack

image

and now it works!

Thanks Andrew and David for the help!

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(I hope it’s ok to continue on this thread)

I have the same problem, however it is not resolved by adding ‘Path=…’ as suggested above. The weird thing is that the application starts if I click (run) the rack.desktop file I created (like the one resmith711 uses above), but not if I run it via the shortcut found in “Show Applications”, then it still says: "Rack’s resource directory “./res” does not exist. Make sure Rack is correctly installed and launched”. Do the system somehow need to update the shortcuts shown in “show applications” or is there another way to add the .desktop file to the launcher?

Hi @lord, welcome to the forum!

What environment are you using? I’m on Kubuntu, I just created a .desktop file for Rack following the instructions above and it seems to work. I had been doing the same as @David up to now.

I don’t know much about .desktop files, but it turns out Ubuntu comes with the desktop-file-validate command-line program. Maybe try that to double-check your file is correct? The first .desktop file I created worked already, but desktop-file-validate showed a couple of warnings, so I replaced “Audio” with “AudioVideo” as the category.

As usual on Linux you may also want to double-check file permissions :slight_smile: