Skip to content

Launcher for Linux

Thanks to Carlos Lira for this post on his blog. This is how to make a launcher for QualCoder on Linux. The Ubuntu executable is available through the Releases pages of QualCoder. If you use a different version of Linux, or want to run for source code instead. Please read the full blog below. I have copied an excerpt only

https://aldats.dev/blog/launch-qualcoder-without-terminal

Creating the QualCoder Script

  1. Create a file named qualcoder in your preferred text editor.

  2. Copy the Bash script below and paste it into the qualcoder file.

    #!/bin/bash\ \ QUALCODER_DIRECTORY="/home/aldats/Documents/qualcoder"\ \ source $QUALCODER_DIRECTORY/qualcoder/bin/activate\ $QUALCODER_DIRECTORY/qualcoder/bin/qualcoder &

  3. Replace the value for QUALCODER_DIRECTORY on line 3 with the full path to your QualCoder installation.

  4. Mark the file qualcoder as executable. This can be done with the command chmod +x qualcoder.
  5. Enter the command ./qualcoder. QualCoder should launch.

Moving the QualCoder Script to a PATH Directory

  1. In a terminal, enter the command echo $PATH. This prints the value of your PATH variable.
  2. Observe output similar to below. Paths are separated by a colon (:).\ /home/aldats/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin
  3. Pick one of the paths in your PATH output. I picked /home/aldats/.local/bin.
  4. Move your qualcoder script to the directory at the path you picked.
  5. Open a new terminal.
  6. In the new terminal, enter the command qualcoder. QualCoder should launch.

Second: Run QualCoder From a Launcher

On Linux, launchers generate a list of launchable programs by looking for special desktop files in directories like /usr/share/applications/ and ~/.local/share/applications/. If you make a desktop file for QualCoder in one of these directories, you can run QualCoder with a launcher.

  1. Create a file named qualcoder.desktop in your preferred text editor.
  2. Copy the below text and paste it into qualcoder.desktop.\ [Desktop Entry]\ Name=QualCoder\ Exec=qualcoder\ Type=Application\ StartupWMCClass=qualcoder
  3. Move your qualcoder.desktop file to a directory your launcher will find desktop files in, like /usr/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/.
  4. In your launcher, look up "QualCoder" and launch.