Network applet missing

Support & Help Requests
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#1

I have a new ISP, and have been trying to connect wirelessly. Ethernet works fine. There is no applet in the top bar to select a source. I added a Notification Area, which shows up as 3 little dots; there’s no volume indicator, either.

I’ve tried just about every suggestion to make it visible, and finally reinstalled 17.04. The applet was there and i successfully connected wirelessly. Restarted and no applet, and I’m using Ethernet again, with no way to connect wirelesly. I’m unable to use my printer until I get this problem fixed.

Is there something in my /home folder which could cause this?

Has anyone else had this problem?

#2

I’ve seen nm-applet crash and not respawn, this is kind of problematic.
As a temporary workaround you can open a terminal using CTRL+ALT+T then type:

nm-applet &

And close the terminal.

Edit: I have submitted a bug report about this here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mate-session-manager/+bug/1682053

#3

I tried

nm-applet &

and no luck. I have tried just about every fix I found, and nothing has worked. I’m becoming at wits’ end.

EDIT: There is no nm-applet in the repos. I reinstalled mate-appplets. No luck.

#4

That’s normal, it’s a binary part of package network-manager-gnome

#5

Still no luck. I installed lubuntu-desktop, and it didn’t have a network icon, either. I’m going to try with xubuntu-desktop.

EDIT: Xubuntu-desktop didn’t work, either.

Grrrr.

#6

Do you get an error message when you try to launch from terminal?

#7

Nope, no error messages at all. I wiped the drive and installed 16.04. Still no luck.

Where in /home are desktop settings stored? I’m suspecting something in /home. If I delete the .config/.mate folder (or another one), it might reset and allow wireless connectivity. Or might it not?

#8

Success! Having remembered that fooling around with MATE Tweak resets the panels when you go back to Ubuntu MATE, I got into MATE Tweak and selected Cupertino, then Ubuntu MATE again. The network icon is there now.

Hooray!

[SOLVED]