Can't access UI in Elementary OS

[NatoBoram]

Versions

• ipfs-desktop_0.7.2_amd64.deb
• ipfs-desktop_0.7.2_amd64.snap

Operating System

OS: elementary OS 5.0 Juno x86_64 
Kernel: 4.15.0-47-generic 
Uptime: 3 hours, 24 mins 
Packages: 2323 
Shell: bash 4.4.19 
Resolution: 1920x1080 
DE: Pantheon 
WM: Mutter(Gala) 
Theme: Elementary [GTK3] 
Icons: Elementary [GTK3] 
Terminal: io.elementary.t 
CPU: Intel i5-3570K (4) @ 4.100GHz 
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 
Memory: 3920MiB / 7920MiB 

Problem

Elementary OS doesn't have a system tray. It was previously there :

When starting the program, it briefly flashes in the dock, but I don't have any right-click option on it.

What should happen

When starting the program after starting it once, I should be able to see the WebUI.

What happened

Instead, it just checks if there's another instance of ipfs-desktop then closes itself. Thus, I can't access the WebUI from IPFS-Desktop.

Other

Using IPFS Companion, I can confirm that the node was started.

[lidel]

(Disclaimer: I use Linux, but with old school tray with i3...)

elementary/os#102 (comment) contains useful background:

The [..] concept of a "system tray" has been deprecated for years, and the implementation was deprecated for the entirety of the Loki cycle. We've removed it in Juno, and GNOME similarly removed their implementation in their 3.26 release.

Allan Day wrote a great post detailing the history of this area and why it is getting removed in favor of newer, better, more purpose-built APIs. I am also planning on writing up a post specific to elementary OS about the better APIs and patterns that can be used. If cross-platform apps have been written in a way that requires a status icon, and are running on a platform that does not provide status icons, that is a problem with the app and should be reported there. It is not just a problem on elementary OS, but also any vanilla GNOME installation, so the app developers should be responsive if they care about shipping their app on Linux.

Discussion in elementary/wingpanel#96 goes more in depth on this and lists alternative APIs but IPFS Desktop may not be able to use them directly: we require upstream support in Electron, which is a known issue:

• Appindicator as replecement for legacy tray icon on GNOME (Appindicator as replecement for legacy tray icon on GNOME electron/electron#10427)

Issue is complex and I am not sure if Electron will be fixed any time soon. Perhaps we could somehow add fallback of two basic context actions ("Open Web UI" and "Exit") via FreeDesktop.org Desktop Actions (API for providing static quick actions, i.e. launching a specific part of an app from its icon in the Dock or Applications Menu).

[hacdias]

Close in favour of #1153.