Creating a Launch Shortcut for Anaconda on Ubuntu

January 16, 2021 Stardate: 74509.4 Tagged as: Ubuntu Anaconda

When you install Anaconda on Ubuntu, for some reason, it doesn’t create a launching shortcut. First, install per instructions: https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-install-anaconda-on-ubuntu-20-04/

Next, create a desktop file in your applications directory.

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/anaconda.desktop

Enter this data, it’s pretty straight forward.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Anaconda
Exec=/home/joe/anaconda3/bin/anaconda-navigator
Icon=/home/joe/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/anaconda_navigator/app/icons/Icon1024.png
Terminal=false

The two important items are Exec and Icon paths. Exec is where anaconda was installed. More than likely you will only need to replace “joe” with your userpath. I recommend verifying the Icons path, for example you may be more up to date and are using python3.8. In which case your path would be slightly different.

That’s it! Now you can press Windows Key and activate the Application Launcher and start typing anaconda. You should see your shortcut there.

Software Versions

This is an automated list of software versions used during the writing of this article.


    
        Software Version
        Ubuntu  20.04.01
         Anaconda  4.9.2
         Python  3.7