Tor-Browser appears as Firefox in the Unity Launcher

Solution 1:

The issue is caused by the fact that Tor Browser and Firefox share a string in their WM_CLASSS property:

If you open a terminal, type

xprop WM_CLASS

and click on the window of Firefox, you will get:

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox"

...and with Tor Browser:

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Tor Browser"

As a result, the firefox.desktop file (and its icon in Unity/Dash) assumes the Tor Browser window is "his".

How to solve

• Run the command:

  cp '/usr/share/applications/torbrowser.desktop' ~/.local/share/applications && gedit ~/.local/share/applications/torbrowser.desktop
  

  This will copy the global torbrowser.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications, and subsequently open it with gedit.

• Now add to the very end of the file the line:

  StartupWMClass=Tor Browser
  

  Save and close the file. This way, the Tor Browser's .deskop file will recognize its own windows.

• Log out and back in, and it should be fixed.

  

Solution 2:

Before migrating to 16.04, I didn't have this problem in 15.10 in which I installed Tor-Browser from its website.

One thing to try would be to install Tor Browser from the version on their website: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en -- that might fix the issue for you.

If you'd like to get this issue fixed in the official Ubuntu package, I'd recommend filing an official Ubuntu bug against the torbrowser-launcher package.