if i enter "vim" in unity search (after pressing Super key") nothing shows up.
I can only start gvim by using Alt+F2 and entering gvim. Why does this happen?
This seems to have solved the problem for me:
sudo cp /usr/share/app-install/desktop/vim-gui-common\:gvim.desktop /usr/share/applications
This was suggested by a related bug report.
sudo cp /usr/share/app-install/desktop/vim-gui-common\:gvim.desktop /usr/share/applications/
. I also like the ending slash, just so you know it is a directory.
Aug 18, 2015 at 14:14
cp /usr/share/app-install/desktop/vim-gui-common\:gvim.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/gvim.desktop
Copy & rename vim-gui-common:gvim.desktop to gvim.desktop in your user directory, to make it available.
Drag ~/.local/share/applications/gvim.desktop to your launcher
The other answer (copy to /usr/share/applications) didn't work here in 14.04.
I'm looking at this about a year later, using Ubuntu 16.04. I wasn't able to find any useful "vim" results in Unity search. I used Ubuntu Software to install the "gvim" package and it just did everything for me, including putting the shortcut with the correct icon into the Unity toolbar.
You can install icon using sudo apt-get install vim-gui-common
. Icon appears after a reboot.