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(Submitting this separately from #4 because I don't believe it to be the same issue as #4.)
Environment
Windows build number: 21365
Your Distribution version: Debian 11 (bullseye/sid) / Ubuntu 20.04
Your WSLg version: 1.0.17.1
Steps to reproduce
Unknown (should be automatic, I believe?).
I have been using GUI apps on the former distribution for some time before WSLg was released; the latter distribution was a fresh install. In neither case have the Linux GUI apps showed up in the Start menu, and I can confirm that in both cases definition files exist for them under /usr/share/applications.
Alistair Young (@cerebrate) , thanks for reporting, from the provided log, it's failing to add watch to /usr/local/share/applications with permission denied (while /usr/share/applications was succeeded), can you check the permission on /usr/local/share/applications ? thanks!
Aha! Yes, that seems to have been the issue. Permissions on /usr/local/share/applications had no "other" permissions, only user and group. Adding "o+rx" made the shortcuts appear.
Alistair Young (@cerebrate) , I'm curious how common those folders don't have "other" permission ? Is this something you have done for some reason ? or the distro you installed is pre-configured in that way ? (but at least it looks Ubuntu 20.04 doesn't come with that).
Looking at my test Ubuntu 20.04 distribution, it doesn't appear to come with a /usr/local/share/applications folder at all; same goes for my Alpine.
I don't think it's anything I've done intentionally, at least with regard to that folder in particular. Not being sure precisely where and when that folder was created, I suppose it's possible that it might be related to my running with umask 007 (set in my .zprofile), a habit originally from shared Unix systems that I've kept up for years, maybe?
I'm having the same issue. From my weston.log file, I can see that it can't find /usr/local/share/applications. But I have confirmed that this folder exists, and there are several .desktop folders inside it. The folder also has rx permission for others.
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), by looking at your weston.log, those .desktop are for either terminal application or has "NoDisplay" property, thus no program links are created, have you tried like "Firefox"? thanks!
Those are not the apps I'm having trouble with. I have emacs installed which has .desktop files in /usr/local/share/applications, but in weston.log, these are the lines I see
I don't understand the second line. Has it found the folder but can't read it? Permissions shouldn't be an issue here.
I decided to try copying my emacs.desktop from /usr/local/share/applications to /usr/share/applications but it didn't create an entry. At the bottom of weston.log, I find the following lines:
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), I'm not seeing that issue. Would you please update to the latest WSLg? It looks yours is too old version. Thanks!
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), it looks you have lifted version of WSL from Store, right? The problem seems below which indicates Emacs is removed from tracking list. Btw, do you see Firefox in the Menu?
0: At cmd.exe, "wsl --shutdown".
1: Settings App -> Apps & Features -> Uninstall "Windows Subsystem for Linux WSLg Preview".
2: At same Apps & Features -> Uninstall "Windows Subsystem for Linux".
2: Start Menu -> Find "Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview" -> Right click -> Uninstall.
Then reinstall WSL from Store app. Please let me know how it goes. If problem persist, please share weston.log again, thanks!
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) I went a bit further and did what you asked + turning off/on the optional feature for WSL, and now it seems to work. Thank you so much for helping me out!
In my case, the distro I was using didn't have /usr/local/share/applications, it was using /usr/share/applications/. So I just created a symlink and after a windows reboot, everything works as it should
In my case, the distro I was using didn't have /usr/local/share/applications, it was using /usr/share/applications/. So I just created a symlink and after a windows reboot, everything works as it should
Duncan Carpiso (@ctosagme), do you mean none of application showed up in Start Menu start up? We are aware of certain applications, such as sublime text, doesn't startup, but most of application should work, would you please give us a few examples of applications doesn't start up? thanks!
I have that problem on Windows 11 - even though .desktop files are being created under /usr/share/applications (and Start Menu shortcuts even appear after the app is installed) - shortcuts get removed after some time while .desktop files are still in their location.
