Hello everyone , I just finished an app that I've been developing for some time now , and I have a very specific problem , that I couldn't solve via googling . I made a launcher for my app , but Unity doesn't handle the app as expected . If I open one instance the app doesn't associate with its icon in the sidebar , and I if I click the icon again I don't focus the application , but get a new instance (whilst the first is still alive , but has no way to get focus except when I move all other windows out of the way) . Is it something allegro related (as in has anyone else experienced the problem) or is it more likely that I haven't made the launcher right ?

The app is in cpp , standard allegro5 stuff . I call the compiled binary with a .desktop launcher (that I added in the panel) which is as follows :

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Bulfleet
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Icon=/home/xxxx/bulfleet/bf.jpg
Exec=/home/xxxx/C++/Bulfleetmm/bin/Dev/Bulfleetmm
Categories=Application;Games;

When I start the app it has its own separate icon (well , with no icon) captioned "Untitled window" that can focus it's related instance . Are there any parameters of the display that I might have omitted to cause this behaviour (I didn't set a title , which I'll do to see if it causes the problem) .

Thank you for the extensive reply , I gave all the resources a look , and I tried a few more things but not much luck . When I hover the icon in the launcher (of a launched instance of my app - that no icon, no title thing that focuses the window correctly) - I get an "Untitled window" caption , even though the window has a title now (and it gets displayed correctly on the window itself) . So there is some gap in the communication between unity and allegro (I assume that some passing of arguments doesn't happen correctly ) . Do you know what arguments the passed between the window manager and the program to correctly associate everything ? (I'll continue reading myself ,and again thank you for all the help , I'm just throwing the question out there , since that's the page I'm on now) .

While what I said before is generally correct and is so for older Unity versions, some things may have improved since the last time I gave up on Unity. That said, I think there may be a bug you found and it may be in both. Here's why: Non-Allegro5 programs (single icon) or allegro5 programs started through terminal (terminal gets a `?` icon and the allegro program gets the icon correctly) seems to appropriately associate the icon assuming they are configured in the script correctly. The presence of a .desktop icon parameter in the script should override that of the binary, especially if no proper icon is found. This may need to filed as such the Unity tracker - but check with the other allegro-ites as they know much more about this than I. The same problem occurs with EX_ICON packaged with Allegro5 itself, so A5 might have issues too as Thomas Fjellstrom suggested. I am not sure how to make the .desktop change the working directory so relative references ("./data/image.png" for example) will work.

First, just make sure you script is correct by ensure your permissions are correct and that the image is not referenced as an absolute location. ./my_image.jpg Will NOT work. So make sure you spell the image and location correctly.

Note this is only the freedesktop.org standard specification loading script, and that the icon is not pulled in this case from the program. In allegro5 I think you can use void al_set_display_icon(ALLEGRO_DISPLAY *display, ALLEGRO_BITMAP *icon) but I can't make it work even using the example program for it ex_icon.c.

I have installed a clean Ubuntu 12.04lts with Unity, and used the following script:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=MidnightCommanderIZ
Terminal=true
Comment=This might be my tooltip~!
TryExec=mc
Exec=mc
Icon=/home/-------------/Desktop/TestFile/Alex.jpg
MimeType=image/x-foo;
Categories=Games;Application

Note I have mc installed and the PATH is configured (I can type "mc" to run the program from terminal no matter the directory I am in.).
I named "mysupamcscript.desktop" and set as executable. This can be done from GUI, by right clicking -> "Properties" -> goto tab "Permissions"-> Check "Allow executing file as a program".

This runs, loads the jpg icon I made by saving the Alex.gif as a single frame using gimp, and will only load one instance. Since the script is not really 'installed' (you can learn how in one of the links from earlier), right click it and click "lock to Launcher". It should say and work now, even after the program has terminated. Please note that This is specific to Unity.

To make a universal method of ensuring single instance, you will want to check using your own code.

I didn't follow the thread, but you set the icon of the Allegro window with al_set_display_icon - most likely that same icon is also used by the task manager.

Petko D, keep us informed of new developments.

mc is a terminal program, but I suspect the terminal only icon thing is allegros inability to overcome Unity's errors. I tired the .Desktop with Jamestown, the commercial indie videogame, and ended up with the same problem. Jamestown was written with SDL and not allegro, and this version was bought through humblebundle - if that makes any difference. The fact that SDL and allegro5 share this same error under unity points to unity being the common denominator.

Edit!: Another interesting point is that Unity will call programs "Untitled window" often, even if the window has a title right on the window's titlebar.