Setting the window icon using a system theme icon

Question

The system theme has a lot of icons, so instead of creating my own, I tried to use one of those (text-editor). It did not work, so I downloaded a sample 256*256 PNG file, put it in the same directory as the script, but that did not work either.

Below is the full code with 5 different ways of setting the icon I have tried (commented out except one). No matter which method I tried, the window always show the default yellow Wayland icon. How to set the icon?

import os

from PySide6.QtGui import QIcon, QPixmap
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QApplication


class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.setGeometry(0, 0, 800, 600)

        scriptDir = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
        full_icon_path = scriptDir + os.path.sep + 'sample.png'
        print(full_icon_path)
        # self.setWindowIcon(QIcon(full_icon_path))

        # self.setWindowIcon(QIcon('sample.png'))

        # self.setWindowIcon(QIcon.fromTheme('text-editor'))

        icon = QIcon()
        #icon.addPixmap(QPixmap("sample.png"), QIcon.Selected, QIcon.On)
        icon.addPixmap(QPixmap(full_icon_path), QIcon.Selected, QIcon.On)
        self.setWindowIcon(icon)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication([])
    window = MainWindow()
    window.show()
    app.exec()

Just downloaded a sample .png from the site you posted and your code, and it works as expected. Pyside6 6.6.1 + Essentials + Addons. — noEmbryo
– noEmbryo, Commented Apr 19, 2024 at 15:33
It's an issue with Wayland, and Qt can do absolutely nothing about it. See the out of scope QTBUG-101427 and gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols/-/issues/52. As far as I know, you can only use the .desktop entry to customize the application icon, but setWindowIcon() will never work until Wayland provides proper support for the protocol. — musicamante
– musicamante, Commented Apr 19, 2024 at 15:34
@musicamante Thanks. I will use the .desktop method instead. — Damn Vegetables
– Damn Vegetables, Commented Apr 19, 2024 at 16:40
@noEmbryo What OS (and if Linux, are you using Wayland or X11) did you run it under? — Damn Vegetables
– Damn Vegetables, Commented Apr 19, 2024 at 16:41

Damn Vegetables · Accepted Answer · 2024-04-19 18:00:17Z

I finally got it working. I could not find one article that explains everything; I tried pieces of information from here and there. So, I will write everything here so that future people could save time or maybe generative AI's would give correct working answer instead of nonsenses.

First, you need a ".desktop" file.

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
Exec=python your-start-up-script.py
Icon=love
Path=/the/directory/where/your/start/up/script/is/
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application

If you place it on the desktop (~/Desktop), the icon won't work. It must be in the desktop files directory, such as /home/user/.local/share/applications/.

Then, in the start-up script, after creating a QApplication instance, add this:

app.setDesktopFileName("the shortcut name without the extension")

For example, myapp.desktop and app.setDesktopFileName("myapp").

After changing the icon name in the .desktop file, if old icon is showing, you need to run update-desktop-database. System icon names can be found by running a icon listing app such as Icon Explorer on Plsma.

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