System try icon gone, notifier working

[PixsaOJ]

What happened:

Portmaster icon is gone from tray icons. Sometimes I see blank icon of something. It stays for couple seconds and after it deletes itself.

What did you expect to happen?:
To have system try icon shown.

How did you reproduce it?:
Probably installing latest Manjaro Gnome edition?

Debug Information:

Portmaster
version 0.8.13

commit tags/v0.8.13-0-gf135ec3242905b84811b26975a3458117cc2c28e
built with go1.18 (gc) linux/amd64
  using options main.go
  by user@docker
  on 01.06.2022

I am deducting everything else in logs because its too big and I did not find related info. It probably happens on boot time.'

I am on Manjaro Gnome edition.
GNOME Shell 42.1
Also using extension called Try Icons to hide them.

This might need better debug log, let me know.

All the notifications are working BTW.

[dhaavi]

Hey @PixsaOJ, thanks for reporting this!

Can you run this command to start the notifier manually and then post the output?
/opt/safing/portmaster/portmaster-start notifier

You might need to close the currently running one in some way.

[PixsaOJ]

What is notification watcher, I am not on KDE

➜  ~ /opt/safing/portmaster/portmaster-start notifier
[control] 2022/06/07 15:06:36 starting /opt/safing/portmaster/updates/linux_amd64/notifier/portmaster-notifier_v0-3-2 --data /opt/safing/portmaster
220607 19:06:36.284 ▶ BOF
220607 19:06:36.284 ent/client:072 ▶ INFO 001 client: connecting to Portmaster at 127.0.0.1:817
220607 19:06:36.302 ent/client:099 ▶ INFO 002 client: went online
220607 19:06:36.302 tifier/spn:069 ▶ INFO 003 config: received update to SPN module: enabled=false
220607 19:06:36.303 ork_rating:033 ▶ INFO 004 config: received update to network rating system: enabled=true
220607 19:06:36.304 tifier/spn:087 ▶ INFO 005 config: received update to SPN status: &{disabled     <nil>}
220607 19:06:36.328 ifier/tray:276 ▶ INFO 006 tray: set to selected=AutoDetect active=AutoDetect icon=0 spn="" msg="Secure"
2022/06/07 19:06:36 systray error: failed to register our icon with the notifier watcher (maybe no tray is running?): The name org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher was not provided by any .service files
220607 19:06:36.328 ifier/tray:276 ▶ INFO 007 [6x] tray: set to selected=AutoDetect active=AutoDetect icon=0 spn="" msg="Secure"
220607 19:06:36.328 ifier/tray:276 ▶ INFO 008 tray: set to selected=AutoDetect active=AutoDetect icon=0 spn="disabled" msg="Secure"
220607 19:06:36.328 ifier/tray:276 ▶ INFO 009 tray: set to selected=Trusted active=Trusted icon=0 spn="disabled" msg="Secure"

[PixsaOJ]

@dhaavi seems like it assumed that I'm on KDE because it's Manjaro or something.

[arch-user-france1]

This is probably a gnome issue. You should report it there. It works fine on my Manjaro Gnome laptop but not on the desktop computer.

[PixsaOJ]

This is probably a gnome issue. You should report it there. It works fine on my Manjaro Gnome laptop but not on the desktop computer.

I disagree. The program is searching KDE notifier watcher while it should be watching Gnome thing.
Also, there is no difference between laptop/desktop when it comes to OS. Only drivers are different, which is not problem in this issue.

[arch-user-france1]

I know that there's no difference but I installed KDE first and then Gnome, on my laptop I had Gnome preinstalled. That is a difference.

This is probably a gnome issue. You should report it there. It works fine on my Manjaro Gnome laptop but not on the desktop computer.

I disagree. The program is searching KDE notifier watcher while it should be watching Gnome thing. Also, there is no difference between laptop/desktop when it comes to OS. Only drivers are different, which is not problem in this issue.

[PixsaOJ]

Yes, it does not work on GNOME but that does not mean its GNOME's fault

[arch-user-france1]

Yes, it does not work on GNOME but that does not mean its GNOME's fault

It does work on gnome on my laptop.

It does not work on gnome on my desktop computer which had kde installed first but now has gnome.

[PixsaOJ]

It is possible to install "AppIndicator and KSattusNotifierItem support" extension but that just breaks my setup, It is hacky fix. I would not recommend. Better to have Gnome 42 support.

[dhaavi]

Hey @PixsaOJ, thanks for logs! Also, thanks @arch-user-france1 for helping out here!

What you saw with org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher is just the namespace used for the tray icon. The libappindicator library uses the same namespace.
This is the DBUS location where an appindicator system can register in order to handle app indicators for apps.

The error you receive seems to be caused by the appindicator system being missing.

Gnome stopped shipping with one by default some time ago. Ubuntu then started to shipping this for their Gnome DE instead: https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Works great!)

There is now a FAQ entry for this: #242

[PixsaOJ]

Okay, so here I have installed libappindicator-gtk3 (I know it's for gnome3x). This is also optional dependency for portmaster-bin.

The reason why installing extension would not work is that that extension is a UI fix, not a back-end fix for providing this org.kde.StatusNotifierWatcher. It just drops all tray icons on your panel. This breaks my foldable try icons and just draws all 10 icons, which becomes ugly.

This could not be a fix because it does not replace the original dependency we are looking for. It adds a UI element which works on its own and does not care about other extensions.

Other apps have try icons and they are working. Therefore, the right fix would be to support the official Gnome4 way of displaying the icon.

Installing that extension will brake my Desktop's look.

[dhaavi]

We currently only support the cross-distro way of handling the tray icon. So this is expected behavior.

Regarding supporting Gnome's own indicator system, please open a feature suggestion issue with more details, especially if you could link to the spec and possible libraries, that would be a help.

[PixsaOJ]

Will do @dhaavi. Thanks for the help!