On WSL start I can see that some (two) apps are properly added to shortcuts. In my case these are firefox and audacity. In the weston.log I can see e.g.:
[20:31:19.374] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[20:31:19.374] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/pavucontrol.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[20:31:19.374] app list entry failed to update: Key:pavucontrol
[20:31:19.374] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/pavucontrol.desktop
[20:31:19.374] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[20:31:19.374] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/sqlitebrowser.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[20:31:19.374] app list entry failed to update: Key:sqlitebrowser
[20:31:19.374] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/sqlitebrowser.desktop
[20:31:19.374] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
I had Linux GUI apps listed in my start menu, then today I installed 4 new Linux GUI apps, and only one showed up in start menu. Rebooted and then the 4 new ones were in start menu, but some of the originals were missing. Ran 'wsl --update' and it got the newest version (2.0.14) and I rebooted. After reboot, no Linux GUI apps are in the start menu.
Is there a limit on how many apps the start menu will show? I had 18 Linux GUI apps installed before today, on 3 different Windows 11 systems, and all the apps showed in the start menu. Today I installed 4 more Linux GUI apps on each system, and got:
System 1: All 4 new apps showed in start menu, but 4 original apps disappeared
System 2: 1 new app showed in start menu, but one original app disappeared.
System 3 (the system in previous comment): After another reboot, the apps showed up in start menu again, two of the new apps were there, and two of the original apps had disappeared.
Is there a way to increase the number of Linux GUI apps displayed in the start menu?
here is an example of me renaming a file to coerce it into doing something.
[03:06:39.099] app_list_monitor_thread: file created/updated (doom_emacs.desktop)
[03:06:39.099] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[03:06:39.107] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/doom_emacs.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[03:06:39.107] app list entry failed to update: Key:doom_emacs
[03:06:39.107] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/doom_emacs.desktop
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) I have installed emacs from source, which creates a file at /usr/local/share/applications/emacs.desktop. This doesn't show up in the Windows start menu.
As soon as I create a symlink in /usr/share/applications everything works.
The main thing that I saw in this thread is that everyone is having some sort of issue regarding the GUI apps rendering in the Linux Distro folder in WSLg.
When I tried to install gedit in Linux Ubuntu 24.04. The shortcut created in the $HOME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu-24.04 folder and also the fact that the <app_name>.desktop are placed in /usr/share/applications rather /usr/local/share/applications
This type of issue I didn't see for the first time when I installed WSL linux Ubuntu 24.04. It's only prevalent in the subsequent installation when I tried to uninstall the WSL and the distro itself and then again installing it.
The main thing that I saw in this thread is that everyone is having some sort of issue regarding the GUI apps rendering in the Linux Distro folder in WSLg.
When I tried to install gedit in Linux Ubuntu 24.04. The shortcut created in the $HOME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu-24.04 folder and also the fact that the <app_name>.desktop are placed in /usr/share/applications rather /usr/local/share/applications
This type of issue I didn't see for the first time when I installed WSL linux Ubuntu 24.04. It's only prevalent in the subsequent installation when I tried to uninstall the WSL and the distro itself and then again installing it.
The issue is solved by using this -
Aha! Yes, that seems to have been the issue. Permissions on /usr/local/share/applications had no "other" permissions, only user and group. Adding "o+rx" made the shortcuts appear.
This has to be done by sudo chmod o+rx /usr/local/share/applications and then you have to do wsl -install, wsl -update and wsl-shutdown and again starting wsl.exe. and then test it with a simple sudo apt-get install <app> command.
I hope this helps most of the people. I was also frustrated by the bug like everyone else!
I get so many desktop file: /usr/share/applications/.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory errors. There are a lot of .desktop files in /usr/share/applications (for some gui apps, some not), but I'm only getting three shortcuts in the Start menu. I'm not seeing a reason why it shouldn't work.
