Hi

I'm running LM 17.2 from a live USB (with no persistence) and installed GUFW from the Software Manager. But although the Software Manager shows GUFW as installed, GUFW is not listed in the menu of All applications. The same thing happened after I installed another application, ie. this application was not listed in the Menu of All applications.

How can I get these installed applications to be listed in the menu?


Previously I used LM 17.1 on a different live USB without these problems.


Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

See your other post. Basically, a Live usb without persistence will not maintain any changes on reboot and that is by design. You need either persistence of a full install.

OK I understand what you say, and I should have explained that I installed GUFW from the Software Manager as soon as the live USB had booted. I've gone through this process previously many times when using LM 17.1 on a different live USB after booting the live USB, ie. installing GUFW and then going straight to the menu of all applications and clicking on the GUFW icon to run it. But when I went to the menu of all applications, the GUFW icon was not listed. And also after installing a different program, this program also was not listed on the menu of all applications.


How can I get these program icons to be listed in the menu?


Thanks.

create a desktop file for it shove it into /usr/share/applications that should be it.
example

OK thanks. But why is the GUFW menu icon not shown in the menu of applications after I booted the LM 17.2 live USB, and installed GUFW? It always used to be shown as soon as I'd installed GUFW. And why isn't the other program I installed shown in the menu of applications?

you're just looking for the icon for it? menus have their own way of finding icons, find you icon yourself and open the desktop file for it, then add try adding absolute path to your icon. why it stopped showing it sometimes it has to do the the theme you're using as well.

I have to ask: is there a reason behind booting from a live USB without persistence, then installing software, creating users, updating menus, etc. every single time? Why not just use persistence, do it once, and never have to do it again? Or install?

I'm not saying don't do that, just curious as to the reasoning.

It may just be that the system is set to show what's available on the live image rather than things you've only got in the memory. I can see the logic of that, and if you've installed a program just for one session, it can be presumed that you'll remember it's there! GUFW is, after all, something you'd only use once in the session and all you need is two commands in the terminal emulator:
sudo apt-get install gufw
sudo gufw

sorry my eyes skipped that very first part about you using a usb live non persistent. but if you where not then what i said would apply, try using FATDOG64 (64bit x86_x64, amd64) or puppy or other persistent USB's Linuxes as suggested/questioned?

it'd save a head ache

Re. urbanwks:
"I have to ask: is there a reason behind booting from a live USB without persistence, then installing software, creating users, updating menus, etc. every single time? Why not just use persistence, do it once, and never have to do it again? Or install?

I'm not saying don't do that, just curious as to the reasoning."


The reasoning is to reduce the possibility of malware installing itself which might happen if I have persistence on the live USB, or if I install LM on my hard drive. I'm not a security expert, but I read on a system-security-focused website blog (scneier.com, I don't have the exact web page) that if a live distro is used without persistence then it reduces the chances of getting a malware infection on the PC. I just use live LM 17.1 for internet browsing and the Office apps. And now as a restricted user - I realize the insecurity of using the administrator level login. I don't need to shutdown my laptop too often so booting is occasional.

The only software I install is GUFW (from the Software Manager), an updated Firefox, and a few Firefox add-ons. This is quite tedious and I'll install LM when it becomes too impractical.

I think it would be good if GUFW or a similar firewall was pre-installed in LM.

In LM 17.1 GUFW used to install itself and put its icon in the application menu. But my live LM 17.2 on a new USB doesn't do this, and when I boot it the Menu icon in the lower left corner of the Mint screen is also missing. As a semi-newbie I don't know all the other ways of getting to the screens beyond the startup screen. Any suggestions appreciated.

^ This + google 'freedesktop onlyshowin' and will tell you why it's not showing up in your DE (provided its a GUI application)

I don't know what Mint does when run from usb — stays on the usb probably — but Puppy copies itself into RAM and runs from the copy, so any malware winds up in RAM and dies when the computer is switched off.

Thanks very much for all the replies and I'll try Puppy soon.

Separate from the persistence issue, is the Trisquel OS designed any more securely generally than Puppy or Mint? I read that the Trisquel distro comprises only free software (binaries?) without any of the non-free programs that usually comprise other Ubuntu derivatives. And therefore all the Trisquel code can be checked and no parts of the programming are hidden.
Is there any security advantage for the average (non-expert) Linux user using Trisquel on a single laptop PC instead of Mint or Puppy?

I'd say no. Things like proprietary drivers for video or wifi are not going to contain spyware. If you just like the idea of a "pure" Linux, you could try it and see if it supports your hardware.

OK thanks for your suggestion, I'll give it a try.