XFCE 14.04 - no Network Manager applet in panel

[2CV67]

I just updated from 13.10 to 14.04 (I am a deliberate late-adopter, hoping bugs will be fixed before I get to them...).

Everything seems to be fine, except I no longer have the Network Manager applet showing in the notification area of the panel.
The WiFi is working OK, just no applet.

If I run "sudo nm-applet" then the applet appears & stays there for that session, but disappears on logout/login or reboot.
Also, Terminal gives the following message & does not return to normal status position as there is still a process running:

chris@Acer-desk:~$ sudo nm-applet
[sudo] password for chris: 
nm-applet-Message: using fallback from indicator to GtkStatusIcon
......

I read a lot of bug reports & forum posts on this general subject, mostly dating back to April 2014 & mostly proposing ideas that could work for some people, but didn't see a clear indication of what the problem is, nor a clear definite solution.

I suppose that after 4 months exposure of an LTS version, there should be a good solution somewhere?

Can anybody show me where?

Thanks!

[ajgreeny]

You should run nm-applet as user, not as root. It is normally one of the startup applications and if it is not already starting with a new session you should add it to the startup applications using command nm-applet.

On my Xubuntu 12.04.5 there is an entry (for nm-applet in /etc/xdg/autostart; do you have a similar entry of nm-applet.desktop in that folder?

[2CV67]

Hi, ajgreeny & thanks for your interest!

If I try to run nm-applet as user, I don't get the applet, I do get a different error message & the terminal does stick with a process still running:

chris@Acer-desk:~$ nm-applet

** (nm-applet:5938): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-peIFpIJIiw: Connection refused

Maybe this gives a clue to the problem?

In etc/xdg/autostart, I do have an entry "nm-applet.desktop".

Note that throughout all this, the actual wifi connection is working OK.

[ajgreeny]

I have also noticed that I have a selected (ie, tick in the box) entry for Network (nm-applet) in my Session and Startup list in xfce settings-manager. That entry is not editable when I highlight it, as it is there as a result of the entry in /etc/xdg/autostart, but some others that I have personally added are editable.

Make sure your entry for network in your user startup applications settings in settings-manager is also selected, like mine; if not, tick the box and see if that helps.

[2CV67]

Thanks for your continuing interest!

In Session and Startup > Application Autostart, I do have an entry "Network (Manage your network connections)".
It is selected & is not editable.

On my same PC, I still have 12.04LTS as lifebelt & that continues to show the Network applet correctly.
I looked in /etc/xdg/autostart & found an item called "network".
The content is similar, but not identical to the item "nm-applet" in 14.04 - see below.

12.04 Network:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Network
Comment=Manage your network connections
Icon=nm-device-wireless
Exec=nm-applet
Terminal=false
Type=Application
NoDisplay=true
NotShowIn=KDE;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=NetworkManager
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nm-applet

14.04 nm-applet:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Network
Comment=Manage your network connections
Icon=nm-device-wireless
Exec=nm-applet
Terminal=false
Type=Application
NoDisplay=true
NotShowIn=KDE;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=NetworkManager
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=nm-applet
X-GNOME-UsesNotifications=true
AutostartCondition=GNOME3 unless-session gnome
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nm-applet

I tried launching nm-applet directly, by double-clicking on it in etc/xdg/autostart, and got the following warning:



When I clicked on "Launch anyway", nothing happened...

If I open etc/xdg/autostart as Root & double-click on nm-applet, I get the same message, but if I then click to Launch anyway, then the applet appears as required...

That is as far as I can get...

[2CV67]

I opened /etc/xdg/Autostart and looked at the properties of nm-applet.desktop.
As Root, I checked the box for "Allow this file to run as a program" which was previously blank.
Double-clicking as user to launch it from /etc/xdg/Autostart gave no result (but no error message).
Double-clicking as Root put the applet on the panel as required.
So I thought that was it.

But on rebooting - no applet.

Using terminal > "nm-applet" gave a warning, did not launch the applet & left terminal with program running.
Using terminal > "sudo nm-applet" did launch the applet, but with a warning & left terminal with a program running.

I suppose there is a clue in the warnings in terminal for the 2 cases:

chris@Acer-desk:~$ nm-applet

** (nm-applet:3017): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-CKWffgcuAg: Connection refused

chris@Acer-desk:~$ sudo nm-applet
[sudo] password for chris: 

** (nm-applet:3056): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to accessibility bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-CKWffgcuAg: Connection refused
nm-applet-Message: using fallback from indicator to GtkStatusIcon

Somewhere along the line, the item in /etc/xdg/Autostart which had been called nm-applet.desktop, with a generic-cog icon, has changed its name to Network, with a specific icon...

I am out of my depth here!

[ajgreeny]

I am out of my depth here!

So am I; sorry I can't help more.

[Toz]

In 14.04, the Network Manager applet is displayed via the "Indicator plugin", not in the notification tray (I don't remember if it was different in 13.10 or not). Can you check to see if you have the Indicator Plugin added to the Panel?

You also have a ~/.cache/xfce4-indicator-plugin.log file that might yield some useful information.

[2CV67]

In 14.04, the Network Manager applet is displayed via the "Indicator plugin", not in the notification tray

Ah - that's the first I have heard of that.
Thanks very much for the information!

Indicator Plugin was not installed at all, so I installed it via SynApt then added it to the panel.
The Network applet then appeared OK in the panel!
But along with lots of other items I don't really want.
I suppose I can hide them, but haven't got round to that yet.

The big new problem is that Indicator Plugin repeatedly "Unexpectedly leaves the panel"...



I added it back half a dozen times, but it doesn't stick.

Do I have to keep battling with Indicator Plugin, or is there hope of just getting the Network applet back in the notification tray?

[Toz]

Do you have indicator-appmenu installed? If so, you need to disable it from showing on the indicator plugin. See: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...n/+bug/1311606.

In that same dialog box, you can disable which other icons you don't want to appear.