[10:36:08.169] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[10:36:08.169] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[10:36:08.170] app list entry failed to update: Key:firefox
[10:36:08.170] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
[10:36:08.170] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[10:36:08.170] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/pavucontrol.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[10:36:08.170] app list entry failed to update: Key:pavucontrol
[10:36:08.170] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/pavucontrol.desktop
[10:36:08.170] attach_app_list_namespace failed Invalid argument
[10:36:08.170] desktop file: /usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directory
[10:36:08.170] app list entry failed to update: Key:spotify
[10:36:08.170] free_app_entry(): (null): /usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop
firefox.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
NoDisplay=true
Name=Firefox Web Browser
Name[ar]=متصفح الويب فَيَرفُكْس
Name[ast]=Restolador web Firefox
. . . localization . . .
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
. . .
GenericName=Web Browser
. . .
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
. . .
Exec=firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=firefox
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;video/webm;application/x-xpinstall;
StartupNotify=true
StartupWMClass=firefox
Actions=new-window;new-private-window;
[Desktop Action new-window]
Name=Open a New Window
. . . localization . . .
Exec=firefox -new-window
[Desktop Action new-private-window]
Name=Open a New Private Window
. . .
Exec=firefox -private-window
ls "C:\Users\Andrea\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu"
Directory: C:\Users\Andrea\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
----------------------------a---8/20/202411:24 AM 1844 Audacity (Ubuntu).lnk
-a---8/20/202411:24 AM 1962 Live Captions (Ubuntu).lnk
-a---8/20/202411:24 AM 1746 Tilix (Ubuntu).lnk
A pretty simple solution is to create your own .lnk file. Just don't do it in the folder above though, because if you do, Weston will sync the shortcuts and delete the one you make. You can put it elsewhere.
Activity
hideyukn88 commentedon Apr 22, 2021
Alistair Young (@cerebrate) , thanks for reporting, from the provided log, it's failing to add watch to /usr/local/share/applications with permission denied (while /usr/share/applications was succeeded), can you check the permission on /usr/local/share/applications ? thanks!
[11:33:44.808] app_list_monitor_thread: inotify_add_watch(/usr/share/applications)
[11:33:45.029] app_list_monitor_thread: inotify_add_watch(/usr/local/share/applications)
[11:33:45.029] app_list_monitor_thread: inotify_add_watch failed: Permission denied
cerebrate commentedon Apr 22, 2021
Aha! Yes, that seems to have been the issue. Permissions on /usr/local/share/applications had no "other" permissions, only user and group. Adding "o+rx" made the shortcuts appear.
hideyukn88 commentedon Apr 22, 2021
Alistair Young (@cerebrate) , I'm curious how common those folders don't have "other" permission ? Is this something you have done for some reason ? or the distro you installed is pre-configured in that way ? (but at least it looks Ubuntu 20.04 doesn't come with that).
cerebrate commentedon Apr 23, 2021
Looking at my test Ubuntu 20.04 distribution, it doesn't appear to come with a /usr/local/share/applications folder at all; same goes for my Alpine.
I don't think it's anything I've done intentionally, at least with regard to that folder in particular. Not being sure precisely where and when that folder was created, I suppose it's possible that it might be related to my running with umask 007 (set in my .zprofile), a habit originally from shared Unix systems that I've kept up for years, maybe?
abhishekchak52 commentedon Oct 18, 2021
I'm having the same issue. From my weston.log file, I can see that it can't find /usr/local/share/applications. But I have confirmed that this folder exists, and there are several .desktop folders inside it. The folder also has rx permission for others.
hideyukn88 commentedon Oct 18, 2021
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), by looking at your weston.log, those .desktop are for either terminal application or has "NoDisplay" property, thus no program links are created, have you tried like "Firefox"? thanks!
abhishekchak52 commentedon Oct 18, 2021
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) Thanks for responding so quickly.
