Hi, I'm experimenting with moving to GNOME 3 from Unity but there is a particular behaviour I'm having trouble replicating and although it's a small thing, I don't think I can live without it.
My workflow generally results in me having many (15+) rxvt-unicode terminal windows each connected to different remote hosts, and a couple of browser windows. On Unity I provide myself with easy access to the different urxvt launchers by making each one a different .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/ For example, ~/.local/share/applications/remotehost-foo.desktop: [Desktop Entry] Comment=Terminal on foo Terminal=false Name=foo Exec=urxvt -T foo -e autossh -M 0 foo.example.com Type=Application Icon=utilities-terminal StartupNotify=true StartupWMClass=RemoteHosts I can launch this by hitting the super key and starting to type "foo". This application will appear in the dash as I type. If I launch it again, or launch a different one, they will appear grouped together under a single terminal icon on the launcher bar. I would be able to select between them by right clicking on the single terminal icon on the launcher bar. I tried to set up the same thing on GNOME 3. It almost works. Hitting super and starting to type indeed finds the applications, but each one shows as its own icon on the dash while running. If I carry on this way then my dash will be full of terminal icons that are difficult to select between. I tried changing StartupWMClass to "urxvt". That does not allow me to launch multiple applications; the search finds the application, but selecting it just brings the existing window to focus without launching a new one. I found one workaround, which was to make a single .desktop file that has many alternate actions. Like this: [Desktop Entry] Comment=Terminals Terminal=false Name=urxvt Exec=urxvt -T localhost Type=Application Icon=utilities-terminal StartupNotify=true Actions=foo;bar; [Desktop Action foo] name=foo Comment=Terminal on foo Exec=urxvt -T foo -e autossh -M 0 foo.example.com [Desktop Action bar] name=bar Comment=Terminal on bar Exec=urxvt -T bar -e autossh -M 0 bar.example.com Basically one alternate action for each host I often connect to. I would then launch them by hitting super, beginning to type urxvt, right clicking on the icon that appears and selecting the correct action. Multiple windows now do group under urxvt on the dash. Downsides: - Can't search for the application by its host name - Have to select correct host from a huge list of actions Those are pretty big downsides for that workaround. I am aware that I could change my workflow. I could use one terminal with screen or tmux or similar to have a different window on each host. I know I could use terminator to have multiple terminal windows inside one window. Or I could use a tabbed terminal emulator like gnome-terminal. The thing is, I really like urxvt! And I really like having one urxvt window for each host, using screen to have multiple sessions within each one. So, does anyone know how to make GNOME 3's dash group multiple windows under the one icon? Perhaps this is not the best forum for asking GNOME 3 questions. I had a search around and couldn't find any official GNOME support channels though. If there's a better place please do let me know. Cheers, Andy