Change the menu bar and main menu logos in ubuntu
UPDATE: I updated this post for gutsy. Thanks to gnuman for the information.
This would be useful for someone wanting to make their desktop look like OS X or something of that sort.
First make a .svg icon that you want to use. Name it start-here.svg. I have provided mine for you to download here. On the page that opens up, click “Free” at the bottom of the page, enter the code shown in the box, and then click download.
Now that you have your logo, put it into the /scalable/places folder inside your icon set’s directory. If you are using an icon set included with edgy, all the icon set directories are in /usr/share/icons/. Custom icon sets are located in ~/.icons/. If you don’t know which icon set you are using, you can check by going to System, Preferences, Theme, and then clicking the “Icons” tab.
These examples may help you locate the proper directory for your icon. If you are using the default (human) icon set that comes with gutsy, the directory where you would place start-here.svg is /usr/share/icons/Human/scalable/places/. One of my old custom icon sets is called “Glass Icons” so I went to my ~/.icons/ folder and found that my icons were stored in the folder ~/.icons/glass-icons. So my directory for start-here.svg is ~/.icons/glass-icons/scalable/places. I had to create the /places folder. Note that the folder name’s syntax is different from the icon set’s name. (Glass Icons vs. glass-icons)
Be aware that many custom themes also use the “GNOME” icon set by default.
Once you have placed distributor-logo.svg in the correct directory, run:
killall gnome-panel
You should now see your logo in your menu bar, like in this screenshot:

If you have any problems with this guide or can’t figure it out, feel free to ask me.
November 4, 2006 at 10:59 am
Hi!
I am using the edgy bult of ubuntu releases 26/10/06. Unfortunately i am not able to convert the image to *.svg format… can u pls upload the apple icon in svg format to rapidshare.com or any other upload serivce?
Thnx in adv.
Gaurav(gnarula @ ubuntuforums)
December 15, 2006 at 2:29 pm
This helped me out. I’m using the new Ubuntu Dapper though — not sure if that is the problem. anyway, I had to put the icon in /scalable/apps/
so apps instead of places
December 25, 2006 at 4:54 am
Thanks a lot dude… Helped me fine with my Ubuntu Edgy… Kudos to you..
January 7, 2007 at 7:40 am
Thanks for the tutorial…
It may help some ppl with Edgy to know that the default theme icon used by some of the other icon themes can also be “GNOME” instead of Tango
Vic.
July 11, 2007 at 2:22 pm
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July 11, 2007 at 2:34 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
July 19, 2007 at 1:42 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
July 19, 2007 at 2:58 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
July 19, 2007 at 11:07 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
July 20, 2007 at 9:36 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
July 28, 2007 at 5:08 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 4, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I dont have permission to change or add the .svg file that I want to use can you please help me.
August 8, 2007 at 12:54 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 11, 2007 at 6:40 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 12, 2007 at 7:30 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 16, 2007 at 8:04 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 21, 2007 at 4:50 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
August 31, 2007 at 11:46 am
Tnks!!! It work all great!!!
October 5, 2007 at 7:34 am
Great tutorial!
just one question, what is the difference between scalable and all the other dimensions like 8×8, 16×16, etc.?
October 5, 2007 at 9:28 am
Lian: I actually don’t know what the difference is between scalable and the dimensions. No clue.
October 10, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I’ve successfully replaced the distributor-logo.svg file in my icons folder (/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/places) and it is not replacing the icon on my panel. When I view the file from that folder, it opens the correct svg file. My /home/user/.icons is empty and I cannot locate another distributor-logo.svg file in the gnome icons folder. Any clues?
December 8, 2007 at 10:10 am
With GNOME 2.20.1 in Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), the file is start-here.svg.
December 25, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I do have the same problem as Puck. But I’ve been messing around too much with my desktop I guess.
on the fly. You can use inkscape (sudo apt-get install inkscape) to make those (if you have a lot of time).
lian: scalable means: It draws lines and circles (which form your picture) in any format (24×24,48×48,…
Other graphics (like the 24×24 png images which you can edit with gimp) are fixed pixels with colors.
December 31, 2007 at 12:18 am
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January 22, 2008 at 4:01 am
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
April 21, 2008 at 10:18 pm
[...] Change the menu bar and main menu logos in Ubuntu [...]
June 11, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Hi! I tried this in Hardy but it doesn’t change it at all. I use UbuntuStudio icon theme, converted the file with Inscape (plain svg). killall gnome-panel doesn’t help…