SUMMARY When adding a program to the desktop from the global menu the resulting desktop 'shortcut' is a symlink to the desktop file in /usr. A regular user cannot modify this file so any attempt to set -for example- arguments in the properties menu of the desktop item will result in a permission error. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Open global menu 2. Locate any application 3. Right-click application entry 4. Click 'Add to Desktop' 5. Right-click new desktop icon 6. Click 'Properties' 7. Click the 'Application' tab 8. Type some argument in the 'Arguments' box 9. Click 'Ok' OBSERVED RESULT Pop-up box with an error message stating insufficient write access to `/home/${USER}/Desktop/${application}.desktop` file. (which is actually a symlink). EXPECTED RESULT Successfully updating the application properties for _this_ user. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: 5.26.3 Arch Linux 64-bit as of 2022-11-17 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Proposed solutions: (A) Use an 'overlay' concept similar to how systemd solves this or (B) Copy-on-write: As soon as the file is modified create a local copy
I see the problem. The "Add to desktop" menu item creates a symlink to the original file, which typically lives in a system location. When you try to edit the properties of the desktop file in the dialog window, it attempt to write the changes to the original file and fails due to lack of permission. Probably in this case, when the user attempts to edit a desktop file that's a symlink to a system location, under the hood a copy should be created so that the user is editing something they have access to change.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 450727 ***