HPLIP is not compatible with modern GNOME (No system tray detected on this system. Unable to start, exiting.)

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Ubuntu 17.10 with all updates. Bug is fixed.

Ubuntu 17.10 with all updates, however, this problem persists for me. I would not describe it as "fixed".

Sorry but this bug was not fully fixed back in September. It's still affecting me in December.

To the HPLIP developers at HP: Can you provide a patch which we can apply to the HPLIP 3.17.7 which comes with Ubuntu 17.10, especially if you have fixed this already in a later version (like 3.17.11)? Thanks.

I also have this bug with HPLIP 3.17.11 on Ubuntu 18.04 - I know this is an alpha, but just to inform.

Version 3.17.11 resolved problem of scanner non identified, but I get the "no system tray detected" at startup...

I also have this problem.
Every time at startup the "No system tray detected" erro message shows up.
I use Ubuntu 17.10 and HPLIP 3.17.11 (last version at the time of writing).

Experiencing the same problem with bionic. Reproducible.

Same Issue, and I just run an update, I still get
No system tray detected on this system.
Unable to start, exiting.
on Startup

Just purchased and installed an HP printer with software from HP web page, device. I have this same bug. Ubuntu 18.04, HPLIP 3.18.4, device manager 15.0 (Qt4)

Same issue in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, HPLIP 3.18.4.
Every time at startup a popup error display the message "No system tray detected".
Please solve the problem.
Thanks.

Same issue here with official 18.04 LTS release. I have installed HPLIP 3.18.4, but I get the error message, No System Tray Detected on this system: Unable to start, exiting. What's worse is that the HP Officejet printer will not print anything. It just keeps sending all print jobs to "pause".

Just purchased and installed an HP printer with software from HP web page, device. I have this same bug. Ubuntu 18.04, HPLIP 3.18.4, device manager 15.0 (Qt4)
tanks

Same issue with HPLIP 3.18.4 on 18.04 LTS fresh install. No system tray detected unable to start, but I can print with no problems but no access to scanner functions or faxing.

Same issue with HPLIP 3.18.5 on 18.04 LTS, only show on startup. But when I open printer (HP Laserjet p1006), it can print normally.

I try this method from 'Edson Jose dos Santos' from this link.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1770027

'To display the icon on the tray, I installed this extension "Alternate Menu for Hplip" and it worked ok, but the error message (No system tray detected on this system, unable to start, exiting) continued to appear.

Then I removed the startup "hp-systray -x" and the error continued.

What happened after restarting the PC?

At startup, the HP icon came in alone and appeared at the startup of the "SETUP" tool and the message disappeared. OK . See attachment.

Now the error message (No system tray detected on this system. Unable to start, exiting) only appears when we click on the HP icon and open the printer.'

It can help me and now no annoying message at startup.

same issue Ubuntu 18.04 hplip-3.18.6 at evey boot i get this error when i log in to my account.
Woulud be nice to have this solved.

I had this error on every boot on a fresh and up to date ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver after installing the latest drivers for my HP printer.

I just deleted the file

/etc/xdg/autostart/hplip-systray.desktop

to get rid of the problem. But it would be nice to have it fixed =)

I have the very same error, on 18.04 and HPLIP-3.17.10.
Is there any workaround within /etc/xdg/autostart/hplip-systray.desktop to turn this off? - instead of removing the file. completely.

I have the very same error, on 18.04.1 and HPLIP-3.18.6

This issue creates problems with every Ubuntu update specifically with python.
I would appreciate a solution.

lololapile

I think that is error is now causing very high CPU usage. Typically my CPU load averages are under 1. They usually range like thus: .5 to .8 for all time frames (1 min, 5 min, 15 min). Currently my avgs. are 3.00 to 4.00. These high loads started after HPLIP's "No systray" on daily power up.

In the above post, I was in error about hplip causing the high CPU usage. I have changed my Desktop management from Gnome to Unity. The hp systray icon is back on the panel. I apologize for the CPU usage mistake.

Ubuntu 18.04.2 fresh install on System 76 Laptop
Downloaded the latest Version of HPLIP 3.19.3
from https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/gethplip

I am getting this bug

I wonder if i use the hplip that comes with ubunut or is in the repo is i would still get this bug

Ubuntu 19.10, Gnome-Session, same problem.

Same problem on Ubuntu 18.04 - thankfully edelans posted a fix in #19 for removing the message!

I confirm having the same issue on Ubuntu 20.04:

yves@laptop:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS"
yves@laptop:~$ dpkg -l | grep -i hplip
ii hplip 3.20.3+dfsg0-2 amd64 HP Linux Printing and Imaging System (HPLIP)
ii hplip-data 3.20.3+dfsg0-2 all HP Linux Printing and Imaging - data files
ii hplip-gui 3.20.3+dfsg0-2 all HP Linux Printing and Imaging - GUI utilities (Qt-based)

The hp-systray command is commonly started as part of the session's autostart; for example, in Debian.

When it doesn't find a system tray on the current environment, it displays an error dialog box.

This is the case of GNOME which has dropped support for the system tray functionality in favour of a unified "notifications" functionality, pushing developers to quit relying on a system tray.

This comes from hplip/ui4/systemtray.py where QSystemTrayIcon.isSystemTrayAvailable() returns False when run under GNOME.

Solutions I see:
- Change the /etc/xdg/autostart/hplip-systray.desktop and add a property (NotShowIn, see https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/ar01s03.html) to not start in GNOME. It simply means adding this line: NotShowIn=GNOME;
- Change the hplip code to fail silently if it detects that there is no system tray. This might hide real issues however.
- Add a new dedicated binary package for hplip-gui-systray, and do not install it by default, especially for GNOME users.
- Understand the functionality of hp-systray and implement an alternative using GNOME's notifications; choose it when running in GNOME.

I suggest that the hplip maintainers update the file

hplip/hplip-systray.desktop.in

by adding this line at the end:

  NotShowIn=GNOME;

I think doing this will close:
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1714659 (this bug)
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1721534
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/hplip/+bug/1770027
- and a lot of other downstream bugs like https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=793675