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In 13.04, How do I make applications (specifically, pidgin, nicotine+, lifeograph, evolution etc..and more) to the indicator area as icons? I need them to be running but need to clear the space in the Launcher.

In 12.10, I had briefly used AllTray. It crashed every time I used it and I did not understand the menu options it presented and what they did. Also the icons it minimized to were having white background, which stood out ugly in the grey ubuntu toolbar.

I had also heard of Devilspie but could not operate it as it seemed too complicated, with lot of options. Would help if there is some reading material available for the setup.

I would like to start these applications minimized to the indicator area at startup itself and keep running in the background.

Is there any software to specifically help me do that, or any documentation or help on how to do that using the two I have mentioned, would be appreciated.

Seth
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charlie
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4 Answers4

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Kdocker can minimize any application to the system tray.

I use it with a keyboard shortcut Super+S

Zanna
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adantj
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    Thanks, but are you using KDE or Gnome or Unity? – charlie Dec 21 '14 at 03:01
  • xfce is my main DE, dont let the name fool you¸ it works on multiple environments, check the page again: http://kdocker.sourceforge.net/ > KDocker will help you dock any application into the system tray. This means you can dock openoffice, xmms, firefox, thunderbird, anything! Just point and click. Works for all NET WM compliant window managers - that includes KDE, GNOME, Xfce, Fluxbox and many more. – adantj Dec 22 '14 at 15:56
  • does work on Kubuntu 1804. the icon is 'hidden' menu. right click on it and in configure, then entries, you can set to always show. (and set shortcut) however there only seems to be one icon for all windows. Thats too bad, on Windows with rbtray.exe, you could right click on any window minimized button to send it to tray and then click on its separate icon to restore it. any suggestions? thx – alchemy Apr 21 '20 at 23:17
  • `pgrep kdocker | xargs kill` restores all windows if the icon in the system tray gets lost – alchemy Apr 21 '20 at 23:25
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There is no way to do this for all programs, but many programs have a built-in option to allow minimizing to the system tray. Once you've enabled this, closing the program will then minimize it to the system tray instead.

Zaz
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  • Thanks. I did try the option on pidgin, but it seems to not work. The reason, why I asked is that I had somehow managed to do to at least pidgin and nicotine back in 12.10. But have lost track of what I had done. – charlie Apr 29 '13 at 15:39
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Pidgin has a built in option for this Edit -> Preferences -> System tray icon
set it to always

In thunderbird I use this addon

Some of your other applications may have the option via addon/plugin or have an option for it

Zanna
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GM-Script-Writer-62850
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  • Thanks for answering.. I have setup the pidgin option as shown, and still no systray icon. I used the addon on Thunderbird sometime back, but it works only for mozilla stuff. and they are no more on my list. – charlie Apr 29 '13 at 15:38
  • Update - pidgin in 13.04 seems to minimize to the envelope drop-down as opposed to a seperate icon it had in – charlie Apr 30 '13 at 17:56
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I suppose AllTray is the magic word here... I think that little bugger did get all my programs to the tray, inspite of crashing everytime....

Any takers on the Devilspie usage guide?

charlie
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  • In 12.10 it still works. Maybe it works in 13.04 if you compile it yourself? here the german wiki: http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/AllTray – rubo77 May 29 '13 at 07:58
  • I tried it on Xubuntu 12.10, but the icons are tot showing in the systray there: http://askubuntu.com/questions/301399/how-do-i-use-alltray-in-xfce-on-xubuntu-12-10 – rubo77 May 29 '13 at 08:10
  • I'll try compiling it later....has anyone done it on 13.04? – charlie May 29 '13 at 14:43
  • doesnt seem to work on Kubuntu 1804 – alchemy Apr 21 '20 at 23:00