How to add an appimage to the KDE Applications menu
Recently, I have switched from XFCE to KDE Plasma. For my needs, the Plasma desktop is perfect. Besides the usual apps which can be installed from the OpenSUSE repositories, I also use appimages.
Without further ado, here are the simple steps to add an appimage to the KDE menu:
- Open kmenuedit
- New Item
- Give (item) a name
- Command (select appimage folder)
- Save
If the above listed steps don’t work, then read on. For the rest of this blog post, I will describe how I have added VS Codium to the KDE Plasma Applications menu.
OpenSUSE KDE Plasma
First things first. I specialize on 3D modeling and rendering, web design, CAD and Python programming. To make my workflow as easy as possible, I have selected OpenSUSE as my main Linux distribution. The OpenSUSE developers have done an amazing job integrating the K Desktop which comes with many useful software titles. But not everything that I want to use is available via the OpenSUSE repositories.
Appimages
These days, we have a lot of choices when it comes to adding software. As you know, there is the snap and flatpak option of which I use the later one for installing Blender. For Python programming, I use Codium which is an opensource implementation of Visual Studio Code by Microsoft.
VS Codium is not in the OpenSUSE repositories and since I don’t want to install it as a snap package, I have picked the appimage option.
After downloading the VS Codium appimage, I move it from the Download directory to the Apps directory which I have created in my home folder. All appimages get saved into the Apps directory. Doing so helps with keeping everything organized.
Now that the VS Codium code editor is in the specified directory, I return once more to the KDE Menu Editor. After I pick the name “VS Codium”, I proceed to the “Command” option and click the folder icon. Then I select the Apps directory in my home folder and select the VSCodium-1.55.2-1618361301.glibc2.16-x86_64 appimage.
Please note that the version numbers will change because the developers improve and update the software on a regular basis. Once the command field has been populated with the VS Codium appimage name, it’s time to save. The save button is located in the top left menu and before you close the KDE Menu Editor, it is a good idea to drag the newly created software entry into the Development category.
Once the menu look right and everything is in place, I save everything one more time and close the KDE Menu Editor. Now it’s time to do a quick test. From the menu, select Development > VS Codium which should open shortly after clicking on the name.
Add an Appimage icon
To make the menu look consistent, it’s a good idea to add an icon to the menu entry. This too can be done via the KDE Menu Editor. Right next to the name field is an empty square which when clicked on, opens a new window with available icons. There are plenty to pick from but searching for vs code will quickly display the familiar ones.
Once again, the edit has to be saved before closing the KDE Menu Editor. Now you can test everything by rebooting or logging out. I have already tested everything and as expected, VS Codium can be selected from within the Development sub-menu category.
I don’t install any more software than I absolutely need but the above method will let my add as many appimages to the menu as I need. I hope that this article will help clear up the confusion about adding appimages to the KDE menu. Strangely, google shows hardly any useful information about this topic.