The OMG! Ubuntu! Guide to the Best Indicator Applets (Updated for 11.10)

By Joey Sneddon, Published January 18, 2011

From Ubuntu 11.04 onwards the Ubuntu desktop no longer supports the traditional GNOME panel applets many of us have become accustomed to.

Supplanting them fully are ‘Application Panel Indicators’.

These new breed of notification area entries are designed to be consistent and unified in look and function, thus leading to a desktop more in tune with itself and with its users.

Just as with GNOME Applets you’re free to pick and choose which of these you use, install or run, so here’s a quick run down of the most popular ‘App indicators’ and ‘Indicator Applets’ presently available along with all the links/info you need to install them.

Note that for simplicities sake we’ve opted to not mention indicators that ship with Ubuntu by default – Tomboy, Transmission, etc.

Ubuntu One Indicator

By design Ubuntu One doesn’t come with a status area icon, an oversight that many users sorely miss.

Roman Yepishev did a more than moan about missing it and fashioned this gorgeous ‘Ubuntu One indicator-applet’.

It lets you view and monitor your Ubuntu One accounts sync status with nothing more than a single click on on the panel icon.

Installation is a breeze using Roman’s PPA for Ubuntu 10.04 through 11.10 users.

Open a terminal and enter: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-indicator

Once installed launch from the ‘Applications > Internet’ sub-menu or by searching for ‘Ubuntu One Indicator’ in the Unity Dash.

Indicator-SysMonitor

Departing with the overly utilitarian format of other indicators, ‘Indicator-SysMonitor’ keeps things very simple: it only displays CPU and RAM usage on your panel, with an ‘Exit’ button being the only menu entry. Basic – but sometimes that’s all you need.

A .deb package for various Ubuntu releases, including 11.10, can be downloaded from the project homepage @ launchpad.net/indicator-sysmonitor/+download

Touchpad-indicator

Accidentally hitting the laptop track-pad is a pet peeve with a lot of users – in fact it’s how this tiny Indicator Applet came to be!

Options for disabling/enabling the trackpad, as well as offering the ability to configure a keyboard shortcut to toggle this, is available via the indicator.

The indicator is available for Ubuntu 10.0 through 11.10 users via the official PPA :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

MyWeatherIndicator

My-weather-indicator is a panel-based weather forecast apple able to relay a surprisingly wide range of meteorological information, including ‘feels like’, dew point, humidity, sunrise/set, moon phase and a pop-up 4 day forecast.

The indicator is available for Ubuntu 10.04 through 11.10 users via the developers official PPA.

Open a terminal and enter the following commands: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install my-weather-indicator

CPUFreq

Monitoring CPU usage is a top priority for many users on portable devices. By limiting the clock speed of your laptop/netbook you can, in theory, extend your battery life a little lone. CPU-Freq offers all the functions of the standard GNOME Cpu-Freq applet but in indicator clothing.

The applet, available for Ubuntu 10.10, 11.04 and 11.10, can be installed by running the following commands in a Terminal: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:artfwo/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

Indicator Keylock

Be alerted to when the caps lock, scroll lock or number lock keys are ‘on’ or ‘off’.

‘Piffle?’ you say? Although my keyboard does have a ‘caps lock’ light – I never remember to look at it so, for fellow unobservant folks out there, this is worth its salt.

Indicator Keylock applet

Installation instructions, along with a bit more rationale on the ‘why?’, can be found here.

Clipboard managers

Are you one of those people who copy and paste a lot? If so you may already use a clipboard manager to, well, manage your clipboard. With anticipation of Natty’s depreciation of familiar GNOME applets be sure to cast a mental CTRL+C over the following indicators replacements.

Pastie

‘Pastie’ looks and does what you’d expect it to. With a mono-icon and ‘Clean history’ button it sits as one of the best of its ilk available to Ubuntu users.

Installation instructions and a bit more information is in this post. Ubuntu 11.10 is not currently supported.

Diodon

A similarly purposed indicator is Diodon. Lacking a mono-panel icon, it does look out of place when using Ubuntu’s default theme. That said it’s a light and capable tool worthy of consideration.

A Stable build PPA supporting Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04 can be found here.

Ubuntu 11.10 users will need to add the development PPA should they wish to install it.

Clip It

An Indicator-based fork of clipboard manager ‘ParcelLite’, ClipIt boasts very little to differentiate itself from rivals. The lack of a ‘clean’ option within the menu list makes it the perfunctory third choice in this list.

Download can be found @ sourceforge.net/projects/gtkclipit/

USB Safe Removal

Safely remove USB thumb drives, mounted SD Cards and more with ‘USB Safe Removal application indicator’ (Or Indicator-unmount’ for short ;) ). The tiny app doesn’t sing, it certainly doesn’t dance ,but it does do what it says on the tin: let you quickly eject mounted drives.

Download and further information can be found here. Should work on Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04, but designed for 10.10.

LookIt!

