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After going through many results of a google search on this subject I've only found this solution: Creating a desktop launcher.

I'm using Firefox 8.0 on Ubuntu 11.10. Please tell me this is over-complicating the process and that there's an easier/ more direct way!

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  • I noticed that the "drag and drop" method seems to work for a few people who commented below. If drag and drop works for you - are you using ccsm (compiz configuration settings manager)? I'm thinking maybe I need to enable or possibly disable a plugin in ccsm.
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 5, 2011 at 21:05

4 Answers 4

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There is an extension to Firefox called SaveLink that does just that.

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    Thanks. That seems to be the simplest way so far. And, for me, it works.
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 5, 2011 at 19:07
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I believe that you can drag the favicon next to the URL to the desktop to create a link. I'm not near my Ubuntu machine but (at least in Gnome) it should work.

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    Works with Unity, too
    – Florian Diesch
    Dec 2, 2011 at 19:56
  • That doesn't work for me, but I also don't have Gnome--I'm using Unity.
    – jpaugh
    Dec 2, 2011 at 20:14
  • @Florian: Can you describe this methods? (for Unity)
    – david6
    Dec 2, 2011 at 20:16
  • This doesn't work for me either.
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 2, 2011 at 20:54
  • This used to work beautifully, with a star (Bookmark) icon on the desktop. Now it usually works, but I get a 'This website does not supply identity information' error sometimes, and the new icon is not as good.
    – Tom Brossman
    Dec 2, 2011 at 21:15
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Here is a small bash script I wrote to do the job it called "wamaker".. It's not professional but it should work :) enter image description here

Installation

  1. Download the script from here
  2. Put it in /home/USERNAME/bin/
  3. Make it executable (chmod +x wamaker.sh)

Howto Use it

Just open the terminal and type

wamaker.sh URL NAME COMMENT

for example:

wamaker.sh http://askubuntu.com askubuntu

Note that the third parameter is optional

Don't forget to use the double quotes (") if any of the parameters has space

How it works

Simply, it will create a directory in your home folder called ".wamaker" and will use it to store the icon files of the urls, then will create a .desktop files (launchers) and place them on your desktop

finally, enjoy :)

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  • This is just as convoluted as the link I posted in my question. Wouldn't this be overwhelming to new and basic users? I appreciate the consideration but I'm trying to proliferate Ubuntu by installing it on friends and neighbors machines. They're not used to having to do their own coding to simply put a link on their desktop.
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 5, 2011 at 18:53
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I think this method as described (dragging the favicon to the desktop) is working.

I am using firefox 8.0 on ubuntu 11.10 with unity. By dragging the favicon (thats the small field on the left of the field where you type the web adresse) to the desktop a link is created.

I'am not shure if this is relevant, but by checking the add-ons of firefox I noticed that I have "Global Menu Bar integration 2.0.1" and "Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 1.0" installed. It could be, that one of this two extansions is enabling the the function to drag and drop the favicon to the desktop to create a link.

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  • This doesn't work for me. I really wish it would. It does nothing unless I have more than one tab open, then it just opens the page of the favicon I dragged and dropped in it's own window. I'm glad that this works for some people, I wonder what's different for mine to not work...I am using the same FF add-ons you mentioned.
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 2, 2011 at 22:35
  • @jwdinkc That's the wrong Favicon. You want the Favicon next the the URL in the address bar. Depending on how you've customizws Firefox's layout, it may not be visible.
    – Andrew Lambert
    Dec 5, 2011 at 8:02
  • The favicon for this site is the orange "ask" bubble correct? The one to the left of the URL? I've tried that, I've tried dragging the URL, I tried dragging the icon on the tab, I've tried dragging the star to the right of the url and I've tried dragging the page itself. I guess I'm the only one who this doesn't work at all for?
    – jwdinkc
    Dec 5, 2011 at 18:48

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