Confusing task manager icons

[fbertoldi]

Today I noticed that it is no more possible to have two different task manager icons for two different Firefox sessions (opened with two different profiles). I have just one task manager icon.
And this is very confusing. Because I choose a different icon for the second profile (called as different app in menu) exactly to know which Firefox profile I have opened.

My system:

Operating System: KDE neon 6.0
KDE Plasma Version: 6.1.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.4.0
Qt Version: 6.7.2
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-40-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 16 × AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 13,5 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics

[skyfishgoo]

sounds like what you want to do is create a separate application in the applications menu by right clicking and choosing Edit Applications…New Item

there you can launch a separate instance of FF using a different profile with a different name and icon and it will act as a separate app in the task manager (you can even pin it).

[fbertoldi]

Thank you!
But this is what I had already done! And until today it worked.
Now, no more

[fbertoldi]

I have still that problem ( two different profiles have the same task manager icon). Not a big one, but I wonder if I could solve it…

[ngraham]

You can get what you want in either of the following two ways:

1. Right-click on empty part of the panel > Alternatives > Icons-and-text Task Manager
2. Right-click on empty part of the panel > Configure Icons-Only Task Manager > Behavior page > Group > Do not group

[dzon]

Nah. Won’t work. If he claims that he created an app with a different icon, it shouldn’t be grouped. I’m guessing it’s either, yet again, some FF weirdness or the app isn’t created properly and just uses firefox as default. Then again, if he says it used to work… I can’t reproduce it. Not as ssb that is. Would be helpfull to know what changed to make the function to stop.

[fbertoldi]

I don’t know…
I can add that the problem is not only when I have opened both the FF profiles, but even with a single profile: the icon is always the same, regardless the profile chosen (the correct one when I open the profile A, but the wrong one, when I open the profile B).

[dzon]

I know this is very annoying thing. I don’t have the prob because I run stuff as ssb and that kinda forces the icon. I think that a solution, unless there’s a way better solution of course, is to run one of the profiles as a webapp.
Here’s an example with Floorp ( pretty much FF).

That uses the following as exec in the desktop app:

floorp --class Webapp https://www.whatever/ floorp --profile whatever --no-remote

Again, right now it’s the only thing I’ve got.

[fbertoldi]

But I want to keep FF, not Floorp…
It would be possible?
If so, how?
I have tried replacing Floorp with FF, but unsuccessfully, so far.

[dzon]

??? Like I said, Floorp is basically FF.
I changed the app to use FF. No problem. Works.

[fbertoldi]

I see. But I had a bad experience with FF-like browsers …
Anyway, thank you!

[dzon]

Did you actually read what I posted? The previous screenshot IS firefox.

[fbertoldi]

Sorry, thank you. I will try.

[fbertoldi]

Uhm, I tried this code:

firefox --class Webapp https://start.me/ firefox -P default-release --no-remote

but unsuccessfully (wrong icon)

[dzon]

You do know you’ll have to make a desktop app right? That one has to be placed in ~/.local/share/applications.
Here, use/try this and change path to profile and icon accordingly. Give it some name. Make the .desktop file executable.

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[nl_BE]=
Comment=
Exec= firefox --class Webapp https://some adress --profile /path/to/profile
GenericName[nl_BE]=
GenericName=
Icon=/some/icon
MimeType=
Name[nl_BE]=Some name
Name=Some name
NoDisplay=false
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

[Fred]

Unless I’m missing something, what you are suggesting does not work.

I created an executable test.desktop with the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_CA]=
Comment=
Comment[nl_BE]=
Exec=firefox --class Webapp https://www.youtube.com --profile /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/54ailooq.Test/
GenericName[en_CA]=
GenericName=
GenericName[nl_BE]=
Icon=face-smile
MimeType=
Name[en_CA]=Some name
Name=Some name
Name[nl_BE]=Some name
NoDisplay=false
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

The .desktop file works in that it opens Firefox with the other profile, and then loads the YouTube page, but while Dolphin shows the icon that is specified in the .desktop file, the task manager will still display the same default Firefox icon for the two Firefox instances that are running different profiles, so there is no way to differentiate which is which on the task manager.

[johnandmegh]

I hate to add another thing into the mix, potentially, but I’ve used KWin Window Rules to accomplish what I think is the basic idea here. For example, I have a Todoist “app” that is just a shortcut to Firefox, but I have this file saved as ~/.local/share/applications/todoist.desktop:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Name=Todoist
GenericName=To-Do List Manager
Exec=firefox --new-window "https://app.todoist.com"
Icon=todoist
Categories=Office;

And then the following Window Rule set:

Just wanted to throw it out there in case a setup like that would fit what you’re trying to do.

[dzon]

Well, what can I say. Have another look at your desktop file ( especially the profile and path/to/icon stuff). I quickly made one for this exact same page and…

…no prob

[jamesfrederik]

This is what happens on my system, two desktop entries which point to different profiles using the “webapp” mode as shown earlier in this thread by dzon.

https://imgur.com/a/cRGyLor

the second profile taskbar icon is bit hard to see.

• launches with correct profile and icon, but creates two entries in task manager
• the taskbar entry with the profile name in it is then removed and the icon changes to the default

Very odd.

This is on latest Fedora 41 Workstation.

I did start using different forks like floorp and zen to seperate “profiles”, then switched to seperate machines when I got Deskflow working with KDE to do keyboard + mouse + clipboard.

Also, I havn’t tried but I’d think installing distrobox with it’s own /home and running an instance of FF out of there would be easier than farting about with profiles or activities.

I did try using

X-KDE-SubstituteUID=true
X-KDE-Username=foo

with a custom icon and that worked well and kept the correct icon. But then I couldn’t save to the user account I was logged into, so limited use. Could that be worked around? I don’t know.

[dzon]

Dunno what to say. Can’t reproduce any of those probs. Doesn’t matter what I do in the given desktop file, the task icon remains the same for any desktop app. I can get groceries, boot it up and all’s well. No issues. FF, Floorp, WillyWonka…doesn’t matter, works.