TinyGrab inspired screenshot tool ‘Lookit‘ is a mini-marvel for us bloggers, many of whom are seemingly insatiable for ‘yet more’ screenshots to prop up our dubiously written texts.

As an app Lookit is neat, configurable, allows for quick capturing and uploading of screenshots and runs directly from the notification area. No extra windows, no more hassle.

A beta release of LookIt can be downloaded in .deb from from the project page or installed from the testing PPA: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lookit/testing
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lookit

The latest stable version can be installed using the Lookit stable PPA: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lookit/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lookit

Indicator-Virtualbox

We’ve covered this quick-launch applet for Virtualbox machine in depth recently. Suffice to say it’s nothing more than a glorified quick launch menu for your VirtualBox machines.

Indicator virtualbox for Ubuntu

The applet, currently only available for Ubuntu 10.10, can be installed by running the following commands in a Terminal: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:anton-sudak/indicators
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

Caffeine

Caffeine helps prevent Ubuntu from ‘sleeping’. Controlled directly via the notification area, Caffeine is easily one of the best uses of an Indicator presently available.

Ubuntu 10.04 through 11.10 users need only add ‘ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa’ to their software sources to install the application: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install caffeine

Feed Indicator

Panel-based RSS reader ‘Feed Indicator’ is simple to use and nifty to have around if you’re not a huge RSS-head. You can add as many feeds as you like, set notification preferences, refresh rates and more.

Download can be found on the project page @ code.google.com/p/feedindicator.

Installs to the ‘Applications > Internet’ sub-menu.

Older –

Battery Status

The default power indicator in Ubuntu 11.10 works out of the box, but in previous releases support was patchy at best.

For Lucid, Maverick and Natty users installing the Battery Status Applet is a no-brainer. It offers up stats on your current battery charge, grants quick access to performance scaling and Power Management settings, all within easy reach.

Battery Status is available for Ubuntu 9.10 through 11.04 via the following PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:iaz/battery-status && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install battery-status

The applet will, initially, run as a standard gnome applet. To intitate ‘indicator applet’ mode you will need to run the following command in a Terminal : -

/usr/lib/battery-status/battery-status --indicator

For further information see our previous post.

Indicator-Workspaces

Switching workspaces via an indicator is an idea that, on paper, seems over-kill, particularly in light of other, faster methods.

And then I tried it.

Now installed by default in several Ubuntu-based distributions, this mini switcher is a lot more useful than many give it credit for. It’s available for Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04 users only. Find install instructions and more information on this tool here.

Indicator-Wallpaper changer

This applet works in tandem with the tray based wallpaper changer DesktopNova. It’s easy to use and easy to install, making it a perfect app for impatient wallpaper lovers.

Full instructions are here, along with how to install.

Ejecter

Similarly purposed to the above, ejecter (sic) lists mounted drives and allows for one-click un-mounting. No support for network folders – like ‘USB Safe Removal has – but chances are you don’t need it.

Ejecter is available for Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu 10.10 via the developers’ PPA: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fredp/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ejecter

Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Anonymous
ooohhh caffeine looks useful
thats a handsome list
p.s. – will indicators gaint he ability to be dragged around to desired location on the panel, or at least reordered?

Carl
I don’t think that they will (speculation).
I think Unity is going to be very restrictive in this regard, and customisers might want to look elsewhere. I can see the attraction of enforcing consistency in the interface, when it comes to marketing to consumer users.
I can also see the attraction of ignoring these “unnecessary” configuration options in favour of developing other features.

http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
Hmm yes, but as far as I know, I’ve never been able to reorganise the icons in the notification area either…

Carl
Indicator technology, in Unity, will not just be a replacement for only the notification area.
The entire panel will essentially just be playing host to embedded indicators and the Ubuntu button, with no other panel applets supported.
As a result, if indicators cannot be positioned where you want them, then in the future, NOTHING in the panel (not just the bit that will be sitting in place of the old notification area) will be reorganisable.

http://twitter.com/sl0t Sl0t
But how much RAM will all these indicator together eat?

http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od
Why would you run them all-together? That’s like saying “but how much RAM will launching every app i have installed eat?”

Anonymous
You just start the indicators when you want to use them? And `kill` them when you’re done? Really?
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj
but it’s interesting to know how much an average indicator eats :)

http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka
Install them ALL and report back ;)

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin
Didn’t we have this with panel applets?

http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2
Yes we did, and it sucked, *especially* if you have multiple screens or you change screen resolutions a lot, all the problems with the gnome-panel paradigm will stick out at you. On my sisters machine, applets re-order in the panel for no reason at all sometimes :P
Same end, better implementation.

