How to get AppIndicator icons back in the top bar on GNOME 3.16+?

Question

Ever since I upgraded from Gnome 3.14 to Gnome 3.16 on Ubuntu GNOME 15.04 I have found that my icons that would go in the top-right-hand corner go in the bottom-left-hand corner, is there any way to change this, remove the thing which holds them in their new place and put them back where they were before?

Answer 1

As of Ocbober 2016, Using Ubuntu 16.04 with gnome-shell, you can use the extension at

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1031/topicons/

It achieves the desired result.

Answer 2

No, currently there is no way to do that. There is no option in any tweak tool or in the dconf-configuration.

I would say, the app indicator panel with the current behavior isn't the final design. Maybe in the future, there is a configuration option for that.

As a workaround you could try the GNOME extension Appindicator Support, but you have to change the supported version in metadata.json to 3.16, as the extension has no native support for GNOME 3.16.

Follow the steps below.

---

Without a previous installed version

1. Clone the latest version from here, do not use zip files or release tarballs., eg

   mkdir -p ~/src
   cd ~/src
   git clone https://github.com/rgcjonas/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator.git
   

2. Build and install

   cd gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
   make
   ln -s ~/src/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com
   

3. Follow the steps in With a previous installed version

---

With a previous installed version

1. Open the configuration file metadata.json

   nano ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/appindicatorsupport@rgcjonas.gmail.com/metadata.json
   

   and add 3.16 in the shell-version

   shell-version": ["3.8", "3.10", "3.12", "3.14", "3.16"]
   

2. Restart the shell via Alt+F2 and type r followed by Enter

3. Use the GNOME Tweak Tool to activate the extension

   

4. In my case, only Show in panel works