Tray icon no longer working on Cinnamon 4.6.x (Linux) 1.34.0-beta.3

[mmirg]

• [x ] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Signal with either --start-in-tray or --use-tray-icon

Actual Result:

There is no tray icon in the system tray.

Expected Result:

Tray icon appears in system tray indicating unread messages.

Platform Info

Signal Version:

1.34.0-beta.3 (problem was also seen in 1.32.0-r2 but not 1.32.0-r1)
Operating System:

Linux version 5.5.5 DISTRIB_ID="Gentoo"
Linked Device Version:
4.60.4

Link to Debug Log

https://debuglogs.org/25d8b7248134cc0550c14431512bf6be5564199c1cafebbc5989b4b9c2f7c9ac

Cinnamon references:
linuxmint/cinnamon#9328
linuxmint/cinnamon#9176
linuxmint/xapp@0a27c6a

[pkorba]

Apparently Electron v8 now uses StatusNotifier for tray icons and implementation of it in Cinnamon is not yet complete.
In your system settings try:
"System Settings" -> "General" -> "Enable support for indicators"
linuxmint/cinnamon#9176

[bungabunga]

Similarly on Ubuntu 19.10. Since 1.32 beta2 (but not beta 1): tray icon appears when I start the app, but after I turn off the screen and later turn it on again it's gone.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@bungabunga Is the icon perhaps very small?

This appears to be related: electron/electron#21445

[bungabunga]

no, the icon is ok when visible and after turning off the screen completely gone. i can only bring it back if i turn off Signal, and turn it on again when the screen is on.

[luciash]

btw, there is no tray icon on Windows10 with 1.31.0 anymore too.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@luciash When was the last version it worked for you? How are you enabling the tray icon, exactly?

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

This bug seems applicable: electron/electron#22443

[luciash]

@luciash When was the last version it worked for you? How are you enabling the tray icon, exactly?

Last version was the version before 1.31.0 - it got auto-updated and since then nomore systray icon when closing the Signal desktop app. I had it setup for several versions on closing window it was minimized to the systray - IIRC it was a setting in the app preferences. I did not do any tricks... But now it seems it is gone from there.

[opensiriusfox]

The exact same problem exists for me in Kubuntu 19.10 as well. Not that it adds much, but it’s at least somewhat WM agnostic. No tray icon of any kind. I had assumed the feature just didn’t exist in Signal for Linux because of this.

EDIT: Correction. This is NOT a problem in Kubuntu. The default launcher simply doesn't expose the --use-tray-icon options. Manually launching with the options corrects the issue.

[vladimiry]

See this issue linuxmint/cinnamon#9176

On Cinnamon it might help to toggle "System Settings" -> "General" -> "Enable support for indicators" (tested with Keybase)

[extremMiSt]

Same problem here on lubuntu 18.04.

[peterthomassen]

This also exists with Linux Mint MATE edition, which does not use Cinnamon. It can be worked around by opening dconf-editor, the enable org.mate.panel.general.enable-sni-support, see mate-desktop/mate-desktop#286.

[jcvernaleo]

On xfce (ubuntu 18.104) at least, switching to xfce4-statusnotifier-plugin from the normal Notification Area panel item seems to work just fine for the latest electron.

[bk138]

Same here on Gnome 3.22, Debian Buster.

[lupa18]

Same here, with cinnamon 3.8.9

[fkumro]

Is there a work around for Gnome? Issue exists on Manjaro as well.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Note that v1.32.x updated Electron from 6.x to 8.x. It does make sense that notifications are now using a more modern system. Please let us know what you find.

[ajboni]

"System Settings" -> "General" -> "Enable support for indicators"
linuxmint/cinnamon#9176

As @ondondil said, enabling support for indicators solves the problem on linux mint / Cinnamon, Make sure to restart the DE

[extremMiSt]

I'm on lubuntu (lxde) 18.04.
with Signal 1.31.0 I get the systray icon. With Signal 1.32.1 it's not there anymore.
the gnome/cimmanon/xfce workarrounds are either not available or do not help.
installing sni-qt did not help.

[phbn-zz]

The indicator method does not fix the issue on my end.
Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon
Thinkpad X1 Carbon gen 3

[furai]

This issue also affects me. Ubuntu 19.10. Is there any workaround?

[mandree]

I've bisected this on Fedora 31, and as expected and reported by Scott, got

# first bad commit: [2f9bebe5676845949a3e3beb9655dfd1bc018b80] Upgrade to Electron 8

and the first release after that was v1.32.0-beta.2.

For GNOME users, see if your distribution provides gnome-shell-extension-appindicator and install it, or else try installing that from https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/ - however, for me (on Fedora 31 with the gnome-shell-extension-appindicator-30-7.fc31.noarch package installed), the icon does not survive a lock-screen + unlock-screen sequence either -> #4082.

[mmirg]

Enabling indicator support in Cinnamon 4.4.x more or less fixed the issue but this has been removed in 4.6.x. (There appear to be a number of issues remaining with Cinnamon's implementation and not necessarily related to Signal or electron per se.)

[dotenorio]

See my solution:

zulip/zulip-desktop#910 (comment)

[extremMiSt]

problem persists on other desktop environments than cinnamon, for example lxde.

[dinosmm]

"System Settings" -> "General" -> "Enable support for indicators"
linuxmint/cinnamon#9176

As @ondondil said, enabling support for indicators solves the problem on linux mint / Cinnamon, Make sure to restart the DE

I can confirm this solves the problem for me on Mint 19.03.

[lupa18]

Here also with Linux Mint 19 and doesn't solve the problem.

[yermulnik]

Same in Mint with Mate as DE

[mmirg]

Cinnamon 4.6's new XApp framework appears to support libindicator-style tray icons (by adding the XApp Status Applet to a panel). Bugs seem to be upstream and not related to signal-desktop/electron per se.

[extremMiSt]

I just got the icon working on my lxde using https://git.sr.ht/~steef/snixembed
there are no deb packages (as far as I found) for that but compiling isn't too hard

[jtuz]

I just got the icon working on my lxde using https://git.sr.ht/~steef/snixembed
there are no deb packages (as far as I found) for that but compiling isn't too hard

This Work for me with cinnamon 4.6.6