"Launch" Button For Some Applications Doesn't Work

[shmabler]

Action: Install "Extreme Tux Racer" from mintinstall (Software Manager)
Expected Behaviour: Buttons appear "Launch" and "Remove"
Result: PASS

Action: Click "Launch" for Extreme Tux Racer in mintinstall (Software Manager).
Expected Behaviour: Extreme Tux Racer launches
Result: FAIL
Actual Behaviour: Nothing happens

Additional testing information: Extreme Tux Racer successfully launches from Menu -> Games -> Extreme Tux Racer. Additionally, other applications launch successfully from mintinstall (Software Manager) such as Chromium and Firefox which I also tested.

Suggested Remedy: Perhaps remove "launch" buttons from mintinstall (Software Manager) so applications are launched from Menu to give a consistent user experience. mintinstall (Software Manager) can be dedicated to install/remove and menu for launching. Alternatively figure out how to make all launch buttons work consistently in mintinstall (Software Manager). Having "Launch" buttons which work for some applications and not for others is a jarring experience.

[xenopeek]

This is caused by a mismatch between the package extremetuxracer and the package app-install-data, both from the Ubuntu Bionic repository.

mintinstall.py tries to find which file to launch in several ways:

        if self.installer.pkginfo_is_installed(pkginfo):
            if pkginfo.pkg_hash.startswith("a"):
                for desktop_file in ["/usr/share/applications/%s.desktop" % bin_name, "/usr/share/app-install/desktop/%s:%s.desktop" % (bin_name, bin_name)]:
                    if os.path.exists(desktop_file):
                        config = configobj.ConfigObj(desktop_file)
                        try:
                            exec_string = config['Desktop Entry']['Exec']
                            break
                        except:
                            pass
                if exec_string is None and os.path.exists("/usr/bin/%s" % bin_name):
                    exec_string = "/usr/bin/%s" % bin_name
            else:
                exec_string = "flatpak run %s" % pkginfo.name

For the example of extremetuxracer:

1. The package extremetuxracer installs a .desktop file called etr.desktop, not extremetuxracer.desktop, hence it's not found by mintinstall;
2. The package app-install-data installed the file /usr/share/app-install/desktop/extremetuxracer:extremetuxracer.desktop, which is found by mintinstall, but in that file it says the file to launch is etracer;
3. The package extremetuxracer's file to launch however is etr.

The mismatch between the Exec field in the extremetuxracer package and the app-install-data package is what causes the launch button not to work in mintinstall. This mismatch also exists in the upcoming Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

I don't have a remedy at the moment.