Anonymous
ahh, those problems are easy to fix with a little bash script and gconftool. Got no choice whatsoever with indicators.
Anonymous
Yeah, too bad adding and removing indicator sucks*.
* Is almost non-existing. Do you know how you remove the me-menu from the panel? Uninstall a package. But you don’t know the name of the package.

http://lerenard.myopenid.com/ LeRenard
The goal of indicators was to remove the mess out of the notification area and save high-valued screen emplacements for little-used functions. I don’t think having dozens of indicators really solves the problem.

http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od
I don’t think the idea is that anyone interested in using these has to run each and every single one of them ;)

http://ghetto.k2city.eu Matej MoÅ¡ko
I have already been talking about it. The idea of indicators is simply really badly understood among developers. They are not designed to allow applications to have their very own panel menu. It is not about the applications, it is about the intentions, indications, unification and quick-control. Therefore the idea is, that there should be just one indicator for one type of information/control. For instance all clipboard managers should use the same indicator, If I have more clipboard managers, I see them all in one place. The same for sharing – ubuntuone and dropbox. They should definitely reside in one indicator called for instance Cloud-indicator.
The point has already been shawn with the sound menu. I think this is the way, we should think and develop. I have already seen a great mockups of Progress menus. An indicator menu, in which all working (copying, downloading, uploading, torrents…) progress is displayed and easily controlled. Another indicator menu can unite all this small pieces, such as redshift-switcher, wallpaper changer, and so on. It would be for apps, that needs just one or two options to be easily changed.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin
I think that this is wrong. I for one am only going to use one email client, one clipboard manager, one anything else. Why group them? Strict hierarchies are mostly a bad idea and all kinds of problems arise when you try and separate stuff into buckets. You should watch “Everything is Miscellaneous” on GoogleTechTalks. Also, you’re hiding information from the user and making them search until they memorises where everything is. This is the reason why I would like to get rid of all the other menus as well and Elementary seems to be going in that direction. Why can’t I just have easily accessible icons that I can just remove if I dont need them? I really like the dock and various ‘docklets’ I can place in it.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin
I think that this is wrong. I for one am only going to use one email client, one clipboard manager, one anything else. Why group them? Strict hierarchies are mostly a bad idea and all kinds of problems arise when you try and separate stuff into buckets. You should watch “Everything is Miscellaneous” on GoogleTechTalks. Also, you’re hiding information from the user and making them search until they memorises where everything is. This is the reason why I would like to get rid of all the other menus as well and Elementary seems to be going in that direction. Why can’t I just have easily accessible icons that I can just remove if I dont need them? I really like the dock and various ‘docklets’ I can place in it.
https://launchpad.net/~visionfactory.net JPS
that is right, but i wonder since the first time i’ve seen the sketches why no developer understand this intentions?

Anonymous
i don’t think it’s that developers don’t understand the intention — in my experience it’s simply that most reject it as a pretty dog-awful idea that neither they nor their users are interested in seeing implemented.

https://launchpad.net/~visionfactory.net JPS
no and the idea of indicators is to bundle applications of the same kind in ONE indicator-icon not ONE indicator for EVERY application !!!!!!!

godofredo
and now the whole panel is full of indicators!

http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od
Only if you install and run them all? They’re not all installed together; you’re able/allowed to pick and choose which ones you want ;)

http://makariolewis.com Makario Lewis
But I thought you said they were all “must-have”!?
http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka
Open a Terminal and run
[dd] if=/dev/dsp of=/dev/hda
it’s a must-run Command ;)
Note: Please, if anybody is nuts enough to run this don’t come back whining.
http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka
Open a Terminal and run
[dd] if=/dev/dsp of=/dev/hda
it’s a must-run Command ;)
Note: Please, if anybody is nuts enough to run this don’t come back whining.
godofredo
Yes, of course. It’s a matter of preference. I’ll just add up indicator-virtualbox and USB removal.
https://launchpad.net/~visionfactory.net JPS
but, i hate to repeat this over and over, THAT IS NOT the intention of indicators! indicators should bundle corresponding applications in one indicator! so at the end we have not more than 3 or 4 indicators -> sound, messaging, tools, system…beside the clock and weather indicator. otherwise we could stick with the old gnome applets!

http://profiles.google.com/lightningworks Egan Neuhengen
Well, to be fair, a lot of people like the functionality of the gnome applets, and since they don’t exist anymore, if indicators aren’t misused just a little bit, I’d say a lot of people are better off with a different environment. And that’s perfectly fine, but it’d be a bit of a shame to miss out on all the really nice aspects of unity due to lack of that functionality.
I do understand the clean efficiency of a simple indicator system, though.

http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2
I wouldn’t mind that. Gets rid of all the locking and unlocking applets and having them all be ugly and complicated and inconsistent… without sacrificing anything of consequence.
Gnome-panel applet end-gravitation was never implemented, goodness knows why, so I don’t mind throwing out panel infrastructure for something simpler that accomplishes the exact same thing.