Those are not the apps I'm having trouble with. I have emacs installed which has .desktop files in /usr/local/share/applications, but in weston.log, these are the lines I see
I don't understand the second line. Has it found the folder but can't read it? Permissions shouldn't be an issue here.
I decided to try copying my emacs.desktop from /usr/local/share/applications to /usr/share/applications but it didn't create an entry. At the bottom of weston.log, I find the following lines:
This is after I installed firefox as you suggested, but nothing popped up for that either.
hideyukn88 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), I'm not seeing that issue. Would you please update to the latest WSLg? It looks yours is too old version. Thanks!
abhishekchak52 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) Yeah, I think something else might be the issue.
wsl.exe --versiongives meThere might be an issue elsewhere because now weston.log says it added an entry, but I still can't see it in Start.
Thank you for your help
hideyukn88 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), it looks you have lifted version of WSL from Store, right? The problem seems below which indicates Emacs is removed from tracking list. Btw, do you see Firefox in the Menu?
[18:24:11.960] app list entry updated: Key:emacs, Name:Emacs (Ubuntu)
[18:24:11.960] free_app_entry(): Emacs (Ubuntu): /usr/share/applications/emacs.desktop
abhishekchak52 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) No I can't see firefox either. Is there any way I can remove WSL completely and then reinstall everything?
hideyukn88 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Abhishek Chakraborty (@abhishekchak52), please do below.
0: At cmd.exe, "wsl --shutdown".
1: Settings App -> Apps & Features -> Uninstall "Windows Subsystem for Linux WSLg Preview".
2: At same Apps & Features -> Uninstall "Windows Subsystem for Linux".
2: Start Menu -> Find "Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview" -> Right click -> Uninstall.
Then reinstall WSL from Store app. Please let me know how it goes. If problem persist, please share weston.log again, thanks!
abhishekchak52 commentedon Oct 19, 2021
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) I went a bit further and did what you asked + turning off/on the optional feature for WSL, and now it seems to work. Thank you so much for helping me out!
9 remaining items
Paranoid-Dev commentedon Feb 16, 2023
In my case, the distro I was using didn't have
/usr/local/share/applications, it was using/usr/share/applications/. So I just created a symlink and after a windows reboot, everything works as it shouldhideyukn88 commentedon Feb 16, 2023
Paranoid Developer (@Paranoid-Dev), I think that folder should be monitored, please let us know if it still doesn't work, thanks!
https://github.com/microsoft/weston-mirror/blob/7fd9ba2f35b6171ddaedc5990432d6de10695008/rdprail-shell/app-list.c#L857
ctosagme commentedon Feb 27, 2023
I'm having the same issue here i followed the instruction and it work it show all gui application but when i click the application it won't load/open
hideyukn88 commentedon Feb 27, 2023
Duncan Carpiso (@ctosagme), do you mean none of application showed up in Start Menu start up? We are aware of certain applications, such as sublime text, doesn't startup, but most of application should work, would you please give us a few examples of applications doesn't start up? thanks!
ctosagme commentedon Feb 28, 2023
here's some example some of them open but not the others like firefox, Root Terminal Emulator
https://www.reddit.com/user/ctos123game/comments/11dvngi/linux_application_wont_open/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
MrLuje commentedon Nov 22, 2023
It looks like some editors are using
~/.local/share/applications/(or at least Jetbrains).$ ll ~/.local/share/applications/ total 20K -rwxr--r-- 1 vince vince 407 Nov 22 21:03 jetbrains-fleet-6ec15a84-983d-477a-b83c-bd87d0796ae5.desktop -rwxr--r-- 1 vince vince 363 Nov 22 21:02 jetbrains-fleet.desktop -rwxr--r-- 1 vince vince 434 Nov 22 21:09 jetbrains-idea-ce-8f3949b8-85b3-4398-ac33-02f6178eff3f.desktop -rwxr--r-- 1 vince vince 441 Nov 22 21:01 jetbrains-toolbox.desktopCan it also be monitored or should we ask them to create them at another place ?
