Ubuntu – How to use notification area (system tray) over indicators in Xubuntu

From Ubuntu 13.04 onwards you have to whitelist the applications if you want to allow access to the system tray.

Firstly install dconf-tools from the software center ( or by clicking here) Then Press Alt+F2 and enter dconf-editor and run it.

Now navigate to Desktop -> Unity -> Panel.

Now change the value of systray-whitelist to

"all"

Note that setting this to "all" will likely lead to other bugs, as the old notification area is unmaintained, instead consider adding applications you need individually instead of just enabling everything. You can reset it to the defaults by checking out this question:

• How do I set the panel whitelist back to the default?

Do note that the system tray is entirely removed in 13.04 and newer and that older applications that still have not been ported need to be updated:

• Why aren't certain indicators showing in Unity?

To not load an applet just prevent it from running.

If the indicator is coded in to the application and the application does not give you an option to remove the indicator from the panel you wont be able to omit it, you cannot omit an application indicator that is build in to the code and has no option to disable it, for that you need source code changes either made by you or you can suggest them to the app developer, which is the last case will be depend on which applications your are referring to.

There are no specific guidelines explaining if and application should or should not have an inductor applet, only what an indicator applet should do.

You can still remove the system applets made by gnome for you system or if the application it self uses an external applet to be used as a indicator.

To remove one of the gnome / unity indicators that are visible by default open the terminal and run this command to show all the applications that can be loaded at start up

cd /etc/xdg/autostart/ && ls

Identify the applet that you want to prevent from loading and edit it with your favorite text editor, ie:

sudo nano nm-applet.desktop

Locate the line with these contents

NoDisplay=true

and change it to

NoDisplay=false

Save and close the terminal.

Click the cog weel in the top right corner of the screen next to your username and select Startup Applications..., now you will see the application that you just edited the .desktop file and you can disable it.

The applet wont load on next boot

After enabling or disabling and applet following the steps above you will see that each .desktop that you modify will create it's own .desktop file in your ~/.config/autostart folder.

If an applet indicator that you want to disable does not show on your startup list you need to use the method above, else there will be a .desktop file inside ~/.config/autostart that can be edited with the described method and will then be possible to enabled/disabled in the startup applications.