Changing the Ubuntu Start Menu Panel Icon

The following tutorial covers the process of changing or replacing the Gnome start menu panel icon with your own custom gnome panel icon. Enabling you to customize the look of your Ubuntu. The process was tested using Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon but should work with previous versions just as well.

Notes: We assume your using the default Human theme icon set and that your panel is 24 pixels. If your theme icon set is different and does not include a 22x22 directory, copy the 22x22 directory from the Human theme to your theme directory. I.E. usr/share/icons/youricontheme/22x22/ and replace Human in the instructions below with your theme directory name.

How to change the Ubuntu Start Menu Panel Icon:

    1. Create an 22x22 pixel icon and save it as start-here.webp
    2. Move the start-here.webp icon to:

/usr/share/icons/Human/22x22/places/

(replace the existing file when prompted)

    1. Delete icon-theme.cache from:

/usr/share/icons/Human/

  1. Open a terminal and type:
    sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/Human/
  2. Type the following to rebuild the screen panel icons
     killall gnome-panel

Enjoy your new custom Menu Panel Icon! ;)

*Ubuntu is a product of Canonical Ltd