Comment 4 for bug 775196

Tested on Ubuntu 11.04 and Mint 11. Fully reproducible.

Steps to reproduce:

1. log on to Gnome (no effects) desktop
2. sudo apt-get install fusion-icon (will be used to test settings)
3. sudo apt-get install keepassx (just a sample Qt application, can be skype or any other),
4. change KeePassX (or any other Qt application) settings to display tray icon,
5. if the tray icon appears correctly, just restart Qt app (icon should be reduced to 1 pixel, if not, repeat restarting)
6. use Fusion Icon to change window manager to Metacity,
7. restart Qt application a few times - now the tray icon should appear correctly each start
8. switch back window manager to Compiz
9. restart Qt application a few times - the tray icon disappears most of the time

Note that due to random behavior all user submitted "workarounds" are misleading, because none of them really works (except disabling Compiz or restarting gnome-panel in any way). People (including myself) notice, they change this and that, and suddenly the icon appears. But it's random. It's not a result of any particular user activity.

The one and only workaround for this problem is replacing the window manager with metacity.

This bug could be also posted as gnome, gnome-panel, gnome-notification-area bug, but it's really difficult to tell what's wrong here. As my test procedure shows - the problem is somewhere between gnome-panel and Compiz.

This bug is a major blocker for people still using Gnome 2.