Message indicator not working [with Thunderbird or KMail]

[sparhawk]

Hi, I'm trying to use the system tray "Message Indicator" with Thunderbird. I'm not talking about the notify-send pop-up, but the icon that stays in the system tray.

I have installed thunderbird-gnome-support, libnotify-bin and libnotify4. I have enabled the Thunderbird extension "Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration 1.3.1". I've tried adding the message indicator both in the system tray, and the "stand-alone" widget in the panel, but neither work.

I also tried troubleshooting the indicator with KMail, creating a new Gmail account and setting up KMail to fetch it by IMAP. When I get new mail, there is no indication in the system tray Message Indicator. I also tried creating a new stand-alone Message Indicator plasmoid (and an Incoming Message plasmoid) but neither showed any indication that there was a new email. FWIW the notify-send pop-up worked fine with KMail.

Also, when I hover over the Message Indicator plasmoid, it says "No applications running", even with Kmail open.

KDE 4.12.2
Kubuntu 13.10
Thunderbird 24.3.0

(Original thread here.)

[notabug]

I've had best luck with the addon new_mail_attention-1.2.1-tb+sm.xpi. You can get it HERE. It will be a very small download. Remember where you saved that file. In Thunderbird click on Tools/Addons, then on the addons tab, click the wrench icon (over on the top right), Select Install Addon From File. Navigate to your saved .xpi file, select, then open. As noted in the Mozilla addon page, the panel button blinks when new mail arrives. I always keep a copy of the extension saved to my hard drive for new installations of Thunderbird. Works in Linux and Windows. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with KMail.

[sparhawk]

As noted in the Mozilla addon page, the panel button blinks when new mail arrives.

Thanks for the tip. However, in my case, this extension only affected the Task Manager plasmoid. The entry for the Thunderbird window began flashing and asking for attention. Unfortunately, the Message Indicator plasmoid (and Incoming Message plasmoid) were unaffected. Thanks anyway.

[dequire]

I wonder if someone else could test if something broke notifications on 12.04? If so, perhaps the included package for libindicate-qt1 needs updated...

I do not use KMail or Thunderbird at present, but I can confirm that the Message Indicator applet does work for the Quassel IRC client. Tested on Kubuntu 12.04.

[sparhawk]

I can confirm that the Message Indicator applet does work for the Quassel IRC client. Tested on Kubuntu 12.04.

I just tested the Quassel IRC client too, and as soon as I log in, I the message indicator appears in the tray with the pop-up message "One application running".

In Thunderbird, I'm currently using the FireTray add-on. This has to have a permanent visible position in the tray, rather then just appearing when there is new email. I was looking for an alternative to this, which would preferably only appear on new email, but it appears that the Message Indicator will suffer from this same flaw. Hence, it's not going to suit my purposes. Having said that, I'm willing to troubleshoot more in order to fix any problem in Kubuntu.

[dequire]

Yes, the Message Indicator applet in Kubuntu is permanent when it's installed into the system tray, which it is by default. There are alternative notification Plasmoids available, but my guess would be that will behave the same way - though I have not tried them. One is simply called 'Notifications', for example.

In the case of the message indicator applet, I'm sure it was a design choice to have the message indicator applet be fixed, as so many different apps can use it. Not only mail and IRC, but also messaging (Telepathy / Kopete) and others.

My guess is that you would have to file a bug over at bugs.kde.org stating the desire for a feature that would provide a settings switch that would allow the plasmoid to be hidden when not in a positive state, such as how the bluetooth plasmoid behaves, for example. Meaning that it is hidden if bluetooth is inactive.

[sparhawk]

Okay, fair enough, and thanks for your help. I figure enough people want it the way it is though. Also, the KDE folks mentioned that this was a Ubuntu plasmoid. I had a bit of a search, but wasn't really sure where to file a bug.

[dequire]

I saw your post over at the KDE Forums. I do not think that advise is correct, however. If you wish to have this feature, you should definitely file a bug against notifications in product Plasma over on bugs.kde.org.

https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?pro...list_id=944850

Good luck!

[sparhawk]

Thanks. I think I will not worry about it, as it seems very far from ideal as it is. It doesn't seem to work with Pidgin nor Thunderbird (I wanted a single indicator), and it doesn't disappear when there is no new message. FireTray seems like a better option for now. Thanks again for your help.