I installed Evolution because Exchange mail at work. Please don't respond to use KMail, that isn't my question and I tried hard to get that to work but KMail crashed every time I tried.

My problem is that I created a desktop shortcut for Evolution because the Launcher didn't pick it up automatically (hardly surprising). But what I wanted was it Pinned to the panel. So I pinned it. Simple right? BUT then I deleted the desktop shortcut that I never actually wanted anyway. When I did that I was a little surprised that the pinned launcher didn't work. I messed around with this lots of times and I honestly don't remember if it was still there but didn't work or if it disappeared. I think it did different things at different times. Related: I have had a LOT of trouble with Plasma saving its state on exit, but I'm done creating Activities and stuff now so I don't much care anymore.

The real problem is that I now have TWO PINNED Evolution launchers and one shortcut on the desktop. Both pinned icons work. And I can get over having the shortcut on the desktop. But I really don't like two pinned launchers sitting side by side. Some casual grepping through the bowls of the .kde directories didn't turn up anything obvious I could edit to fix this.

So. Any suggestions on how to get rid of my duplicate Panel icon would be greatly appreciated.

acheron wrote:My problem is that I created a desktop shortcut for Evolution because the Launcher didn't pick it up automatically (hardly surprising).

Well, that actually is quite surprising.

If the application installs a .desktop file to the standard (i.e. not KDE-specific) location, KDE's application launcher *should* pick it up.

And Evolution does show up fine here in openSUSE...

Although, KDE has a cache of the menu items.
It might happen that the cache is not updated automatically immediately when you install a new application.
This should rectify itself over time, or at least when you logout/login.
Running "kbuildsycoca4" or "kbuildsycoca5" (depending on whether you use Plasma4 or Plasma5) should help too.

But what I wanted was it Pinned to the panel. So I pinned it. Simple right? BUT then I deleted the desktop shortcut that I never actually wanted anyway. When I did that I was a little surprised that the pinned launcher didn't work.

This OTOH is not really surprising.

You actually "pinned" the desktop shortcut.
After removing that, the pinned one doesn't work either, as the original one doesn't exist any more.

Related: I have had a LOT of trouble with Plasma saving its state on exit, but I'm done creating Activities and stuff now so I don't much care anymore.

And how's that related to Activities at all?

The real problem is that I now have TWO PINNED Evolution launchers and one shortcut on the desktop. Both pinned icons work. And I can get over having the shortcut on the desktop. But I really don't like two pinned launchers sitting side by side. Some casual grepping through the bowls of the .kde directories didn't turn up anything obvious I could edit to fix this.

If it is a launcher added to the task manager: just right-click on the launcher and select "remove".

If it is a standard icon plasmoid in the panel, left-click on the toolbox icon on the right end, then you should be able to remove it by hovering over it and click the 'X' icon, or right-clicking on it.
But this is only possible as long as the toolbox is open.

wolfi323 wrote:If the application installs a .desktop file to the standard (i.e. not KDE-specific) location, KDE's application launcher *should* pick it up.

Everything else I've installed showed up in the launcher fine. I assumed it was because it's gnome stuff. But regardless it never showed up. Running kbuildsycoca5 didn't help. Although I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

After removing that, the pinned one doesn't work either, as the original one doesn't exist any more.

But the root of the problem is:

* I deleted the shortcut and the pinned item went away
* I re-added the shortcut and still no pinned item
* I pinned the new shortcut and now I have 2 pinned icons
* Slightly interesting both pinned icons work and successfully launch evolution

I suppose I can try deleting the entire widget and re-adding it. I only have 4 things on it. It is just annoying and weird. I would expect some file I could edit -- or even better for it to not gore itself.

Related: I have had a LOT of trouble with Plasma saving its state on exit, but I'm done creating Activities and stuff now so I don't much care anymore.

And how's that related to Activities at all?

It isn't directly "related". But I am pretty sure this is how things got messed up. For several days every time I rebooted one of my Activities would be gone. After several times I was even unable to add it back. Or more accurately when I executed the add function it would never show up.

I was quite careful to always log out of KDE instead of directly shutting down because I read there are issues with KDE not saving changes.

Anyhow I was considering giving up on Plasma 5 as just too buggy to use since I couldn't even set it up. But then quite by random magic one time I rebooted from this "bad" 2 activity desktop and my 3rd activity showed up (I had given up on it ever working a couple days before). So now everything is set up correctly and I haven't had anything else disappear. I am very reluctant to mess with it. It seems very delicate. Right now we have an uneasy truce: I stopped changing customizations and KDE stopped randomly trashing my entire workspace. I'd rather live with a second evolution icon than start another round of 2 dozen restarts to try and get it to display all the widgets.

Still this stuff must be stored somewhere. But I guess it is some complex encoded binary database; probably squirreled off in some /var directory. Which is probably why it doesn't work reliably in the first place.

acheron wrote:

wolfi323 wrote:If the application installs a .desktop file to the standard (i.e. not KDE-specific) location, KDE's application launcher *should* pick it up.

Everything else I've installed showed up in the launcher fine. I assumed it was because it's gnome stuff. But regardless it never showed up. Running kbuildsycoca5 didn't help. Although I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

Hm.
Is there a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications?

You could of course create an entry yourself with kmenuedit (right-click on the application menu icon and select "Edit Applications...".

But the root of the problem is:

* I deleted the shortcut and the pinned item went away
* I re-added the shortcut and still no pinned item
* I pinned the new shortcut and now I have 2 pinned icons
* Slightly interesting both pinned icons work and successfully launch evolution

It probably got hidden because it couldn't load the "desktop shortcut".
Recreating the desktop shortcut "fixed" that.

I already explained how to remove it.

I suppose I can try deleting the entire widget and re-adding it. I only have 4 things on it. It is just annoying and weird. I would expect some file I could edit -- or even better for it to not gore itself.

I see no need for deleting the whole panel. Just remove that one launcher.

The Plasma applet configuration is saved in ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc.
But if you want to modify it manually, you should do so while Plasma is not running.

It isn't directly "related". But I am pretty sure this is how things got messed up.

I see no indication that anything got "messed up" at all.

I was quite careful to always log out of KDE instead of directly shutting down because I read there are issues with KDE not saving changes.

There's no difference in logging out or shutting down from Plasma's point of view.

Still this stuff must be stored somewhere. But I guess it is some complex encoded binary database; probably squirreled off in some /var directory. Which is probably why it doesn't work reliably in the first place.

The activities are stored in ~/.config/kactivitymanagerdrc, that's also a standard text-based config file.

The Plasma setup for each activity is stored in ~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc as well.

Lots of really good information in your replies. I know a LOT more than I did before.

I appreciate the significant amount of time you spent on them.

Thanks