Anonymous
As I see it indicators sacrifice too much just for that little consistency. (and perhaps for imitating the OS X toolbar things?)
- Can you move an indicator around? Can you customize your panels? NO!
- How do you start an indicator? You hunt it down in the menu, somehow discover its command, and add that command to the startup apps list. Instead of “Add to panel”.
- How do you remove an indicator? Remove it from the aforementioned startup list, if it’s there… OR, in the case of the indicator-me, you have to do some meditation and find that you need to uninstall a package. Wow, really?? What’s the name of the package? Though luck, use google…
From a developer perspective:
- Drag-and-drop? No! Context menu? No. Anything more that an icon and a menu? No. The is null documentation (this just a bit less true for panel applets).
I had some other points prepared, but it’s late and I forgot them.
EDIT: Just remembered: The clock indicator is very inferior in comparison to its panel counterpart. I really hope the Gnome guys can fix their stuff for Gnome 3.

http://profiles.google.com/joerlend.schinstad Jo-Erlend Schinstad
The gnome-panel has been used for.. A decade? Two? :) Don’t worry. The indicators will evolve.

http://twitter.com/95felipe Felipe AP
sure they will, it’d only be better it the already were. I don’t think users are willing to downgrade their experience just because we’re moving to new desktop env.

Carl
Touchpad indicator seems like a kludge workaround for a bug in how touchpads are handled when typing. Caffeine is also an example of this- it is best solved by fixing flash to make laptops stay awake whilst playing video is visible on the screen. Understandable that this is popular because Flash can’t be community fixed.
Indicator USB removal seems like an interface problem best solved elsewhere. So does indicator virtualbox, and in fact there are already lots of places to put launchers in the interface that make more sense than this. Indicator workspaces also seems like a UI problem for elsewhere, which I think has been largely dealt with in Unity.
LookIt! should be a screenshot application- an indicator for this seems utterly bizarre.
Indicator keylock sounds silly- if I can learn to look at an indicator, why not at my caps lock light?
Indicator wallpaper changer, weather and CPUfreq are just novelty items, and fair enough, though I wouldn’t go there.
That leaves Ubuntu One and the clipboard managers, both of which seem like fairly good ideas (although I cannot imagine who needs a clipboard manager) but which also might be better solved by other means.
tl;dr: Most of these aren’t very good ideas.

http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od
I wouldn’t agree on the screenshot point; for simple screenshotting it’s easy to have the application run from the panel. It doesn’t just ‘take’ screenshots but auto-uploads them and copies the URL to the clipboard. This saves time compared to taking it, finding it, manually uploading it.

Carl
â€œIt doesn’t just ‘take’ screenshots but auto-uploads them and copies the URL to the clipboard.â€
An application that is not an indicator could have those features, too. I’m not sure that the convenience of it being there, waiting, for when you do need to screenshot something outweighs the inconvenience of indicator area bloat for when you just don’t need to take screenshots.
It doesn’t seem to indicate anything, so it being up there among things that do is strange to me.
I think such a thing would be awesome as a stand alone application. It could have a better interface, that way, than just a list. Then, pin it to your Unity launcher and it’s always ready for you in a way that doesn’t lead to indicator area befuddlement.

Anonymous
I disagree. Caffeine is dead useful. Imagine you’re downloading a large file, but can’t sit around looking at the screen. I have a laptop, and even on AC power, the thing would go to sleep after a while. Enter Caffeine (yes, I know I can change that in Power Management, but I want to change it on the fly).

Carl
Interesting use case. Sounds to me like your download manager should disable screen dimming when focussed. That would be the feature you’re after, here. Sounds like a god thing t request for Firefox, and others, perhaps Transmission.
That said, alright, that’s a pretty fair point.
Carl
Interesting use case. Sounds to me like your download manager should disable screen dimming when focussed. That would be the feature you’re after, here. Sounds like a god thing t request for Firefox, and others, perhaps Transmission.
That said, alright, that’s a pretty fair point.
http://twitter.com/imafatmess David Treagus
I’d also agree with you. Also sometimes when listening to music on youtube (using flash) I don’t want my screen to be on to distract me when I’m working… Caffeine helps by allowing my laptop screen to dim in minutes without the distraction. Sometimes however I might be watching something with flash, I can then quickly stop the screensaver coming on with the indicator.
If anything, caffeine is my most used indicator!
Anonymous
how is it different from the default gnome “inhibit applet” (which I use and like)?

http://twitter.com/imafatmess David Treagus
You can set for certain items to inhibit the screensaver… So for example, I find that if when using spotify the screensaver starts, it crashes so I get spotify to inhibit the screensaver using caffiene. Also in my personal opinion the caffeine icon looks better than the inhibit applet

Anonymous
ah, okay, I see. I just use the Inhibit Applet — click it on when I want to use it, click it off afterwards. (I confess that I’ve changed the icon, though! lol)

Anonymous
It’s the same, except that Natty will not support gnome-panel applets. It says so in the article.

http://mw88.myopenid.com/ mw88
Netbooks don’t have a caps lock light so the indicator keylock is very handy for netbook users.

Carl
Well, if that’s true, then it’s a good thing this indicator exists.
I think it’d be strange of someone who does have a working capslock light to use this, though.

http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
I agree with everything but cpufreq applet, its not a novelty but very necessary when your trying to squeeze a little extra juice, or just let you know your netbook is working hard. (at least the animated panel version did that.)
And while I can’t say the weather applet isn’t novelty, I wouldn’t even consider trying unity without it. We Canucks are crazy about the weather.

