unity shell is crashing for apps without icon

Seems to be a decision by ubuntu-app-launch

The constructor of Desktop throws an exception if no "Icon" entry is found in the desktop file (application-info-desktop.cpp line 230)

I agree it seems too much of an aggressive stance to bring the shell down for a missing Icon in a desktop file.

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-app-launch - 0.9+16.10.20161003.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
ubuntu-app-launch (0.9+16.10.20161003.1-0ubuntu1) yakkety; urgency=medium

  * Set a base directory for icons that have a full path specified in
    their desktop file (LP: #1623636)
  * Don't throw an exception when a Desktop file fails to include an
    Icon key (LP: #1617348)
  * Switch from g_atexit to std::atexit to avoid deprecation warnings
  * Use the --id field for launching with libertine-launch and use it
    for setting up other X11 environments
  * Ensure we don't check the length of a nullptr array
  * Make sure we don't check snapd if we know it won't return useful
    results
  * Make use of the instance parameter consistent through all the
    backends (LP: #1626028)

 -- Ted Gould <email address hidden> Mon, 03 Oct 2016 23:55:25 +0000