At the time of Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx“, the Indicator Applet used for notifications in the Gnome panel’s system tray sorely lacks any configurability. While I imagine that soon enough you’ll at least be able to remove entries from it, it may be a while before it is truly user-friendly and offers a way to easily add more apps to it.
For those of us that don’t use the default email client Evolution, but instead use Mozilla’s Thunderbird, the notification area is less than useful. But there is a way to add Thunderbird to the Indicator Applet, and it only takes a few minutes.
First, you need to create a Desktop file for Indicator Applet, so enter the following into a terminal:
sudo touch /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop
… then open it for editing:
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop
… adding the following text (if it doesn’t already exist):
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Mozilla Thunderbird Mail/News Comment=Read/Write Mail/News with Mozilla Thunderbird GenericName=Mail Client Exec=thunderbird %u Terminal=false X-MultipleArgs=false Type=Application Icon=thunderbird Categories=Application;Network;Email; MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml; StartupWMClass=Thunderbird-bin StartupNotify=trueNote that you need to make sure you have specified the correct command next to Exec=, as for your particular version it could be something like thunderbird-3.0 %u (you can find out by right-clicking a Thunderbird launcher and choosing Properties). Once finished, save and close the file.
You now need to create another file for Thunderbird:
sudo touch /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird
… and open it for editing:
sudo gedit /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird
… adding the following line:
/usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktopAll you need to do now is logout and back in again, and Mozilla Thunderbird Mail/News should be in the Indicator Applet’s mail menu.
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If while trying to run sudo touch /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird you get the following error message:
touch: cannot touch `/usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird’: No such file or directory
… it means you have uninstalled indicator-messages, so you need to reinstall it with this command:
sudo apt-get install indicator-messages
If your system tray is missing after this install, just log out and back in again, and it should be fine (you can try killall gnome-panel, but in my case the notification area was not restored until I had logged back in).
°ºÒθÓº°
Get a Green Envelope Indicator & Gnome’s Libnotify Popup for New Mail
Remove Evolution Mail Notifier from Indicator Applet in Ubuntu’s System Tray
Restore Missing Volume Button to System Tray After Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04
Remove the Volume Button from the Indicator Applet in Ubuntu’s Panel
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Did this information make your day? Did it rescue you from hours of headache? Then please consider making a donation via PayPal, to buy me a donut, beer, or some fish’n’chips for my time and effort! Many thanks!
I was able to install thunderbird icon in the applet by following your guide but it is not functional it is like a dead link, did I miss something? or is there another command to make it active,.
Your site is very helpful..
Thank you.
Hmmm… not sure what’s going on there, as mine works fine (though I don’t actually use it – I filter my email with MailWasher Pro first [it’s a Windows program that runs fine in Ubuntu, and even has a flashing mail icon in the system tray when mail comes in]). All I can think to ask is did you follow the guide to the letter, and remembering to replace the actual command with what is on your system, as your command might have the version number in it. That’s the only reason I can think of for the link being dead (the command is incorrect). Check that against a working Thunderbird launcher (info on that in the post too). Let me know how you go. Cheers.
I thought this was brilliant, as I wanted to add two accounts to my indicator – a home account and a Gmail.
However, after adding Thunderbird, I discovered that I can have both accounts in Evolution, which I’d prefer to use.
So, once I’ve done this, how do I UNDO it?
Cheers.
Try deleting /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird – that should do the trick.
I successfully added Thunderbird in the Indicator Applet, but the applet doesn’t turn green when new email arrives. Am I missing something?
Thanks.
Unfortunately, I don’t even use the indicator applet at all, so you’ll need to Google that, I’m afraid. For me, the large popup Thunderbird shows in the bottom-right of the screen is more than enough (though I actually filter my email first with Mailwasher Pro, which flashes in the notification area when mail arrives [which I’m impressed with, since it’s a Windows program]). But if Evolution’s icon changes colour when new mail arrives, there has to be a way to get the one for Thunderbird to do the same. However, when I first tried this out, it didn’t impress me enough to keep the indicator applet, and it is probably because all Thunderbird’s notifier was good for was bring the program to the foreground. Best of luck, and if you find the answer via Google or the Ubuntu Forums, please let us know. Cheers
As you suggested, I searched the web and found the following Thunderbird Add-on to turn the Indicator Applet green when a new email arrives:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/223374/
After I installed this Add-on, the Indicator Applet did get green when new email arrived in Thunderbird, but I also got an error message regarding libnotify-bin package. I installed the libnotify-bin package via Synaptic Package Manager and the issue was resolved. The Applet Indicator seems to be working fine since then.
Thanks very much for your help.
Awesome! Sorry I didn’t have enough time to look myself, as it was my birthday, and I was just in and out (I usually find it quicker and more helpful to everyone if I find the answer and post it, rather than “Go do a Google search…”). I didn’t even expect there would be a Mozilla add-on for it, but there you go… and it sort of shows how popular Ubuntu has gotten, and how more and more are replacing the default Evolution with Thunderbird. Thanks for coming back and sharing the info!