Carl
I prefer to use my eye to judge when my computer is running “too slow”. This is quite a subjective measure- sometimes my CPU can be at 100% and still the computer is snappy because all that hardware is being used well by the OS.
As for the weatherâ€¦ I love those applets. What has always made me laugh is the way they say the most about what the weather is like here NOW, using data from some weather station. I know what the weather here is like now, with far more accuracy than some airport weather station! I have a window! :D

http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
Never had a mysterious process throttling your cpu unnoticed? It may not slow down the desktop a whole lot but things like that suck up watts.
You have a window you say? well I’d wager that window will not tell you how cold it is, or if its expected to snow later. Or if your window is somewhat sheltered, even how windy it is. To a lot of people knowing the weather is as important as knowing the time. Shame on Canonical for leaving it to the community to port such an important feature.

Carl
I’m still not convinced by that.
How cold and windy it is, as just a number, according to the reading at a weather station probably at my nearest airport?
If you live really near the airport, sure.
Why would you need to know the temp and windspeed in absolute numbers? Surely you can just pop outside and say, “Yeah, it’s really cold and windy today”. Far more fit for purpose than some numbers cooked up by a weather station far, far away.
http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
As a mater of fact I do live within 10k of the weather reporting station, so I’m good that way. Personally I’ve found the weather around my house is always a little calmer then when I actually go out. houses and trees tend to distort weather in the burbs. When your looking for wind chill numbers matter and shelter gives you a false impression.
Didn’t I already say Canadians are obsessed with the weather??
http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
Just a side note you really want to know how many weather stations we have in populated areas check this out http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/weather
Carl
Bloody hell, you lot have a TONNE of weather stations!
By the looks of things, then, an OS with no weather reporting would not be Canadian compatible.
http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
lol and that’s just in and around Toronto

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_S7GZSLCX2ELU2UXUHS5OK2APL4 Davorin
I like your intention, but unfortunately not all laptops (ahem) have the caps lock indicator.
PS: Although, I did assign backspace function to mine. Caps lock sucks.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj
I cannot imagine who can use Linux without a clipboard manager? It’s just impossible, when you close an app stuff copied from it disappears.

http://www.google.com/profiles/harveycabaguio Harvey
I think that’s only in gnome.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IH4OBL3AGQV2WPP2OGHZRRKG64 Helder
I don’t think that’s true… at least not anymore. I do a lot of copy & paste stuff, without a clipboard manager (I’ve tried Parcellite but didn’t find a need for it really), and never noticed that clipboard memory wiped out after closing the application. Somebody enlighten me on this, please…

Anonymous
my preference is “must-have *no* indicator applets.” these indicators are simply poorer versions of panel applets with more restrictions. not for me, thanks!

http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ dylan-m
Don’t worry, the new fad will be Places in Unity and all of this will go away :b

http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User
d0od, because I’m feeling too lazy to look this up myself, I’m just going to ask you because you probably tried them all already: which of those clipboard applets support hiding the indicator icon and calling the menu with a keyboard shortcut?
http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale
The only indicator I really use is the clock and power button. The rest I can live with out especially if I have to enter PPA’s to install them.
These things need to be in some repository and really easy to install when Natty comes out, like KDE widgets. I’d like to open a preferences dialog and select the appropriate indicators that I’d like to use. :)

Anonymous
The preferences dialog would be fantastic

https://launchpad.net/~sn3ipen Joachim Hansen
Maybe a ‘indicator-indicator’?

Anonymous
haha, that would sum up indicator apps quite nicely

https://launchpad.net/~sn3ipen Joachim Hansen
Maybe a ‘indicator-indicator’?

http://artfwo.blogspot.com/ artfwo
I would advise to install indicator-cpufreq from ppa:artfwo/ppa, where I am going to upload future versions as they become available :)
http://twitter.com/Sahilshines Sahil Hassan
well all netbook user willnot give it a thumbs up to i guesss….
panal-space-complexity is high…
Holger Seelig
I installed the caps lock one, and find it very useful, as I have no light on my keyboard. Thanks.
Holger Seelig
I installed the caps lock one, and find it very useful, as I have no light on my keyboard. Thanks.
Anonymous
Now, I just want one for Skype. Please.

http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
you can add a skype button to the messages indicator, It doesn’t do very much but launch skype (without even an active arrow.) but you can put it there none the less

http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User
There are already functional community efforts to integrate Skype with the messaging menu. The problem is that the usefulness is questionable if you can’t disable the tray icon, something that Skype does not allow. That’s why a lot of people doesn’t really care about the Pidgin integration.
Hopefully, Skype will either add a checkbox to disable the tray or at least open the source to the gui in future versions. The latter has been already promised months ago, by the way.

http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B
I’ve been using the pidgin plugin for a couple of weeks now,. At first it bothered me that the tray icon can not be disabled. But then I look to the other side of the coin, To Skype that little icon is their brand image, a billboard of sorts. Would you ask Apple to remove the logo from the back of their laptops? As long as they continue to play nice with Linux, (Albeit slowly.) and provide tools to integrate their applications in Linux I can live with the tray icon.

