How to create the Minecraft launcher button?

I am trying to run a small minecraft server via Ubuntu desktop 12.04 for my kids. I got minecraft installed and running, but don't want to run via the Terminal all the time. I'm trying to pin a Minecraft button to the launcher and am running into trouble. Here's what I've tried:

1. Main Menu (alacarte?) but can't find the icon anywhere; can't drag it from the Main Menu list either.
2. When that didn't work, I tried creating minecraft.desktop & minecraft.sh files.
3. I was able to download and get a .png file on the launcher but it won't launch anything.

Here's a rundown of all the commands and scripting I've done:

1. Terminal Script that does work:

   sara@sara-Dimension-4300:~$ cd /home/sara/MCserver
   sara@sara-Dimension-4300:~/MCserver$ java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui

2. "Main Menu" command script:

   java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -Xincgc -jar /home/sara/MCserver/minecraft.jar

3. minecraft.sh script:

   #!/bin/bash
   cd $(home/MCserver "$0")
   java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame

4. minecraft.desktop script:

   [Desktop Entry]
   Name=MineCraft
   Comment=
   Exec=/home/sara/MCserver/minecraft.sh
   Icon=/usr/share/icons/Minecraft_Block.svg
   Terminal=false
   Type=Application
   StartupNotify=true

5. All files are stored in the MCserver folder. When I open the folder on Launcher, it starts at Home -- then MCserver is one of the folders within Home (I don't see "Sara" as a subdirectory of Home here -- sometimes I see it when accessing other files somewhere).

@edwin: here's the copy of la /home/sara

sara@sara-Dimension-4300:~/MCserver$ la /home/sara
.bash_history examples.desktop .ICEauthority .profile
.bash_logout .fontconfig .java Public
.bashrc .gconf .local .pulse
.cache .gnome2 MCserver .pulse-cookie
.config .goutputstream-KIZ8WW minecraft.desktop~ Templates
.dbus .goutputstream-QXYAXW minecraft.png .thumbnails
Desktop .goutputstream-UZYSWW .mission-control Videos
.dmrc .gstreamer-0.10 .mozilla .Xauthority
Documents .gtk-bookmarks Music .xsession-errors
Downloads .gvfs Pictures .xsession-errors.old

1 Answer

The script should read:

#!/bin/bash
cd $HOME/MCserver
java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -cp minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame

After writing it, you should make it executable, so open a terminal and if the script is in a file called minecraft.sh (check if the casing is right, upper and lower case matter!):

$ cd $HOME/MCserver
$ chmod +x minecraft.sh

Finally you must put minecraft.desktop in /usr/share/applications or in $HOME/.local/share/applications (not both, only one of the two):

• Do this if you want all users to have the Minecraft icon:

  $ sudo mv minecraft.desktop /usr/share/applications

• Or do this if you want only the current user to have the Minecraft icon:

  $ mv minecraft.desktop $HOME/.local/share/applications

The launcher should appear in the Unity Dash (so you can search for it typing "Minecraft"). Then you can just drag it to the panel.