--- Please enter the report below this line. ---
Last week one of my hard-disks lost connectivity and RAID array went down.
digikam and the the taskbar application died with a SIGBUS. So far this was expected (
it probably tried to read an open file, but filesystem went away).

After I fixed the RAID array and logged into KDE, and I had no taskbar/tray icons anymore.
So I clicked the Panel toolbox button on top right corner, and clicked add panel.
Surely the taskbar and tray area was back now.

However the tray area is not working anymore, I see the clock, and the standard KDE icons
(clipboard, kbd layout switcher, randrtray, mixer, bluetooth, etc.), but I don't see
pidgin's icon at all. Of course pidgin is running. The situation persists after logout/login, and reboot.

How can I debug why the tray is not working? Is there some debug information I could provide?
What is the name of the application that provides the tray area?
(in KDE3 I think it was kicker, don't know about KDE4).

The taskbar is misbehaving too, for example icedove keeps vanishing (have to run icedove to
get it focused again). Don't have a definitive testcase for it, but if I switch to another app,
and use it for a while, and then later (half an hour?) look for icedove its gone.
I checked dmesg and there is no segfault message about icedove there.
Still it could've died without logging anything to dmesg, will try to confirm with 'ps' that its still running,
the next time it vanishes.

Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  500 unstable        ftp.ro.debian.org
    1 experimental    ftp.lug.ro
--- Package information. ---
Depends                               (Version) | Installed
===============================================-+-===================
kdebase-runtime                                 | 4:4.6.5-1+b1
libc6                                (>= 2.2.5) | 2.13-21
libkcmutils4                       (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkdecore5                        (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkdeui5                          (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkephal4abi1                    (= 4:4.6.5-3) | 4:4.6.5-3
libkfile4                          (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkidletime4                      (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkio5                            (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libknewstuff3-4                    (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libktexteditor4                    (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libkworkspace4                    (= 4:4.6.5-3) | 4:4.6.5-3
libplasma3                         (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libplasmagenericshell4            (= 4:4.6.5-3) | 4:4.6.5-3
libqt4-dbus                        (>= 4:4.6.1) | 4:4.7.3-8
libqt4-xml                         (>= 4:4.5.3) | 4:4.7.3-8
libqtcore4                   (>= 4:4.7.0~beta1) | 4:4.7.3-8
libqtgui4                    (>= 4:4.7.0~beta2) | 4:4.7.3-8
libsolid4                          (>= 4:4.6.3) | 4:4.6.5-2
libstdc++6                           (>= 4.1.1) | 4.6.1-12
libtaskmanager4abi1               (= 4:4.6.5-3) | 4:4.6.5-3
libx11-6                                        | 2:1.4.4-2
libxext6                                        | 2:1.3.0-3
plasma-widgets-workspace          (= 4:4.6.5-3) | 4:4.6.5-3


Recommends             (Version) | Installed
================================-+-===========
kdebase-workspace                | 4:4.6.5-3


Package's Suggests field is empty.

OK, here's a way to make it vanish:
1. click icedove taskbar icon once to focus it
2. click it again
3. click it a 3rd time
4. Notice that icon vanished.
5. Confirm that it is still running (ps -ef|grep icedove)
edwin     5534  4139  3 10:21 ?        00:08:42 /usr/lib/icedove/icedove-bin --sm-config-prefix /icedove-bin-YjY0oX/ --sm-client-id 10c5d36269000130345779200000045160010 --screen 0
6. Notice that it vanished from the Alt-Tab list too
7. Run icedove again, then it'll focus the window and make the taskbar icon appear again, and appear in the alt-tab list too
8. Confirm that its still the same icedove with 'ps', check that its same PID:
edwin     5534  4139  3 10:21 ?        00:08:52 /usr/lib/icedove/icedove-bin --sm-config-prefix /icedove-bin-YjY0oX/ --sm-client-id 10c5d36269000130345779200000045160010 --screen 0

Hopefully this is enough information to help you reproduce this bug.

Best regards,
--Edwin

I tried moving kde to .kde-old, and logging in again but that didn't help.

I finally tracked down the problem: XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable was empty which caused a number of applications to not function correctly in KDE
(pidgin not finding its icons, openbox not findings the themes, etc.).
I removed /var/cache/desktop-profiles/activated-profiles, and run update-profile-cache as root.

Now when I login all the icons show up in the tray as they are supposed to, because XDG_DATA_DIRS is no longer empty!

Best regards,
--Edwin

Can you try unsetting XDG_DATA_DIRS and see if the problem shows up again?

XDG_DATA_DIRS unset or empty should work, applications are supposed to fall
back to the specified default value (/usr/share:/usr/local/share if I remember
correctly).

Cheers,
Kevin

export XDG_DATA_DIRS=
pidgin
So does this:
export XDG_DATA_DIRS=:
pidgin

This works correctly
unset XDG_DATA_DIRS
pidgin

And this is what I actually had (sorry missed the :) when I wrote my previous reply:
XDG_DATA_DIRS=:

Best regards,
--Edwin

The spec [1] section "environment variables" says: "If $XDG_DATA_DIRS is
either not set or empty, a value equal to /usr/local/share/:/usr/share/ should
be used."

This is the case "empty"

You might want to report this as a bug against pidgin.

The "not set" case of the spec seems to be done correctly.

Ah. I think this is correct, if annoying, behavior in this case.

Cheers,
Kevin

[1] http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html

Done.
/var/cache/desktop-profiles/activated_profiles file (the file is 0 sized now, don't know if it contained anything before).

Should there be some sanity checks in KDE / desktop-profiles scripts to check that XDG_DATA_DIRS make sense?
i.e. that it refers to at least one directory that exists.

Best regards,
--Edwin

You mean if it is set and not empty?
Hmm, I guess the real bug is with whatever created that invalid value in the
first place.

Software reading the variable should probably log if any directory in it does
not exist, but I don't think it has any specified remedy for getting out of the
mess.

Cheers,
Kevin

Yes.

FWIW with the old .kde dir the tray icons are still not working (except KDE's own),
they are working only with a fresh .kde dir.
Even icedove which only shows a yellow rectangle and a number doesn't show anything with that.

I still have the old kde dir (as .kde-old), is there anything in particular I should look for
inthere that could cause tray icons not to work?
Or how can I debug this?

The script in /etc/X11/Xsession.d that sets XDG_DATA_DIRS could log that message to
.xsession-errors.

Best regards,
--Edwin

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