Xfce Forum

intracube

Member

Registered: 2011-08-05

Posts: 4

[Solved] Can't add system tray/notification area after upgrade

Hi,

After updating xfce, the system tray/notification area is no longer visible on the taskbar.

If I right click on the panel then Panel>Add New Items, I can see the 'Notification Area' as an add-on - but it's greyed out. Is there an additional package that needs to be installed to use it?

Some extra info; I'm using openSuSE 11.3 (with various updates applied). I was also thinking the problem could be caused by:
- old configuration files/settings (I might try clearing $HOME/.config/xfce4 as a last resort)
- incorrect/incompatible versions of xfce packages; some have version numbers starting with 4.6.* while others are 4.7.* or 4.8.*

libxfce4ui-4.7.1-3.1.x86_64
xfce4-panel-4.8.5-7.1.x86_64
libxfcegui4-4.6.3-3.1.x86_64
libxfce4panel-1_0-3-4.8.5-7.1.x86_64
xfce4-session-4.6.1-8.1.x86_64
- there may be no issue here, but I thought I'd mention it in case.

Does anyone have any ideas?

intracube

Member

Registered: 2011-08-05

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Can't add system tray/notification area after upgrade

D'oh!

I've just started a couple of KDE apps (KMail/Kwallet), and they *do* appear as icons in the system tray. If I now right click on the area around the icons, I can select properties and bring up the Notification Area settings window.

It's still greyed out on the 'Add New Items' window, which is a bit confusing - maybe it can only be added to the panel once.

I'm also using the xfce4-mixer to control the volume - what's the easiest way to add the volume control as an icon in the system tray? I did this a few months back, but have forgotten what to do. Would installing xfce4-panel-plugin-mixer add this functionality?

Last edited by intracube (2011-09-04 15:43:25)

angstrom

Member

Registered: 2011-08-13

Posts: 267

Re: [Solved] Can't add system tray/notification area after upgrade

Hi,

I have a bad experience with updating Xfce to 4.8 on OpenSuse 11.3. I think there is some missing dependency or inconsistency between the packages ...
My solution was to fall back to xfce 4.6. Couple of month later, I upgraded to Opensuse 11.4 which have xfce 4.8 on the stable repo. (well, I had to play with some "*-branding-Opensuse" packages to get my menu working ...)

Usually, when you try to add a plugin on the panel and it is greyed out, it means that the plugin was compiled for the old panel version.

Here is my packages on OpenSuse 11.4 :

$ rpm -qa | grep -i xfce | sort
gtk-xfce-engine-2.8.0-12.1.i586
libxfce4menu-0_1-0-4.6.2-8.1.i586
libxfce4panel-1_0-3-4.8.1-5.8.1.i586
libxfce4panel-1_0-3-debuginfo-4.8.5-62.8.i586
libxfce4ui-4.8.0-4.1.i586
libxfce4ui-branding-openSUSE-4.8.0-16.19.1.noarch
libxfce4util-4.8.1-7.1.i586
libxfce4util-devel-4.8.1-7.1.i586
libxfcegui4-4.8.0-6.9.1.i586
libxfcegui4-devel-4.8.0-6.9.1.i586
libxfcegui4-gladeui-4.8.0-6.9.1.i586
xfce4-appfinder-4.8.0-5.8.1.i586
xfce4-dev-tools-4.8.0-4.1.noarch
xfce4-icon-theme-4.4.3-13.16.1.noarch
xfce4-mixer-4.8.0-34.23.i586
xfce4-notifyd-0.2.2-33.6.i586
xfce4-notifyd-branding-openSUSE-4.8.0-63.13.noarch
xfce4-panel-4.8.1-5.8.1.i586
xfce4-panel-branding-openSUSE-4.8.0-16.19.1.noarch
xfce4-panel-devel-4.8.1-5.8.1.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-datetime-0.6.1-18.25.4.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-genmon-3.2-24.25.4.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-mailwatch-tmh-1.1.0-8.4.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-mixer-4.8.0-34.23.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-sensors-1.0.0-4.25.4.i586
xfce4-panel-plugin-timeout-1.0.0-4.25.4.i586
xfce4-power-manager-0.8.5-1.0.i586
xfce4-session-4.8.0-7.10.1.i586
xfce4-session-branding-openSUSE-4.8.0-16.19.1.noarch
xfce4-settings-4.8.1-3.6.1.i586
xfce4-settings-branding-openSUSE-4.8.0-63.13.noarch
xfce4-taskmanager-1.0.0-9.12.1.i586
xfce4-volumed-0.1.13-17.21.i586
xfce-utils-4.8.1-3.6.1.i586

Last edited by angstrom (2011-09-06 09:52:26)

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Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

intracube

Member

Registered: 2011-08-05

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Can't add system tray/notification area after upgrade

I have a bad experience with updating Xfce to 4.8 on OpenSuse 11.3. I think there is some missing dependency or inconsistency between the packages ...

I noticed a similar issue when installing xfce. It was possible to install a limited number of packages, and end up with a partially functioning desktop - for example, no icons on the desktop, no panel, etc.

IMO there should be a minimum group of packages flagged as dependent, that, when installed, would give a basic functioning desktop.

My solution was to fall back to xfce 4.6. Couple of month later, I upgraded to Opensuse 11.4 which have xfce 4.8 on the stable repo. (well, I had to play with some "*-branding-Opensuse" packages to get my menu working ...)

Thanks for the suggestion. As I've got xfce working mostly as I want, I think I'll avoid major changes to the packages

Usually, when you try to add a plugin on the panel and it is greyed out, it means that the plugin was compiled for the old panel version.

Although in my case the Notification Area on the panel is now visible, and contains icons for apps like KMail, KWallet, Skype, etc. Maybe to avoid confusion the panel's 'Add New Items' window could show which plugins are already enabled with a set of ticks next to each plugin, or even have '(enabled)' displayed in the list.

- If a plugin can only be added once, it wouldn't appear greyed out, but the 'Add' button would be disabled.
- If a plugin isn't installed, or is incompatible with the panel, it could be greyed out with '(not installed)' displayed next to the plugin name for clarity.

Just an idea, anyway.

Installing xfce-panel-plugin-mixer allowed me to add a volume control icon to the panel, although it can only be controlled with the mouse scroll wheel. For people without a scroll wheel (for example using a laptop) it'd be nice if it could be configured to pop up a single volume slider with a left mouse click instead of bringing up the main mixer window.

Anyway, it's all working OK now - thanks for the help.