Anonymous
Now, I just want one for Skype. Please.
http://www.dpath.ru Alexandr
I wrote UbuntuTips Applet in Python for showing useful tips from ubuntu-server-tips: http://goo.gl/oM8h8
As for me it must be in this list.
Thanx.

http://cldx.blogspot.com/ Joern Konopka
Add an “A Tip after Login” Option and i’m totally in, i guess having the Applet run in an Interval might make people feel either like “Ohh i guess i missed some good ones” or “Please, not right now!”.
But i’d always appreciate a Tip after turning on the Computer or logging back in after coming back from Dinner f.e.
As for the basic idea, i’m not sure if it really needs an Indicator, guess having it autostart in the background would be enough, but hey, thats just me, it’s a great Idea nevertheless.

http://www.dpath.ru Alexandr
Thank you for answer.
It’s just small applet now, I’m taking note of your advice, they are really helpful!

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj
We really need a preference window to enable/disable indicators. Lack there of is huge drawback when compared to Gnome panel applets…

http://www.google.com/profiles/harveycabaguio Harvey
You could always not run the indicator.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/R25APX2NWD4262MDEYS2BWWEZU Mikolaj
How? There is no easy way to turn it off other than uninstalling a package which is a bit too permanent…

http://shkm.myopenid.com/ shkm
Thanks for this. I know there are a lot of naysayers, but like myself, there are also many who do like indicators.

Anonymous
They are like applets – without the colorful icons!

http://twitter.com/ethana2 ethana2
And without the lock/unlock and inconsistent interfaces and everything else.
colorful = unpolished

Anonymous
colorful = unpolished
I think that is a matter of debate.
https://launchpad.net/~v-shankar Darael
Colourful doesn’t necessarily mean unpolished, although personally I do prefer monochrome (but etymologically that need not mean black-and-white, or even greyscale – it just means “one colour”). The user should have the choice of how it looks.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Tomasz-Slominski/1644176403 Tomasz Slominski
I don’t like how the applets are managed. Might make a mockup later.

https://launchpad.net/~sn3ipen Joachim Hansen
Deleted…

http://twitter.com/shadowwoman shadowwoman
Are ALL indicators mentioned in the posting ready for Natty?
http://twitter.com/JPS2342 Jan Schuermann
i think that isn’t the intention of indicators…i thought indicators where applets to group programs of the same type like all messaging clients in the messaging indicator and all multimedia clients in the sound indicator.
and btw until now no one has managed to really integrate Skype into the messaging indicator, so why i need a wallpaper switcher before essential programs aren’t supported correctly?

http://twitter.com/JPS2342 Jan Schuermann
i did mock-ups of the only indicators that are needed, i think:
http://ubuntuone.com/p/aUj/

http://twitter.com/JPS2342 Jan Schuermann
what is that tea-cup right from tomboy in the first picture? is it a mono iconed version of the timer applet?

http://twitter.com/LinusU LinusU
Caffeine, it’s a quick way to enable/disable the screensaver and the dimming of the display.

http://twitter.com/JPS2342 Jan Schuermann
oh and for me it looks like a tea-cup ;-)
hmm, for what did i need that?

http://www.traskmind.com Trask Trojanek
I must be missing something, but how do I *change* the icon of indicator-keylock after I installed the alternatives? I’ve tried everything I can think of, even though I know that the answer will probably be something simple..

http://www.google.com/profiles/harveycabaguio Harvey
Try changing the theme. Like if you have the elementary-mono, use the elementary-mono iconset.

Anonymous
I though indicators were conceived to reduce the amount of tray icons. Imagine a Ubuntu desktop, with every single one of these indicators?
DoR
Something happened to formatting of the installation commands, d0od:
http://ubuntuone.com/p/Z0w/
http://twitter.com/elinyera Linyera Baez
Carl can’t just accept that there’s different people with different needs.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_N5SMIEO2346CS2TBLCUDGZWTQY Jon G
Ok, what am I doing wrong? I’ve installed the the cpufreq and caffeine indicators via ppa, but they’re not showing up. I tried logging out and back in, and even rebooting. Synaptic shows them as installed. I had installed the vitrualbox indicator a while ago with no problems… All that appears are virtualbox, battery, sound, and message indicators. Please help!

