How to get Show Desktop working for use by all users?

Question

New install of Ubuntu desktop 22.04. I'm trying to get Show Desktop script working for use by all users, with icon in Left Panel of apps. I've put both a shell script show-desktop.sh permissions of 644) using wmctrl and a desktop file show-desktop.desktop with permissions of 744 in /usr/share/applications. However, I don't get Show Desktop found in Activities or Apps. Here is show-desktop.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application Name=Show Desktop Exec=/usr/share/applications/show-desktop.sh Icon=desktop

Here is show-desktop.sh:

#!/bin/bash

status="$(wmctrl -m | grep "showing the desktop" | sed -r 's/(.*)(ON|OFF)/\2/g')"

if [ $status == "ON" ]; then wmctrl -k off else wmctrl -k on fi

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

.desktop launchers are only included in the overview if the minimum of required fields is valid. In this case, the exec= entry is not valid: the permission of the script are set to "read only" for others. Therefore, the script is not recognized as a valid executable for users that are not the owner. Thus, make the script executable by "others".

Answer 2

Now working. Here is my ShowDesktop.desktop file (with permissions 644) in /usr/share/applications/: [Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Type=Application Terminal=false Exec=/usr/bin/ShowDesktop.sh Name=Show Desktop Comment=Show Desktop Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/ShowDesktop.jpeg

Here is my ShowDesktop.sh file (with permissions 755) in /usr/bin/: #!/bin/bash

status="$(wmctrl -m | grep "showing the desktop" | sed -r 's/(.*)(ON|OFF)/\2/g')"

if [ $status == "ON" ]; then wmctrl -k off else wmctrl -k on fi

My icon ShowDesktop.jpeg (with permissions 644) is in /usr/share/pixmaps/

The directories I used for the Exec and the Icon lines in the ShowDesktop.desktop file (/usr/bin/, /usr/share/pixmaps) were culled from previous AskUbuntu answers: Standard place for custom scripts Icon Path in Desktop File