Comment 2 for bug 410525

I have a similar issue that is may be due to the same bug.

I ve put xchat in the startup program list, with "xchat --minimize=2" as the launch command. I guess when xchat is launched by gnome-session, the gnome-panel is not completely ready (or the notification area), and the result is , when the login is completed, xchat is in the background with no icon in the notification area.