System Tray Icons that I find Useless

[NoWorries]

I firmly believe that the GUI for Vivid needs to be made inviting and appealing to users. Currently I find a lack of Widgets frustrating and I am currently dealing with the problem of Icons in the System Tray. My System tray is shown below.

System_Tray.jpg

From left to right there are
Keyboard, which just lets me know that I have a US keyboard and does nothing else. Useless
Volume, which gives you one option to control volume and mixer settings. Keep
HPLIP Status Service, which is essential for my printer control. Keep
Clipboard, which is essential. Keep
Device Notifier, this is essential. The current implementation is not very useful in that for every device it only suggests File Manager. Keep and Improve
Instant Messaging, I have no use for this. Those who want it can easily install it as a separate widget. Useless
Networks, this is very useful for Network connections. Keep
Show Hidden Icons, this is another essential GUI item. Keep

So, if I could remove the Keyboard and Instant Messaging I would. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to do this. I have tried removing the system tray and installing the separate Widgets but the HPLIP package requires the System Tray.

Does anyone know how to edit System Tray entries as I would be very grateful to know how to do this. Otherwise, I hope the developers make these changes in the released version.

[claydoh]

right-click on the system tray, specifically on the arrow on the right. (same as in kde4).

Not sure about the keyboard icon. I right-clicked that icon, and exited it. Hasn't come back.

[claydoh]

I don't see us changing the defaults. They keyboard icon may have been a bug (i didn't get it on one box)

[NoWorries]

Thanks. I am feeling a bit embarrassed as after adding this post I decided to try the obvious. As you say the keyboard is easily fixed by its options which allows it to be exited. The other case, as you correctly pointed out, is fixed with right mouse click on the System Tray Settings and make the Instant Message hidden.

I now have a much tidier panel which contains only those items that I want to use.

[NoWorries]

I don't see us changing the defaults. They keyboard icon may have been a bug (i didn't get it on one box)

I have since rebooted after exiting the keyboard icon and it has come back. i have repeated this operation a number of times and it keeps coming back!!! So until the developers do something about it, I will be faced with a permanently non-removable keyboard icon.

[ronw]

Uninstalling "Keyboard Layout Viewer" got rid of that icon for me.

I noticed it in Muon Discover during my usual removal of the PIM apps.

[NoWorries]

Uninstalling "Keyboard Layout Viewer" got rid of that icon for me.

I noticed it in Muon Discover during my usual removal of the PIM apps.

When I used Muon Package Manager and searched for "Keyboard Layout Viewer" is came up with "kde-config-fcitx" and removing this made no difference.

I must say that I was surprised that Muon Discover found "Keyboard Layout Viewer" and I was able to remove it. Unfortunately my virtual keyboard is still there? Also, I checked Muon Package Manager and "kde-config-fcitx" had been removed.

I did find that "Björn Ruberg developed a virtual keyboard widget for touchscreen users and Matteo Agostinelli made a new advanced calculator widget." I am beginning to wonder that, since I am doing this on a Laptop, it thinks that I have a touchscreen which I don't have.

I therefore wonder if you did your tests on a Laptop or Desktop?

[ronw]

Laptop.

Have you logged out since removing Keyboard Layout Viewer?

[NoWorries]

Well, I always reboot to test changes like this and I have done it several times to make sure that it has not been removed. BTW, are you doing your testing on a Laptop or a Desktop?

[ronw]

Hmm. I don't remember removing anything else, unless it was one of the fcitx programs.

If it is in System Tray Settings > Entries, you could mark it Hidden.

This is on my laptop. It isn't testing, in the sense that this is my daily use computer.

[NoWorries]

Thanks for all the support that you have provided.

What I have found is a folder ~/.config/fcitx and when I renamed it, on reboot it came back again! So I brought up Muon Package Manager and entered kde-config-fcitx which was not installed but it did come up with another installed file libfcitx-config4. I decided to purge this file and this is what I got.

fcitx.jpg

After completing this operation, it solved my problem as the virtual keyboard is now gone. As far as I can see fcitx is related to foreign language support.

[ronw]

As far as I can see fcitx is related to foreign language support.

That's what it looked like to me, too. No adverse effects here from purging all the fcitx bits.