Applications icon missing in system tray

Support KDE Plasma
1

My applications do not show up in the KDE system tray anymore (e.g. slack), although system icons like volume control is there. I think this first started in the 2022-03-14 update (another user reported the same issue there but I didn’t find any solutions on the forum). Any help is greatly appreciated.

FWIW, none of the applications show up under System Tray Settings, but the system entries are all there and appear to be working.

Here’s my inxi output:

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.109-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
    root=UUID=f18a577e-534d-49dd-9862-3b79e75c4e5d rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=aa93899a-d995-4497-937e-99f9e6e8b971
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.3 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7C37 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Micro-Star model: MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI (MS-7C37) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.70
    date: 01/09/2020
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0
    model: Logitech MX Vertical Advanced Ergonomic Mouse serial: <filter>
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: discharging
Memory:
  RAM: total: 62.82 GiB used: 5.82 GiB (9.3%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen 2
    family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 0x8701013
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 16 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 1024 KiB
    desc: d-16x32 KiB; i-16x32 KiB L2: 8 MiB desc: 16x512 KiB L3: 64 MiB
    desc: 4x16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3642 high: 4320
    min/max: 2200/6768:6624:6480:6337:6053:6193:5910:5479:5766:5623:5335:5192:5048:4905:4761
    boost: enabled scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: performance cores:
    1: 3599 2: 3598 3: 3743 4: 3600 5: 3598 6: 3598 7: 3128 8: 4320 9: 3596
    10: 3596 11: 3598 12: 3597 13: 3889 14: 3630 15: 3592 16: 3594
    bogomips: 112045
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1
    bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy
    constant_tsc cpb cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total
    cqm_occup_llc cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de decodeassists extapic extd_apicid
    f16c flushbyasid fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibpb ibs
    irperf lahf_lm lbrv lm mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe
    msr mtrr mwaitx nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx osvw overflow_recov pae
    pat pausefilter pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb
    pfthreshold pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed rdt_a
    rdtscp rep_good sep sev sev_es sha_ni skinit smap smca sme smep ssbd sse
    sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp succor svm svm_lock syscall tce
    topoext tsc tsc_scale umip v_vmsave_vmload vgif vmcb_clean vme vmmcall
    wbnoinvd wdt xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveerptr xsaveopt xsaves
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2
    mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: nvidia v: 510.60.02 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 2d:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f08 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Logitech HD Webcam C615 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 7-1.1:3 chip-ID: 046d:082c class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x2160 s-dpi: 139 s-size: 702x400mm (27.64x15.75")
    s-diag: 808mm (31.81")
  Monitor-1: DP-0 res: 3840x2160 hz: 60 dpi: 140
    size: 697x392mm (27.44x15.43") diag: 800mm (31.48") modes: N/A
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2
    v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 510.60.02 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 2d:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f9 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 2f:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Logitech HD Webcam C615 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 7-1.1:3 chip-ID: 046d:082c class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.109-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.20 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.49 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI X570-A PRO driver: r8168 v: 8.049.02-NAPI
    modules: r8169 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000
    bus-ID: 27:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp39s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Device-2: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168NGW [Stone Peak] driver: iwlwifi
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 29:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:24fb class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp41s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: wg-mullvad state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> scope: global
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-4:3 chip-ID: 8087:0aa7 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 6.37 TiB used: 2.01 TiB (31.5%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Samsung
    model: SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 2B2QEXM7 temp: 41.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD6003FZBX-00K5WB0 size: 5.46 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A01 scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 612.1 GiB size: 601.49 GiB (98.27%)
    used: 330.69 GiB (55.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: f18a577e-534d-49dd-9862-3b79e75c4e5d
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 26.1 MiB (8.7%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
    uuid: 179E-3744
  ID-3: /brick raw-size: 5.46 TiB size: 5.41 TiB (99.19%)
    used: 1.68 TiB (31.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A
    uuid: 205d8607-1449-4fac-a938-15c5147e2e23
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 69.11 GiB used: 1.8 MiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3 label: N/A
    uuid: aa93899a-d995-4497-937e-99f9e6e8b971
Unmounted:
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p4 maj-min: 259:4 size: 250.01 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
    uuid: 1630A30805FCE231
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-2:2 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Keyboard,Mouse,HID
    driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    power: 98mA chip-ID: 046d:c52b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: 1-4:3 info: Intel Wireless-AC 3168 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 8087:0aa7 class-ID: e001
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 6 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-5:2 info: Micro Star MYSTIC LIGHT type: HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 1462:7c37 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 3-6:3 info: Genesys Logic Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 05e3:0608 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-5: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 5-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-7: 6-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-8: 7-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-9: 7-1:2 info: Realtek RTS5411 Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 0bda:5411 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 7-1.1:3 info: Logitech HD Webcam C615 type: Audio,Video
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 046d:082c class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 7-1.3:4 info: Holtek USB-HID Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 04d9:0346 class-ID: 0300
  Hub-10: 8-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-11: 8-2:2 info: Realtek Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 0bda:0411 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 55.4 C mobo: 35.0 C gpu: nvidia temp: 43 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 1518 fan-2: 859 fan-3: 1056 fan-4: 844 fan-5: 0
    fan-6: 0 fan-7: 0 gpu: nvidia fan: 0%
Info:
  Processes: 366 Uptime: 29m wakeups: 4 Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 11.2.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: pacman: 1928 lib: 452
  flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.8.1 running-in: tilix inxi: 3.3.15
1 Like
2

with not showing you mean there is ‘gray’ area instead of icons?
try clearing cache:
rm -rf ~/.cache/*
reboot
also could you provide a screenshot how it looks

3

Here’s the screenshot:
image

There’s no gray area, it looks normal except that application icons are just missing. I hesitate to delete all the cache, do you know if there’s a specific sub-directory or file that I should delete?

