Panel applets Debian 7.1 Gnome invisible

[Pequi]

I did a fresh net-install of Debian 7.1, and am having some troubles with the desktop interface.

The area between my app icons and the logout/shutdown icon is a black strip. If I hover the mouse in the area, I can see information about battery levels, pidgin, network,and sound volume etc, but it is annoying to have to guess where they are. (for example, if I load pidgin, the place where the sound volume control is moves to the right, so if I click quickly to lower the sound, the pidgin interface will pop up.
I am using fallback mode, as Gnome 3 is incompatible with my notebook (as it is with my other 2 PCs).

Appreciate any pointers

[kedaha]

Hi,
Hit ALT F2 and run gnome-tweak-tool
Advanced Settings window appears.
Now select Desktop from the list and set "Have file manager handle the desktop" to ON
and any other settings you care to make.
You can also add things to the upper panel by Windows key + Alt and right-click on upper or lower panel and use "Add to panel" option.

[Pequi]

Invisible Icons.png (31.12 KiB) Viewed 5324 times

I have that set. I am pointing the mouse at where (apparently) the battery icon should be in this cap. To the left would be volume control, to the right wireless control

[kedaha]

You need network-manager to manage the interface so that its icon will show.
Edit the file as described in Enabling_Interface_Management
and then restart your network as detailed.
You've added the battery charge monitor to the panel but it doesn't show? maybe that's because the panel is black.

[Pequi]

I´m sorry if my English is too bad to be understood.
My network-manager is there, my pidgin is there, my notes is there, my battery status is there, my volume control is there.
I know they are there because if I hover over them with the mouse, the dialog appears.
But I can´t see the icons because the panel is BLACK. My question is, how do I un-black the panel ?
This is a fresh install, I have not messed around with default settings too much. The panel has been black since I installed.
I have never had this problem before (running debian since lenny).
TIA

[kedaha]

Hold down windows key plus Alt key.
Right click on panel and select Properties
Click background and play around with Colours. transparency etc.

[emariz]

The issue is related to the Notification Area, it does not show the icons that it contains. Am I not using Gnome 3 right now but did you recently install an extension or a desktop application, like a dock? Does the issue persis if you start the session as a new user (or if you rename your Gnome-related dot-files in your Home folder)?

Also, what are the video devices of the other computers? A more or less simple installation of the video drivers should let you use Gnome Shell (not that it is actually better than the Fall-back Session.)

[Pequi]

No extensions, just a vanilla install. I made a new user, and that account has the same issue, so it must be system-wide.
Current laptop:
# lspci |grep vga -i
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC] (rev 01)

My other two computers have Nvidia FX5500 AGP cards, and are running the 173x drivers (newer drivers do NOT work). Neither load Gnome 3

I have another laptop with a SIS controler, and I had to use third party drivers to get Gnome2 to work. Installing Gnome3 on that scares me. It's running Ubuntu 10.04.4 ATM, but I'm thinking about formatting it because of the possible Ubuntu-PRISM-We_Have_root issue. I still have some faith in Debian.

[akuankkis]

I have HP 2133 minilaptop and there are no way to get those icons visible. Ichanged to Xfce. Now all is ok.