I was recently asked “where’s solitaire”? Since they were using KDE Neon, I skimmed to Ubuntu LTS apps. There’s the aisleriot solitaire that uses Gtk, but there’s also KPatience (kpat) in the KDE Apps. After installing, I noticed it only created 1 launcher called KPatience, which isn’t friendly to a branch new linux user. So I made a few .desktop launchers for the 3 more popular games: Solitaire (aka Klondike), Spider Solitaire, and FreeCell.

The icons are from various Android games found by googling solitaire icon type:png image search.

KPatience

First install the app with:

sudo apt install kpat

Solitaire

Save the following image as ~/.local/share/icons/solitaire.png

And create the launcher at ~/.local/share/applications/solitaire.destkop

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Solitaire
GenericName=Solitaire Card Game
Comment=Solitaire Card Game
Icon=solitaire
Type=Application
Exec=kpat --gametype=klondike
Categories=Qt;KDE;Game;CardGame;
X-DBUS-ServiceName=org.kde.kpat
X-DBUS-StartupType=Multi
X-DocPath=kpat/index.html

Spider Solitaire

Save the following image as ~/.local/share/icons/spidersolitaire.png

And create the launcher at ~/.local/share/applications/spidersolitaire.destkop

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Spider Solitaire
GenericName=Spider Solitaire Card Game
Comment=Spider Solitaire Card Game
Icon=spidersolitaire
Type=Application
Exec=kpat --gametype=spider
Categories=Qt;KDE;Game;CardGame;
X-DBUS-ServiceName=org.kde.kpat
X-DBUS-StartupType=Multi
X-DocPath=kpat/index.html

FreeCell

Save the following image as ~/.local/share/icons/freecell.png

And create the launcher at ~/.local/share/applications/freecell.destkop

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Name=FreeCell
GenericName=FreeCell Card Game
Comment=FreeCell Card Game
Icon=freecell
Type=Application
Exec=kpat --gametype=freecell
Categories=Qt;KDE;Game;CardGame;
X-DBUS-ServiceName=org.kde.kpat
X-DBUS-StartupType=Multi
X-DocPath=kpat/index.html

Apply Changes

Finally, we need to run kbuildsycoca5 to update the list of apps in the panel launcher and KRunner.

Settings

Next I changed a few default settings. I turned on sound effects, changed the theme, and made the “new game” buttons less confusing.

  • Settings > Check: Play Sounds
  • Settings > Check: Remember State On Exit
  • Settings > Change Appearance > Card Deck: Jolly Royal
  • Settings > Change Appearance > Game Theme: Green Blaze
  • Settings > Configure Toolbars >
    • New Game
      • Icon: “arrow-left”
      • Text: “Switch Game”
    • New Deal
      • Icon: “tab-new”
      • Text: “New Game”