How to change the “Show apps” menu button in Ubuntu/Gnome Shell

Linux-based operating systems are very easy to customize. The look and feel is no exception, for example you can change the application menu icon in Ubuntu to whatever you like.

By default, I don’t really like Ubuntu default menu icon, to be honest I don’t really like the look of this operating system. But with some manipulation, you can easily customize the appearance of the Gnome desktop.

For example, with the best extensions for gnome, you can monitor the temperature as well as the CPU load on the top Ubuntu panel. You can also move the panel down, and much more.

The standard application menu icon looks horrible at all, and ugly, admire the

And as they say, “It was an evening, there was nothing to do”, I decided to change the situation in my direction.

Here’s what I got

Already better, isn’t it? ?

Let’s get started.

To change themes in Ubuntu, you need to install the gnome-tweaks application, to do this open a terminal, and type the following command

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Also, you will need the “User Themes” extension, and of course the icon (I got it from here)

Create a hidden folder “.themes” in your home directory, in which you will create some more folders.

When you create this folder, you will not see it (well, that’s understandable, because it is hidden ? ). To see hidden folders, you can press the key combination “Ctrl+H”, or go into Nautilus, and turn on the display of hidden folders.

Next, go to your .themes folder, and create your own theme folder, such as “MyThemes”

Inside this folder, you need to create another folder “gnome-shell“, and in it the file “gnome-shell.css”

Open a terminal in “MyThemes”, and type the commands

mkdir gnome-shell

touch gnome-shell/gnome-shell.css

Open the “gnome-shell.css” file you just created, and add the following content

/*@import url("/usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/Yaru/gnome-shell.css");*/
@import url("/home/linuxcool/.themes/Nordic-darker-v40/gnome-shell/gnome-shell.css");



.show-apps .show-apps-icon {
border: none;
background-image: url("file:///home/linuxcool/2.png");
background-size: contain;
color: transparent; }

.show-apps:hover .show-apps-icon, .show-apps:active .show-apps-icon, .show-apps:checked .show-apps-icon, .show-apps:focus .show-apps-icon {
color: transparent; 
background-image: url("file:///home/linuxcool/2.png");
background-size: contain; }

Where the first line is the standard Ubuntu theme, i.e. Yaru, and if you use it, just uncomment it (remove /* at the beginning, and */ at the end of the line), or the second line is the theme you replaced (for me it is Nordic-darker)

And the line “file:///home/linuxcool/2.png”, is the path to your icon.

Save your changes, and for your icon to apply, open Gnome Tweaks, go to the tab “Appearance -> Shell Theme”, where you select the theme “MyThemes

You will immediately notice that the standard application menu icon has changed to a custom icon.

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