Anonymous
Have gone to your application menu and clicked on them to actually execute?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_N5SMIEO2346CS2TBLCUDGZWTQY Jon G
I hadn’t! I just figured that out by re-reading other articles. Still trying to wrap my head around this indicator-applet thing. I must admit, adding (and activating) panel applets is still much more straight forward. Hopefully, the inidicator-applet interface will evolve to be more of a selection menu (as a previous poster suggested).
So, yeah, Caffeine is in Applications>Accessories. However, indicator-cpufreq is NOWHERE to be found. And it doesn’t show up even if you’re already running the panel applet for cpu frequency scaling (which I was). Gotta run it from a terminal. AND you’ve got to add them to your Startup Applications manually at some point (assuming you want them to start at boot).
Maybe everyone else already knows these final, essential steps, but I didn’t. If this is to be the definitive article on up-and-coming indicator-applets, a quick usage reminder at the end would be very helpful.
Having vented – great article. Haters be damned. I like ‘em!

Anonymous
Is there, by chance, an indicator that will show harddrive activity? With a laptop neatly tucked away in the desk and wired to this external LCD monitor, I’d like to have some sort of indication of when the drive is writing and reading. I think this would be an incredibly useful indicator and am hoping some enterprising soul has created one.

Anonymous
you could do it with conky… just an idea :)

http://twitter.com/disciple3d disciple3d
Will I still be able to use gnome panel apps in Natty? There are two particularly useful ones I use every day, the SSH menu, and the Remmina Remote Desktop one. These help me easily get to all the servers I administer. Will I be able to use them with unity too? If not, I will feel sad :(
Anonymous
Oh come on, where’s Glippy? It’s much more useful than mentioned ones. And supports indicator.
http://twitter.com/Afrodiseum N.C. Weber
I’m not a big applet person. To be honest, the only ones I use are for volume control and wireless access.

Anonymous
and, to be honest, the ‘panel applet’ options for both those functionalities are at least as good, arguably better…

http://twitter.com/simonkaspar Simon
great indicators, thanks! that caffeine thing was just what i always had been looking for! now, can anyone give me a hint how i can get the weather indicator to autostart? doesn’t work if i give ubuntu the path to the py file…

http://profiles.google.com/jgarbat Jeremy Garbat-welch
I’m trying to install the weather indicator, but it’s telling me the PPA is busted. How’d you pull it off?

Anonymous
Is there an indicator applet for mounting drives?
I dislike the panel mounter a lot cause it merely shows me three undistinguishable icons.
Anonymous
how do you get the green e-mail indicator ? Also I would like to see how many unread emails I’ve got directly in the icon. Is that possible ? And is it possible to start evolution in the second workspace at startup ?

http://twitter.com/IBBoard IBBoard
The default one in 10.10 turns green when email comes in. It may be limited functionality, though. My wife uses Evolution and it works with that without any extra config (that I know of)
http://twitter.com/IBBoard IBBoard
The default one in 10.10 turns green when email comes in. It may be limited functionality, though. My wife uses Evolution and it works with that without any extra config (that I know of)

http://twitter.com/doseofsyanide Simo
Okay, let’s dissect this:
-Battery Status: Not necessary because Ubuntu comes with this (?) Granted, haven’t tested Natty on the notebook, but it should be there. Then what’s the point of this one?
-Ubuntu One Indicator: Unneeded because Ubuntu One Control Panel is already in the panel.
-Touchpad-indicator: I appreciate the effort, but couldn’t have this been just a shortcut? Or placed in the Ubuntu Control Center?
MyWeather-indicator: Once again, I appreciate the effort, but not essential in any way, plus duplicating features.
-CPUFreq: If on a netbook, the OS should do this by itself. No need for an applet. The option should be in the Control Center.
-Indicator Workspaces: Not needed, there’s an icon just for that in the Natty dock, and it does a better job.
Indicator Keylock: Duplicating features; not essential in any way.
-Clipboard managers: The only thing I like about this list, but only because clipboard is poorly executed in Linux in general, if a simple thing like pasting something from a window you closed was possible, we wouldn’t need this.
-Drive Removal: Drives appear in the dock, and have an option to be removed/unmounted/ejected, this duplicates features and creates clutter for no reason whatsoever.
-Ejecter: Same as above.
.LookIt!: “No extra windows, no hassle” ??? Seriously??? How about hitting print screen button? No extra windows, no extra hassle, no extra indicators? I’m pretty sure you can use Shutter with the print screen button.
-Indicator-Virtualbox: Sort of useful, I guess, if you juggle between virtual machines all the time. I still don’t see the point of putting it in the panel.
-Indicator-Wallpaper changer: Just like 99% of these indicators, it duplicates features which are not really that hard to find. Not a fan.
-Caffeine: Doesn’t this duplicate features of power management, or that battery indicator you mentioned above. Can’t you adjust those settings from there?
-Indicator-SysMonitor: I guess this is useful. Not essential in any way, but useful if you absolutely need to look at your cpu and memory usage at all times.
-Feed Indicator: Why not just install Liferea (and imagine it having quicklists or whatever) and do this from where it should be done – the dock.
Now, I appreciate the effort of compiling this list, but out of all of these, only clipboard managers are useful, and as I said, only because the clipboard sucks in Linux. Totally unnecessary, majority of them, creating clutter and duplicating features which should be done (or already are done) elsewhere.