Happy Birthday!
Just something you might want to add, you don’t need to log out and back in again. You can just hit alt+f2 and type ‘killall gnome-panel’ and hit Ok. It’s basically the same as hitting ctrl+alt+del in windows and then ending Explorer.exe and then starting it back up again. You’ll see all your gnome panels flash and reload with the new icon.
Other than that, thanks … got Thunderbird added to my list and got Evolution out of there :D
Hi there does thunderbird actually have to be running at the time to recieve notifications? As that would defeat the purpose of a try notification icon.
But how would your system know if you got new mail unless your email client was open to receive it? Unless you know of a way of checking for new mail without an email client being open…
Actually, the Gmail notifier applet in Ubuntu (which uses the indicator-applet, too) does not require that your browser be running with Gmail open on it, and it doesn’t even require that your browser be running. I suppose this is because it’s a standalone indicator, and it checks Gmail in the background for you. I assume a similar applet could be made for Ubuntu, which parses your Thunderbird configuration and uses it to check mail, news, and RSS.
Yes, that standalone indicator doesn’t need anything else open. And yeah, if someone wanted to make one for Thunderbird, I’m sure they could. Personally, I don’t mind my email client being open to be able to check for messages, but this obviously bugs some out there, even though they’ll need it open anyway to read messages once downloaded. And actually, I always filter my email first with a Windows program called MailWasher Pro running under Wine (as it can “bounce” messages back to senders, who often remove me from their spam lists because of that).
To answer the question of the above comment.
Install alltray.
Then add on your startup programs, alltray thunderbird to autostart Thunderbird upon login to your machine. For example mine looks like:
sh -c “sleep 25 && alltray thunderbird”
So that after 25 seconds of logging in to my desktop alltray will launch Thunderbird safely sound on the notification area. Then plus do the thunderbird notification area tutorial as mentioned here.
Thanks it works! :)
I tried what you said, and Thunderbird starts but it does not start minimized. It starts maximized.
Any recommendations?
I’ve tried again with the same command but using Kdocker instead of alltray, and it works like a charm.
And for the integration in the messaging notification I am using https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/messaging-menu-integration/
So far, I recommend this. I will see how this turns out, later.
Thanks “Live” for that guide for alltray. OK, we’ve established that however you do it, Thunderbird has to be open to receive notifications (since the question was how to receive them without it being open). But can’t this be done without alltray, by just adding Thunderbird to the Startup Applications? Just mentioning this since I don’t have alltray, and everything was achieved by the process in this guide.
I suppose the difference would be that it would be minimised to alltray’s notification area, which to some people would be as good as it not being open (though, in fact, it is, of course… hehe). If this is what is desired, you can always just add Thunderbird to Startup Applications, and install the “MinimizeToTray Plus” plugin:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2831/
It is multi-platform, and also works with Firefox if you want it. I just installed it and it works a treat!
To enable it (once Thunderbird has restarted), go to Tools > Add-ons > Extensions, select the new plugin, and click its Preferences button. Check “Always minimize to the tray instead of to the taskbar”, and you can even “Load Thunderbird in quick launch mode at system startup”. There are more options available, such as always showing a tray icon, and restoring with a double-click.
Thunderbird will minimise to the normal notification area, restoring by default with a single click.
thanks!.it works..
but im gonna proceed with your tutorial on have green envelope and notification in notify osd..=)
Thanks!.it work!
Great job!!!!!!
Does anyone have the problem that I cannot click on all the icons on the left side of the email notification(including the email notification)? Now I can only click on the time/date icon and then move my mouse left to get the menu. It’s not a big problem, but if anyone know how to fix this problem, I am quite appreciated.
I forgot to mention that this problem appears after I finished all the instructions in this page successfully. Thank you for such a good guide
First time I’ve heard of that one! Try the following command via Alt+F2: killall gnome-panel and see what happens when it refreshes.
Oh, I forgot I am using ubuntu 11.04 with unity, not 10.04 with gnome2. That must be the problem! Forget my question then.
By the way, if anyone like me want to have desktop notification of thunderbird in Ubuntu 11.04, you will find the icon of evolution in the dashboard will be replaced by thunderbird – but the problem is. the icon is just too small. So go to /usr/share/pixmaps/ and replace thunderbird.png with a 256×256 icon will fix the problem.
wow this worked like charm i managed to get thunder bird on the system tray following the guide
Vittu mitä paskaa piste com… Why the default email client isn’t used automatically in the indicator…? Come on!
how can you get it to STAY green (or with a star, whatever) until you’ve checked your new mail? It goes back to white after a few seconds…
If that’s something that can’t be changed in its settings (sorry, I no longer have it installed), I’d file a bug report with the developer. As far as I can remember, what you’re looking for should be the default behaviour.