I am running Zorin 18 Pro on a gaming desktop that I use for simulations. I am a physics student. I installed Maplesofts Maple Mathematics program. My desktop was all set up properly when I made some mistakes and had to restore it. My Maple icon was gone. I managed to get it in the taskbar, but a gear icon appears at the same time. If I right click on the gear icon there is no option to either pin or unpin it. The program works as it should. I would like to just get rid of the gear icon that appears with the opening of the program. If this is too complicated, I can just leave as is. Thank you to anyone who can offer some assistance.
Maybe this can help you:
Quick Fix 1: Unpin and Re-pin Correctly
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Right-click the gear icon → Select "Quit" or close Maple completely
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Right-click the Maple icon (the proper one) → "Unpin" to remove it from taskbar
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Open Maple from the applications menu (Zorin Start button)
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Right-click on the gear icon that appears when Maple launches → "Pin to Dash" (this pins the actual running process)
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If it shows the gear permanently after pinning, right-click it → "Edit" and manually select the Maple icon
Fix 2: Edit the Desktop Entry (Most Likely Solution)
The .desktop file likely has a mismatched StartupWMClass:
- Find Maple's desktop file:
bash
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find /usr/share/applications ~/.local/share/applications -name "*maple*" -o -name "*Maple*"
- Open it (replace path with what you found):
bash
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nano ~/.local/share/applications/maple.desktop
- Look for the line
StartupWMClass=. If it's missing or wrong, add/fix it:
ini
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StartupWMClass=maple
OR try:
ini
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StartupWMClass=com-maplesoft-maple-Maple
- Save (
Ctrl+X,Y,Enter) and restart GNOME Shell (Alt+F2,r)
Fix 3: Identify the Correct Window Class
If you're not sure what to put in StartupWMClass:
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Open Maple
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Open terminal and run:
bash
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xprop WM_CLASS
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Click on the Maple window (the gear icon window)
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It will output something like:
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "maple", "Maple" -
Use the second name (exactly as shown, case-sensitive) in the
StartupWMClass=line from Fix 2
Fix 4: Fix the Icon Path
If the gear appears because the icon file is missing:
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In the
.desktopfile, find the line:Icon= -
Change it to an absolute path or standard icon name:
ini
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Icon=/opt/maple2023/bin/Maple.ico
Or download a Maple PNG icon and point to it:
ini
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Icon=/home/YOURNAME/.local/share/icons/maple.png
Nuclear Option: Remove the Duplicate
If you just want the gear gone and don't care about the "proper" icon:
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Right-click the Maple icon (the one you added manually) → Unpin
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Keep the gear icon pinned (it's the actual working process)
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Right-click gear → Edit → give it a custom name "Maple" and select a nice icon
Most likely to work: Fix 2 or 3. Maple is notorious on Linux for having weird window class names that don't match its launcher.
Please mark any sections of your posts that were created by AI. Thanks!
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