Ubuntu – How to modify the message notifier widget in the Unity global menu

11.10messaging-menuunity

I started to ask "What's this not-a-panel panel in Unity, and how do I control it?" but I've at least gotten as far as realizing it is the "global menu".

My global menu has a message notifier widget in place that scans my email, empathy, pidgin, etc. for new messages. I'd like to …

  • Remove Evolution from the menu (It shows me both Evolution and Thunderbird even though I don't have any email addresses set up on Evolution).

  • Tell it to use Pidgin or Empathy — for some reason it is currently showing me both.

I'm frustrated that right-click doesn't give me any additional options here. I can't even figure out how to quit Pidgin, since it is only in my message indicator, not in my launcher.

Best Answer

The indicator menu items are in

/usr/share/indicators/messages/applications

so if you want to get rid of something, you can delete it from there. For example, delete

/usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/evolution

to get rid of evolution. Note that this will affect all user accounts, and it will be difficult to get it back.

For a less permanent method, create the folder

mkdir ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications-blacklist/ -p

and copy the menu items you don't want into there

cp /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/evolution ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications-blacklist/

This will only show up for your user. Of course, you can remove items from the blacklist folder to get them back.

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