No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for xchat/xchat-gnome windows

Here is a work around that works for me
http://linuxfloat.org/ubuntu-1104how-add-dropbox-icon-top-right
I just added 'xchat' instead of 'dropbox;

Still an issue in Oneric (development branch) from 2011 08 19.

xchat in unity doesn't have an indicator and opens multiple instances. I can't minimize or else clicking xchat in the launcher bar opens a new instance. Can't use alt-tab either to get back to xchat after minimizing.

sudo apt-get install xchat-indicator will install the indicator I think xchat-indicator should be added to recommends for xchat but maybe xchat is shipped by default in a *buntu so adding that recommend would pull in the xchat-indicator.

This doesn't have anything to do with indicators, so I'm not sure why the unity task was closed. The problem seems to be in unity since it never recognizes that xchat has started. It continues to show the busy cursor over the xchat window, does not list it in alt-tab, and starts a new instance if you click the icon again instead of bringing the existing window to the foreground.

Works for me in Ubuntu 11.10. Shows that it's running in the Unity dock and shows up when doing Alt-Tab.

Did you try to close then choose ' minimize to tray'?

I believe this was fixed in 11.10. If anyone still sees this in 11.10, reopen the bug.

I still have the problem that unity doesn't recognize xchat as already running with 11.10 if xchat was hidden/minimized to the tray.
With xchat-indicator installed it at least recognized it as still running there and correctly alerts in case of new messages.
Seems to be related to bug #705267 as the same happens with skype if minimized to the tray.

Yes, that's a different issue that is a bug in the application. It hides its window entirely specifically so that it will not show up in the task bar, assuming its little icon is in the tray so you can unhide it.

I have installed xchat-indicator and xchat can be reopened from the icon from top panel. However I think it is only "halfway" solution. User should be able to reopen (original session) it from Unity panel and not a new one. This is a little bit confusing.

I have the same problem in 12.04. When xchat window is open, there is no icon on unity panel suggesting that it's running. When I minimize it (without xchat-indicator installed) there is no way to get it back. If it won't show on unity panel, minimized or not, then perhaps the indicator should be a depends and not just suggested.

Confirmed with xchat-gnome in 12.04. The unity launcher and switcher both fail to show xchat-gnome.

A possible workaround: Open the dash, find xchat and drag the icon into the launcher while xchat is running. This appears to have solved the problem for me.

closing again, the precise issue is already tracked by bug #995916, no need to reopen this one

No fix was ever proposed for it. No fix was ever release noted. Therefore, this bug should be open.

If bug 995916 turns out to have the same root cause as this one then that's excellent.

If a fix was proposed and committed, and then a similar bug reoccurs, then it makes sense to start on a new bug.

This bug however has never even been attempted to be fixed by anyone. And is still causing me grief every day in 12.04.

See also:
Bug 995916: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for Gimp windows
Bug 999171: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for Scribus windows
Bug 762193: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for xchat/xchat-gnome windows
Bug 951929: Unity launcher and Alt-Tab switcher missing entry for gnome-terminal

I hope they're all the same bug, but we won't really know until a fix is proposed.

the same here for Dia window. It just does not show, no way to switch to it directly

I have the same problem on a vanilla 12.04 install with all updates from the (non-proposed) repos. I have to manually quit Xchat to regain control of the app by launching it on an empty workspace.

This also happens for me with GIMP 2.8 and several other applications.

Niklas, see above. Gimp is covered by bug 995916.

So I do have a launcher item, and when I run X-Chat I get a little arrow to the left of it, but I don't have X-Chat in the alt-tab window.

this is exactly the same bug as the one with the skype and possible any other application with the option 'minimize to tray' unity basically thinks the app is closed when its minimized to tray so loses track of it. Might make sense to re-title to reflect a more wider case.

bug 705267 ?

As of today, after checking, X-Chat appears in both, the launcher icons and the ALT-TAB Window.

This happened to me on and off under 12.10, now under raring it seems to be a problem all of the time.

xchat-gnome:
  Installed: 1:0.30.0~git20110821.e2a400-0.2ubuntu7
  Candidate: 1:0.30.0~git20110821.e2a400-0.2ubuntu7
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.30.0~git20110821.e2a400-0.2ubuntu7 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

I had this worked around by adding xchat to the systray-whitelist in com->canonical->unity->panel. Now in raring, that no longer works.

This is an extremely frustrating bug. If I can't use the Apps I want, without this difficulty, Unity is useless to me.

I use Xchat intensively and I haven't been able to reproduce the bug since Precise. After Precise it stopped being an issue. I haven't played with the systray-whitelist. On a fresh install of Precise, Quantal or Raring this bug is no loner available.

@ Rick Clark (dendrobates) - could you boot using a 12.04.2 live-cd (http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/) or the latest (http://releases.ubuntu.com/raring/) and once at the desktop install Xchat and test?
This test will assure that the issue is reproducible in a neutral and controlled environment.

I have not experienced any problems with the xchat icon in the Launcher or Switcher in the last few Ubuntu release.

However, choosing the "Minimize to Tray" option in the dialog presented when closing the xchat application causes the icon to disappear from the Launcher and Switcher even though the application continues to run. There is no way to reopen the GUI for the running application: the only option is to use the command line to kill the application instance.

A quick glance through the xchat source code reveals that the application itself was written to assume a Gnome2 system tray is present and does its own window management accordingly.

I don't believe there is much unity can do if an application is misbehaving like that. I think the solution lies in fixing the application.

As has been mentioned before, this seems to be an issue with apps using "Minimize to Tray" when there is no "tray" in Unity. Marking this as Fix Released in Unity as the core issue of showing the running app in the Launcher is fixed.