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I'm busy trying to build a .deb package from the binaries of my application (non open source) and I'm having trouble getting the correct info to display in the Ubuntu Software Centre (when you click on the .deb file).

Please see screenshot below of control file and Software Centre View. It seems like the package name and the package description is swapped. I'm expecting the part in bold to read "attix5pro" and not "Cloud backup agent". Can someone show my my mistake or guide me?

Screenshot of control file and details in Ubuntu Software Centre

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2 Answers

It seems the Ubuntu Software Centre does different things for applications with desktop entries (menu item & icon) and those without.

So the behaviour you're seeing for your package is the intended default for packages that does not have desktop entries, taken from the control file: Title is the short description, subtitle is the package name.

For packages with a desktop entry it's taken from the .desktop file: Title is the "Name:" entry, and the subtitle is the "Comment:" entry.

compare vlc and vlc-nox for example.

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I suggest building the debs from a source package, that way you get to use all the Debian tooling to help you create sane packages. Trying to pack everything into a deb by hand is prone to errors.

A third option is to create a source package that takes your pre-build binaries, and just uses dh_install to copy them to the right place, during the build. That way, you get the benefit of the Debian build process, without having to figure out how to build your source from debian/rules.

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