Ubuntu – Where have the Panel Applets gone in Natty

11.04gnome-panelpanel

This might be a bug but it might just be an undocumented "feature". I'm asking because I want to know.

Edit: This is now also filed as a bug.

Edit: Here's a strace of gnome-panel.

Upgraded to Natty from Maverick today with the intention of keeping my panel-based Gnome2 setup. I've already asked if that's possible and it does appear that's the case.

My problem is on loading the panels, I get a ton of errors from very default applets like the Window list, Notification Area and Clock. Upon further investigation, I don't appear to be able to even add these types of applet. They're missing from the Add to Panel dialogue.

Is there a package I need to install to get these applets back?

Here's what I see on boot:

Argl

Best Answer

Well this has been an adventure. I had seen this MintForum thread before but ignored it mainly because it was talking about bonobo (which is frankly a silly word) but also because the applet in discussion was the MintMenu.

I decided to go back there today and actually read it. plumm's post has given me a few clues and has actually got a few things working (after some modification). Here's what I'm doing. Until I've got everything back this post is a work in progress.

First you have to locate your bonobo-activation-config file:

# locate bonobo-activation-config
/etc/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-config.xml

Then we find where all the applets' bonobo-server-item-configuration files are:

# locate bonobo/server | grep GNOME
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_BrightnessApplet.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_DictionaryApplet.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_GtikApplet.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_InhibitApplet.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_Magnifier.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_Moniker_std.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_SeahorseApplet.server
/usr/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_TSClientApplet.server
/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_ClockApplet_Factory.server
/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_FishApplet_Factory.server
/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_NotificationAreaApplet.server
/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers/GNOME_Wncklet_Factory.server

Then we put the two together, creating new xml <items> in the bonobo-activation-config.xml. We only need the common path so there are only two things to carry. Here's my finished file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<oafconfig>

<searchpath>
    <item>/usr/lib/bonobo/servers</item>
    <item>/usr/local/lib/bonobo/servers</item>
</searchpath>

</oafconfig>

After a restart everything but GNOME_ClockApplet has loaded back up.

More on this when I've fixed it.

Related Question