Add Google Chrome to Unity 2d Launcher

Ubuntu 11.04 is out soon (28th April, fact fans), so I thought I’d jump in and install the beta. Being a beta means there are some glitches, namely the inability to add some items to the launcher, in my case the problem app is the stable release of Google Chrome.

Normally, you can right click a running app and click ‘keep in launcher’, but for whatever reason the option isn’t there for Google Chrome stable release (it is there for Chromium, at least the dev release).

To get around this you will need to use gconf-editor –

    1. Alt+F2 and type in ‘gconf-editor’2.  Expand Desktop > Unity 2d > Launcher
    3. Right click Favorites and click Edit Key
    4. Add ‘google-chrome.desktop’ (without quotes)
    5. OK everything
    6. Relaunch the unity launcher – open a terminal and enter ‘killall unity-2d-launcher’ (without quotes)
– UPDATE –
Looks like this is only half a solution – you’ll end up with two Chrome icons when Chrome is running. Hot piss :-(
– UPDATE 2 –
This is resolved as of April 5th – apt-get upgrade

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