Anonymous
totally agree. I like my clipboard manager (but in my dock), and I understand caffeine adds otherwise unavailable functionality (which has no place being in an indicator, according to the design spec.s, but….), but none of this necessitates these indicators. I removed them all in the end, and I just use the dock for a few things. Plus all my VirtualBox VMs are in my menu — I find the VirtualBox indicator particularly superfluous.
Anonymous
” but only because clipboard is poorly executed in Linux in general, if a simple thing like pasting something from a window you closed was possible, we wouldn’t need this.”
Ever heard of KDE and Klippy?

http://profiles.google.com/frodowiz frodo wiz
where is a drive mount indicator? am i to expect joe newbie to mount this by hand every time he plugs in his encrypted 1 TB drive? we need this.
http://twitter.com/alexeiiw Alex García
Excelente! llevaba mucho tiempo buscando estos indicadores ya que uso UNR 10.10 y por una extraña razon esta distribucion ya no viene con estos indicadores.
Saludos!
http://twitter.com/alexeiiw Alex García
Excelente! llevaba mucho tiempo buscando estos indicadores ya que uso UNR 10.10 y por una extraña razon esta distribucion ya no viene con estos indicadores.
Saludos!
http://twitter.com/LoxDev ⓁⓄⓧ
I just need an indicator to replace ssh-menu, but it doesn’t exists …

dakira
I hear you man. I’m still looking, too. I guess in the time I spent looking for an alternative, I could have brushed up my python and made an indicator myself..

http://tbys.openid.ne.jp/ Tor
A few things I’d like to moan about: I miss my the daylight map of my gnome clock applet. Also, the weather indicator that came with it provided just enough information for me.
And why do I have to resort to ppa’s to get essential indicators like a battery indicator?
I mean I appreciate the peoples effort to put forth ppa’s but I don’t like having to rely too much on them.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=566305044 Jason ‘Budget’ Espin
Why is it that none of these work?
For every one, I get the following:
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/iaz/battery-status/ubuntu/dists/natty/main/source/Sources 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/iaz/battery-status/ubuntu/dists/natty/main/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
http://profiles.google.com/aaryan.shetty Aaryan Shetty
login via “ubuntu-classic”…
goto Ubuntu S/W center, type “Screenlets”.. install it (if not already installed in 10.10)… Hope you all “upgraded” from 10.10…
11.04 is Much much faster… try
Ctrl+Alt+F1
http://profiles.google.com/niklas.s.rosenqvist Niklas Rosenqvist
Can’t someone please make a GRUB applet which lets you choose a grub menu entry to automatically reboot into? Just like iReboot works for windows.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1042794303 Ken Gutkowski
Sadly the Weather Applet page is gone at http://ppa.launchpad.net/lorenzo-carbonell/atareao/ubuntu Anyone know what happened? This probably the most interesting Applet to me.
https://launchpad.net/~burger.ga Gerhard Burger
ppa for touchpad and weather has changed new information here:
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/touchpad-indicator-now-automatically.html
http://profiles.google.com/jgarbat Jeremy Garbat-welch
Many of the ppa’s are not working… is there another place to find them?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TLL2FJYJSJH6VKCI6KLSRZ3Y2E TurtleKing
Guys a lot of the ppa’s are messed up here. I keep getting Update Manger telling me it can’t connect to several repository information.
http://twitter.com/stressonthesky Ben Davis
Really useful post, thanks. Caffeine is so helpful while watching T.V online; the BBC’s iPlayer has a small fit every time my screensaver kicks in otherwise.
http://twitter.com/stressonthesky Ben Davis
Really useful post, thanks. Caffeine is so helpful while watching T.V online; the BBC’s iPlayer has a small fit every time my screensaver kicks in otherwise.
http://twitter.com/ihutc Ian Hutchinson
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a link to the wallpaper used for the CPUFreq and Diodon screenshots.
http://twitter.com/ihutc Ian Hutchinson
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a link to the wallpaper used for the CPUFreq and Diodon screenshots.
http://www.facebook.com/StanBar Stephen Barnes
Does this also apply to the amd64 bit version? I can’t get the repository to load on the weather
http://profiles.google.com/johannes.kingma Johannes Kingma
Couldn’t find package indicator-cpufreq.
http://profiles.google.com/johannes.kingma Johannes Kingma
Error message when installing indicator-cpufreq : Couldn’t find package.
What now?
http://www.facebook.com/fools Kit Sunde
The indicator-virtualbox apt-get lines point to indicator-cpufreq
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=573531750 Real Pd
That is so totally awesome thanks from everyone of the http://ki.tl team!!
Peshko R.
I run 10.04 64-bit and indicator-usb does not work for me. Followed the instructions to install and add it to the Startup Apps, yet nothing shows up…Any idea why?
Carol McAnulty
I have caffeine installed but still display dinms at every reboot. Can you tell me exactly how to prevent dimming. I have it set to max and never dim but doesn’t work

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