Compose Multiplatform is a fantastic framework for building desktop applications, but its default Linux packaging capabilities, which rely on jpackage, have some known limitations. A common pain point for developers is the lack of fine-grained control over the generated .deb package, especially concerning the .desktop entry file.
This often leads to issues like:
- The application icon showing correctly in the app menu, but displaying as a generic icon in the dock or taskbar when running.
- The inability to place icons and other resources in standard system-wide directories like
/usr/share/icons.
This tutorial provides a robust, script-based solution to overcome these limitations. We will create a "post-processing" script that takes the basic .deb package generated by Gradle and enhances it into a professional, standards-compliant package. This solution was perfected during an intensive, all-night debugging session, and it's b