trueuto commentedon Jan 24, 2024
I have that problem on Windows 11 - even though .desktop files are being created under
/usr/share/applications(and Start Menu shortcuts even appear after the app is installed) - shortcuts get removed after some time while .desktop files are still in their location.On WSL start I can see that some (two) apps are properly added to shortcuts. In my case these are firefox and audacity. In the
weston.logI can see e.g.:However for a lot of others I have these errors:
WSL version: 2.0.14.0
Kernel version: 5.15.133.1-1
WSLg version: 1.0.59
MSRDC version: 1.2.4677
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22621.3007
TheNavyBear commentedon Jan 29, 2024
I had Linux GUI apps listed in my start menu, then today I installed 4 new Linux GUI apps, and only one showed up in start menu. Rebooted and then the 4 new ones were in start menu, but some of the originals were missing. Ran 'wsl --update' and it got the newest version (2.0.14) and I rebooted. After reboot, no Linux GUI apps are in the start menu.
TheNavyBear commentedon Jan 29, 2024
Is there a limit on how many apps the start menu will show? I had 18 Linux GUI apps installed before today, on 3 different Windows 11 systems, and all the apps showed in the start menu. Today I installed 4 more Linux GUI apps on each system, and got:
System 1: All 4 new apps showed in start menu, but 4 original apps disappeared
System 2: 1 new app showed in start menu, but one original app disappeared.
System 3 (the system in previous comment): After another reboot, the apps showed up in start menu again, two of the new apps were there, and two of the original apps had disappeared.
Is there a way to increase the number of Linux GUI apps displayed in the start menu?
psynautic commentedon May 30, 2024
i'm having the same problem as trueuto (@trueuto)
here is an example of me renaming a file to coerce it into doing something.
remd commentedon Jun 22, 2024
Hideyuki Nagase (@hideyukn88) I have installed emacs from source, which creates a file at /usr/local/share/applications/emacs.desktop. This doesn't show up in the Windows start menu.
As soon as I create a symlink in /usr/share/applications everything works.
sohan23 commentedon Jul 21, 2024
I am raising an issue here
The main thing that I saw in this thread is that everyone is having some sort of issue regarding the GUI apps rendering in the Linux Distro folder in WSLg.
When I tried to install
geditin Linux Ubuntu 24.04. The shortcut created in the$HOME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu-24.04folder and also the fact that the<app_name>.desktopare placed in/usr/share/applicationsrather/usr/local/share/applicationsThis type of issue I didn't see for the first time when I installed WSL linux Ubuntu 24.04. It's only prevalent in the subsequent installation when I tried to uninstall the WSL and the distro itself and then again installing it.
sohan23 commentedon Jul 21, 2024
The issue is solved by using this -
This has to be done by
sudo chmod o+rx /usr/local/share/applicationsand then you have to dowsl -install,wsl -updateandwsl-shutdownand again startingwsl.exe. and then test it with a simplesudo apt-get install <app>command.I hope this helps most of the people. I was also frustrated by the bug like everyone else!
andreaxhearts commentedon Aug 20, 2024
I get so many
desktop file: /usr/share/applications/.desktop is failed to be loaded: No such file or directoryerrors. There are a lot of .desktop files in /usr/share/applications (for some gui apps, some not), but I'm only getting three shortcuts in the Start menu. I'm not seeing a reason why it shouldn't work.Let's take some examples of shortcuts that are successful, and ones that fail to load:
weston.log
audacity.desktop
tilex.desktop
weston.log
firefox.desktop
Something as simple as this fails! :
spotify.desktop
A pretty simple solution is to create your own .lnk file. Just don't do it in the folder above though, because if you do, Weston will sync the shortcuts and delete the one you make. You can put it elsewhere.
Croydon commentedon Mar 24, 2025
On my Fedora 42 Beta WSL distro I had to create a symlink as the following so that user-installed Flatpaks show up in the Windows start menu:
See also #974