Mint 11 RC Katya and Skype : tray icon missing

[ambrosa]

I'm an Ubuntu user since many years but now with 11.04 release and its terrific Unity, I wish to test another distro. My choise is obviously Mint 11 RC.

I've installed 11 RC amd64 as second Linux OS in my system and I'm starting to play with Mint. Till now I'm happy Nice !

I've installed Skype with Synaptics but there is a problem. The same problem is in Ubuntu 11.04
No tray icon....
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/764828

Only Skype "static" version works (ugly but it works ....)

I hope this bug will be fixed.

[HTD]

I think static Skype doesn't fix this. You can think something else fixed it, but sometimes it just works OK. The problem is not limited to Skype, KeePassX displays exactly the same behavior. One pixel tray icon most of the time. In my case, installing and running Unity helped for a moment, but it was not it. It seems like a bug, but not in Skype or KeePassX - the same bug in both of them? Something else is wrong, but since we don't know what is it exactly - we can't even report this bug.

For me (and most of Skype and KeePassX users) it's a major blocker for Mint 11. There's no hope Ubuntu 11 users will help us with this one - because they use Unity where tray icons are good. I've tried Unity with my Mint 11 and it works better than Ubuntu 11 version But it's not a solution. Mint 11 should work with Gnome 2.

[xfirebg]

The problem is Compiz.
When I start the program in Metacity, icon appears.

[mintuser]

But why did it work in LM 10 then? It also uses Compiz by default.

[tpapastylianou]

Confirming bug.
Just mentioning, Unity doesn't 'fix' this either, I've had the same problem with unity (i.e. skype icon not appearing in the unity panel), even though it was meant to be explicitly allowed in dconf-editor.
Also, I agree this looks like a compiz issue; toying around with compiz and anything that makes it re-render causes the skype icon to reappear (as well as a few other hidden icons ... in my case the ibus language selector, which isn't even in the notification tray, it's in the indicator applet!)
I've tried 'indirect rendering' and that made it show up. No idea what that does though. :p

[la_monda]

followed that guide worked for me:

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/how-to-d ... 86-in.html

[mintuser]

Is there already a bug report on this issue?

[mintuser]

Bump. This bug is pretty annoying.

[komposter]

Removed compiz, that gave me back the tray icon.
I dont need compiz anyway, the computer is faster without

[Garvan]

While trying to find a solution for my disappearing Skype Icon, I selected "Notifications Daemon Fix" in the Compiz Settings Manager, and my Skype Icon is back after the next reboot.

Menu->Preferences->Compiz Settings Manager->Utility->Workarounds->Notifications Daemon Fix

I have not been able to find what the "Notifications Daemon Fix" does, so I am unconvinced everything is fixed, but for 5 or 6 reboots now I have not had a problem. If the problem returns, I will un-install Compiz until a permanent solution arrives.

Garvan

[Garvan]

Removed compiz, that gave me back the tray icon.
I dont need compiz anyway, the computer is faster without

Is it safe to remove Compiz from the Software Manager? Or do you need to install an alternative first.

Garvan

[mintuser]

While trying to find a solution for my disappearing Skype Icon, I selected "Notifications Daemon Fix" in the Compiz Settings Manager, and my Skype Icon is back after the next reboot.

Menu->Preferences->Compiz Settings Manager->Utility->Workarounds->Notifications Daemon Fix

I have not been able to find what the "Notifications Daemon Fix" does, so I am unconvinced everything is fixed, but for 5 or 6 reboots now I have not had a problem. If the problem returns, I will un-install Compiz until a permanent solution arrives.

Garvan

It can be so easy. Thanks, this worked flawlessly.

[mintuser]

Hmpf I have to correct myself. It worked once but not after several reboots.

[mfreeman]

Ubuntu 11.04, and therefore Mint 11, uses a VERY buggy version of Compiz that (in my opinion) should have never made it to release. Below is the way I've found to get the older, stable version of Compiz back until they've worked out the nasty little bugs:

1. Open Synaptic (Package Manager) and type Compiz into the Quick Search bar.
2. Uninstall all Compiz-related packages by clicking on the green box to the left of each, selecting Uninstall, and when they're all marked, click Apply.
3. In Synaptic (Package Manager), go to Settings -> Repositories.
4. Click on the Other Software tab.
5. Click Add.
6. In the APT line box, type or cut/paste the following: ppa:guido-iodice/compiz-0.8.6-natty
7. After exiting the sources manager, reload your sources (click the Reload button on Synaptic).
8. Install the same Compiz-related packages that you just removed (look at File -> History and click on today's date if you've forgotten) by selecting the grey box to the left of each package, selecting Install, and when they're all marked, click Apply. There is one exception to this. Fusion-icon won't install because of dependency issues.
9. If you need a replacement for Fusion-icon, go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/displex ... lex-0.7.1/. It has many of the same functions as Fusion-icon. Click on displex-0.7.1-all.deb, and save it to your desktop. From the desktop, right-click on the file you just downloaded, and select Open with Gdebi Package Installer. Click Install.

Sorry if I've gone a little overboard with the details. I want to make sure the newest of newbies can figure this out. Hope this helps someone. I was having all sorts of Compiz-related problems before doing this. Now I've got full functionality back.

[mintuser]

I've found another way to restore the skype icon. Run gnome-panel --restore & in a shell and the icon should be finally displayed.

[Garvan]

I've found another way to restore the skype icon. Run gnome-panel --restore & in a shell and the icon should be finally displayed.

On my install, gnome-panel does not have a --restore option.

Garvan

[capricornus]

Non of the above does give stable results on 3 totally different systems here. So I decided to try to remove compiz "radically" through synaptic. On the first dinner table laptop, neither my wife nor my daughter noticed the difference but where glad that Skype worked normally - with notification - as they are used to under WinXP. So I tried it on the EeePc and my own testing pc, and yezzz, thát is the solution. It is not a good solution for those that like the compiz-effects, and I hope this bug will soon be solved.

[mintuser]

According to the bug report (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/767095) the issue was solved and the new version is updated in "proposed". Does anyone know when it will be available in the stable repos?

[xfirebg]

But why did it work in LM 10 then? It also uses Compiz by default.

Because the version of compiz in Linuxmint 11 is beta.

[mfreeman]

Non of the above does give stable results on 3 totally different systems here. So I decided to try to remove compiz "radically" through synaptic. On the first dinner table laptop, neither my wife nor my daughter noticed the difference but where glad that Skype worked normally - with notification - as they are used to under WinXP. So I tried it on the EeePc and my own testing pc, and yezzz, thát is the solution. It is not a good solution for those that like the compiz-effects, and I hope this bug will soon be solved.

Using the older version of Compiz didn't fix the problem for you? Did it work for you in Mint 10 (if you've used Mint before)? If the older Compiz didn't solve this for you, then there could be a different issue going on. Could you post what video card and driver (whether it's open source or proprietary) you're using?