4

dont worry about the cache, you can safely delete it, its in the home folder… also go to system settings/ startup and shutdown/ backround services/ and search for status notifier manager, and is it checked and is it running?

5

Not to go off topic, but I wouldn’t outright just delete everything in the .cache folder. It has many purposes, and is used by a plethora of different applications. It even speeds up performance for software that uses CPU operations to generation hashes, extractions, etc, such as Czkawka. It’s also used for bittorrent software, as well as P2P applications, such as Nicotine+, SoulSeek, and aMule. It also stores generated thumbnails for images and videos.

That’s too much of a shotgun blast approach that’s not even guaranteed to work.

6

thats true, but its the first recommendation with kde graphical issues after a update

7

You can rebuild the KDE/Plasma cache.

  1. Log out of KDE.

  2. Switch to another TTY with CTRL + ALT + F2

  3. Login to this new terminal TTY2 session with your username and password.

  4. Stop the Display Manager service:

sudo systemctl stop display-manager.service
  1. Run this command:
kbuildsycoca5 --noincremental

  1. Wait about half a minute.

  2. Restart the display manager service and exit:

sudo systemctl restart display-manager.service && exit
  1. Log back into KDE.
1 Like
8

I took a quick look and didn’t see anything super important in my ~/.cache directory, so I deleted it and rebooted. Unfortunately that did not fix it. I checked and status notifier manager is checked under background services. I also tried rebuilding the cache and that also did not fix it.

I searched through my journalctl and found some entries that may be relevant, though I’ve no idea what they mean:

Apr 26 13:48:19 <HOSTNAME> msm_kde_notifier[1993]: kf.notifications: env says KDE is running but SNI unavailable -- check KDE_FULL_SESSION and XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
Apr 26 13:47:53 <HOSTNAME> kcminit_startup[1843]: QDBusConnection: error: could not send signal to service "" path "//<HOME>/.kde4/share/config/kdeglobals" interface "org.kde.kconfig.notify" member "ConfigChanged": Invalid object path: //<HOME>/.kde4/share/config/kdeglobals
Apr 26 13:47:56 <HOSTNAME> plasmashell[1920]: Cyclic dependency detected between "file:///usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.notifications/contents/ui/global/Globals.qml" and "file:///usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.notifications/contents/ui/NotificationHeader.qml"
9

and if you remove current system tray, and than replace it with a new one?

10

I tried it through the remove/add widgets functionality and unfortunately that didn’t fix it either :confused: I feel there has to be some sort of either configuration or systemd process that’s broken.

11

and if you reset themes to default: system settings/ appearance/ global theme and click on the bottom on the defaults
also an addition to the rebuilding of cache above:
remove this:
rm ~/.config/Trolltech.conf
rebuild again
kbuildsycoca5 --noincremental
reboot

12

Still no change :frowning: I did try to create a new user and there are no problems there—all the icons are there.

I really appreciate all the help btw

13

so you could reset your plasma settings completely, something got messed up there…

  1. Log out of KDE.
  2. Switch to another TTY with CTRL + ALT + F2
  3. Login to this new terminal TTY2 session with your username and password.
  4. Stop the Display Manager service:
sudo systemctl stop display-manager.service
  1. Run this command to reset the settings:

find $HOME/.config/ -maxdepth 1 -name 'plasma*' -exec rm {} \;

clear cache again:
rm -rf ~/.cache/*

  1. reboot:
    systemctl reboot
14

Still didn’t work for me, I’m back to the default Manjaro KDE look and feel, but the application icons are still missing. Maybe it’s not a configuration issue but something in the backend of KDE that’s preventing some processes from completing.

image

15

so even resetting plasma settings didnt work? thats unfortunate … so and using the new user is not an option?

16

Yeah resetting plasma didn’t work either. I’m seriously considering it at this point, but if I’m doing that I might as well just reinstall the OS and keep the username/sudo etc. consistent. Anyways, thanks for your help.

17

you can wait, someone here may be able to help… if not, than probably just reinstalling …

18

You can try re-installing all (or the relevant) KDE and Plasma packages.

But since it works with a fresh user account, something seems odd about this.

Is it only certain applications that do not display in the tray?

19

Yeah I’m pretty puzzled. Yep, all application icons are missing (e.g. Slack) but system icons like volume or bluetooth are there.

20

What about the obvious?

Right-click the System Tray → Configure System Tray → Entries