Tray icon absent in Natty (11.04).

Asked by Asdayasman13

In Ubuntu 11.04, with Unity, apparently the system tray doesn't exist anymore, so upon launching desktopnova-tray, nothing happens.

Same results after

    sudo gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['JavaEmbeddedFrame', 'Mumble', 'Wine', 'Skype', 'hp-systray', 'desktopnova-tray']"

Is there any way around this? I'd love to have the functionality the tray icon claims to have.

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R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar
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R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra) said :
#1

Please see:

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/natty/man1/desktopnova-tray.1.html

You might also wish to try:

sudo gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

which is what I have.

Kindly also check that

System Settings -> [Personal] Startup Applications

shows desktopnoca-tray as checked.

Reboot.

It should show up. At least it does on mine.

HTH.

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Asdayasman13 (sara-and-zuka) said :
#2

Unfortunately that changed nothing for me. I can't seem to change the whitelist any more, and "'desktopnova-tray'" is no longer there. Could something be resetting that, upon logout?

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R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra) said :
#3

Have you tried accessing the settings via the GUI by invoking

Alt-F2 and typing dconf-editor

and navigating:

desktop -> unity -> panel

and editing the systray-whitelist from there and saving it?

You can then open up the panel again to confirm that your changes are indeed permanent rather than transient. Then try rebooting to see if that works.

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R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra) said :
#4

If the above does not work, perhaps you might like to try the indicator-desktopnova applet using the steps described here for 10.10 (but I think it is valid for 11.04) as well:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/12/indicator-wallpaper-changer-anyone/

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Asdayasman13 (sara-and-zuka) said :
#5

I have no "dconf-editor" so I tried "gconf-editor", which didn't have a desktop/unity. The only keys/values I could find containing "systray" were /desktop/ibus/panel/show_icon_on_systray and /schemas/desktop/ibus/panel/show_icon_on_systray.

I'm not quite sure I'm looking at the right thing.

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Best R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra) said :
#6

Sorry I was not clearer previously.

Please follow these steps and see if it works:

1. sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

2. This will give you an executable called dconf-editor that may be invoked on the command line within a terminal or using Alt F2 and typing dconf-editor. You will then see a GUI.

3. Navigate to

desktop -> unity -> panel

and amend the key systray-whitelist accordingly. You might want to type ['all'] as the value.

4. I would also strongly recommend removing desktopnova-tray and replacing it with indicator-desktopnova using these steps:

(a) sudo apt-get remove desktopnova-tray

(b) sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michael-astrapi/ppa

(c) sudo apt-get update

(d) sudo apt-get install desktopnova indicator-desktopnova

Note that this ppa is not officially supported but I have found it to work and give me good mileage.

5. Click on the rightmost top (on/off) Panel button and navigate so:

System Settings -> [Personal] Startup Applications -> Add

and fill in these fields:

Name: Desktopnova Indicator
Commmand: /usr/bin/indicator-desktopnova
Comment: Wallpaper changer

 and Save.

6. Restart the system and see if the Desktopnova icon appears: it looks like a rectangle with two anti-clockwise head-to-tail arrows.

If you still find that you cannot get the indicator icon, please state your specific problem and I will try my best to help.

HTH.

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Asdayasman13 (sara-and-zuka) said :
#7

Just editing it through dconf worked perfectly. Sorry I didn't understand before; I was recommended by BaSH to try gconf-editor, so I assumed a typo.

Thank you for your help and patience.

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Asdayasman13 (sara-and-zuka) said :
#8

Thanks R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar, that solved my question.

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Jan K. DeWitt (mulceber) said :
#9

Hi I used these instructions (specifically the ones in reply #6) for Natty and it worked perfect. Trouble is, now I'm on Oneiric, and can't figure out how to do step 3 ("desktop -> unity -> panel and amend the key systray-whitelist accordingly. You might want to type ['all'] as the value."). Can you provide some updated instructions for the latest version of Ubuntu?

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R (Chandra) Chandrasekhar (chandra) said :
#10

I am sorry, Jan K. DeWitt (mulceber) that I am not able to assist.

I have moved back to Kubuntu for Oneiric/11.10 and do not have an Ubuntu system on which to test out possible solutions

Have you tried askubuntu?

http://askubuntu.com/

They have a Stack Exchange format and are very helpful.