Client: Notification tray icons are deprecated in gnome-shell; r̵e̵c̵o̵m̵m̵e̵n̵d̵ ̵T̵o̵p̵I̵c̵o̵n̵s̵ ̵e̵x̵t̵e̵n̵s̵i̵o̵n̵ recommend libappindicator?

[ryneches]

The notification area / message tray / thingy was deprecated in gnome-shell about six years ago, and the legacy implementation is broken and horrible. This likely a contributing factor in #2710 #3490 #4110 (well, maybe not that last one, but it looked lonely).

In lieu of wading into the tawdry debate among the Gnome and Unity designers and attempting to implement a solution, I recommend adding a note in the installation instructions alerting Gnome users of the availability of the TopIcons extension, which basically makes the whole problem go away. It's a violation of some of the Gnome UX/UI design principles I guess, but it doesn't look any uglier than MacOS.

[oconnor663]

Yes, I've been using the topicons plugin ever since I installed Gnome 3. Even before Keybase had a tray icon, I needed it for Dropbox. Where do you suggest we put a mention? Somewhere on this page?

[ryneches]

Ooops. Sorry for letting this sit. Yes, I think that would be a fine place to point people to TopIcons.

I do wonder if this problem is going to get some attention from the gnome-shell team now that Ubuntu is adopting Gnome.

[jalberto]

@ryneches topicons extension is not maintained nor working in latest stable gnome.
There are some alternatives (at different degree of "working"). Gnome team decided to get rid of those status icons (https://blogs.gnome.org/aday/2017/08/31/status-icons-and-gnome/) and with fair reasons behind.

I suggest a separate gnome-extension exclusively for keybase can improve usability

[oconnor663]

@jalberto what is Dropbox going to do for Gnome? As far as the tray icon is concerned, I assume we'll want to do the same thing.

[jalberto]

@oconnor663 I don't use dropbox so I don't know, but whatever decision they take, is not necessarily the best option but the most convenient for them.

anyway seems like keyba status icon implementation is not working 100%, as using this extension by ubuntu https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/615/appindicator-support/ works for discord and skype but not for keybase

I actually agree with Gnome decision of deprecating status icons as specs were never 100% standard or flexible enough, but that is a different topic.

[oconnor663]

My current workaround is to run Gnome Shell in legacy X11 mode, where TopIcons still works. For an actual solution, we might need to wait until Electron adds official support for libappindicator. (This seems to be under debate.)

a separate gnome-extension exclusively for keybase

I'd be willing to review an open source submission if anyone wanted to try this. Otherwise, it's unlikely we'll implement something specific for Gnome.

[MarkoPaasila]

How can I open keybase-gui main window from command line? I suspect it starts minimized, which means it's inaccessible in gnome.

[jalberto]

I wonder if keybase use in Linux is so low then the team don't think it worth to invest time improving the experience. Or maybe every KB linux user is using KDE?

This bug is open for 2 years now, with no solution or proposal from KB team

[MarkoPaasila]

Should I make a new issue with "Can't open keybase on Gnome any more"?

[FilBot3]

TopIcons Plus works with Discord, Teams, and Slack, but not keybase.

• https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1031/topicons/

Is there an extension that works for this, or just get over it or go back to KDE?