Network connection and software update icons disappear

[Natrixx]

Hiya.

It's happened to me a few times: the network connection and software update icons disappear from the lower right part of the panel.

I haven't figured out why, and how to get them back. Probably not very complicated, any pointers would be might appreciated!

--m

[Şerban S.]

Hiya.

[...] the network connection and software update icons disappear from the lower right part of the panel.

Hi!
It is a known issue, related to the "Panel" class of the XFCE DE.
There are a few workarounds, though.
I made a video sometime ago, for my personal use. Unfortunately, my primary language is Romanian so, what I say there, requires subtitling which takes too much effort to do.
Maybe posting it anyway, would be helpful. I'll watch it again, to figure out if the video without sound is usable in a way.
...It seems that with a few text captions, I can make it useful.
Since the problem occures often, I'll do my best to make the video tutorial. If I succeed, I'll post it in the "Tutorials" section.

On the other hand... When making the tests and videos with Linux Lite 6.2 RC 1, I noticed that the Status Tray plugin worked all the way. This means that for some reason, if you have a /home partition, the inherited settings from the previous installations, prevent a normal bahaviour of the "Status Tray" plugin. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's the only reasonable explanation.
As you see, getting back the expected functionality, largely depends on the particular setup of the machine.
If you use a /home partition it is likely that some old settings somehow interfere with the Panel and lead to this crush.
If you perform a "clean" install, which assumes that you format the /home partition, thus loose everything on that partition, it is possible to solve the problem.
Still... There are many factors that can influence the behaviour of the XFCE Desktop Environnement. I surely am far from knowing even half of them. So it's difficult to say if that solves the problem. It did for me, but this is just a specific case. Generalising it, is wrong.
I guess, it is up to everyone how they handle this issue.
I suggest the following approach:
Run the Live Linux Lite 6.2 RC 1. If in the Live mode you get the icons on your machine, it is a good start.

Best regards!

[Şerban S.]

[...] the network connection and software update icons disappear from the lower right part of the panel.[...]

I'm back, with the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsbWaeYCHB8

Good luck!

[Tenderfoot]

I also have this problem with the updates and networks icons not showing up on a fresh boot on Linux 6.6.  If I continue to reboot over and over again using the restart option in the shutdown menu, eventually the Network and Update Icons appear correctly next to the Sound Mixer Icon.  I generally only lose the visibility of the Network and Update Icons.  Very frustrating because I like to enable VPN at boot time most of the time, but if you can't see the Network Icon, it's pretty much impossible to enable the VPN using the built in GUI Interface.    Yes, I did install over a version Linux Lite from about 6 years ago, but have created separate /home, /, boot and swap partitions across 2 separate drives.  / and Boot are on the SSD and /home and swap are on a 2TB WD hard drive.  Everything has been working great since the upgrade with the exception of this crazy icon issue. 

Any suggestions to fix this would be welcomed.

[stevef]

Not sure what is in the Şerban S video, but am aware of two workarounds - if they are in the video and you've already tried - apologies.

1) Lite Tweaks -> Taskbar Restore
This will work but will remove any customisation you've done.

2) Instead of shutting down directly, select logout first and then shutdown from that screen.
The icons should be present on the next start up.

[Tenderfoot56]

Not sure what is in the Şerban S video, but am aware of two workarounds - if they are in the video and you've already tried - apologies.

1) Lite Tweaks -> Taskbar Restore
This will work but will remove any customisation you've done.

2) Instead of shutting down directly, select logout first and then shutdown from that screen.
The icons should be present on the next start up.

The issue seemed to fix itself after several new update came along, but this week with the latest updates installed in the last week of 2024, after a reboot, once again the Network and Updates have vanished, LOL  I have tried rebooting twice to no avail.  Perhaps I'll try everyone's suggestions and see if anything sticks!  Happy New Year everyone, and thanks for the suggestions.