Put the Ubuntu logo instead of the 9 squares on the "Show Applications" button

Ubuntu logo on the Show Applications button

There are Linux desktops, as well as Windows, where the start menu button shows the logo of the operating system. For example, Plasma shows the logos of KDE neon, Kubuntu or Manjaro, among others, but GNOME shows there 9 squares in what they call the "Show applications" access, also known as the app drawer. It is like this by default in GNOME, but you can change it and leave it something like what you see in the header screenshot, with the Ubuntu logo.

And whoever says "Ubuntu logo" also says "whatever I want". In Linux everything is like that, you just have to see the memes that are published on social networks where Windows or macOS come out crying because they can't do something and Linux can load the bootloader ("Go ahead"). Although sometimes it is not easy, we can change anything; you just have to know the way. And if you don't like how the « icon looksShow apps”, you can change it following these steps.

Ubuntu logo, or whatever you want, in the applications menu

  1. The first step is not necessary, but it is recommended. It happens to make a backup copy of the original file. Specifically and in Ubuntu, it is the view-app-grid-symbolic.svg who is in /usr/share/icons/Yaru/scalable/actions, and making a backup is as simple as creating a duplicate with a .bak extension:
cd /usr/share/icons/Yaru/scalable/actions/ && sudo cp view-app-grid-symbolic.svg view-app-grid-symbolic.svg.bak
  1. Next, if we didn't already have it, we have to get the icon that we want to use, and it has to be in SVG format, for example this.
  2. Now, with the following command (changing "/path/to/our/svg" with the path to our SVG file) we will copy that SVG and overwrite the original:
sudo cp /path/to/our/svg /usr/share/icons/Yaru/scalable/actions/view-app-grid-symbolic.svg
  1. Finally, we can press Alt+F2, type “r” (without the quotes) in the popup window, and press enter.

Alt+F2 and r to restart the shell

What a mess? I do not like it! And now what do I do?

Well, nothing, that's why backup copies are created. The original icon is still alive and well in the same folder and right next to the new one. We just have to restore it, overwriting the new one with the old icon.

Ubuntu Icons

In the terminal, the command would be the following:

cd /usr/share/icons/Yaru/scalable/actions/ && sudo cp view-app-grid-symbolic.svg.bak view-app-grid-symbolic.svg

If you prefer something else instead of the Ubuntu logo, you can. The question in the end is to have things as we like, and I like the operating system logo more and to the left, although this position is another story.


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