Ubuntu Gnome having all app icons in top bar

Question

I have a weird issue with the app icons in the Gnome bar.

What I would like to have is all icons of apps that have a "Taskbar" icon to show. Like Slack, Skype, Discord, Dropbox, Steam and way more.

Currently I use some Gnome extensions to be able to do that. Topicons Plus and KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator Support

The first one allows me to see everything except some apps that use the old Ubuntu Unity indicator to show some Icons.

The second one allows me to see the apps that use the Ubuntu Unity way.

But a lot of time when I reboot or put to sleep my computer and even when something freezes my Gnome desktop. The AppIndicator apps icons disappear and I need to do Ctrl+F2 with r to be able to reload the Gnome-Shell and be able to see the apps.

Is there a way to fix this issue so I could not have to restart Gnome-Shell every time or anything that manages the app icons better and maybe in only one Gnome extension?

Answer 1

After some more research and found some part of issues I've found this steps that fixes the problem

First thing we need to do is to remove all indicators that comes with Ubuntu but we don't actually need. Source

indicator-application
indicator-appmenu
indicator-bluetooth
indicator-common
indicator-datetime
indicator-keyboard
indicator-messages
indicator-network
indicator-power
indicator-printers
indicator-session
indicator-sound
indicator-transfer
indicator-transfer-download-manager

Or by one command line

sudo apt purge indicator-application indicator-appmenu indicator-bluetooth indicator-common indicator-datetime indicator-keyboard indicator-messages indicator-network indicator-power indicator-printers indicator-session indicator-sound indicator-transfer indicator-transfer-download-manager

When this is done I suggest to reboot your session or run this command to stop the current application indicator services that doesn't work Source

killall indicator-application-service

You now need to install the gnome-shell-extension-appindicator and TopIcon Plus Extension

The first extension is made by Ubuntu to show the app indicators in the Gnome Shell and the second extension will allow some external apps like Discord or Skype to show their indicator in the Gnome top bar.

When both extensions are installed, you need to enable them in the Gnome Tweek Tool or by going in the settings and finding the extension section.

Now everything should be working properly and without any issue. It is still not the best solution but the indicator section in Gnome is messed up a bit since the new release of Ubuntu 17.10. You can also change the settings of the Topicons Plus extension to make it look like the "Default" Ubuntu one.