PIA message shows but doesn't run

Petro

Is this different from my problem?
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/28902/no-icons-or-control-in-notification-bar#latest

I couldn't follow all of it but my issue seems slightly different. 

I upgraded from 17.04 to 17.10.   I usually started PIA in the menu - and it would show the 'red' 'Connection Status - You are disconnected' message.  Then, I might be able to click the bottom left corner and get the PIA icon/tray? (I don't know what you call it) to display and then I'm able to connect.  It didn't always show up even after clicking so I would click the icon in the menu and try again.  Eventually, it would work.   I consider it a bug. 

After the Ubuntu 17.10 upgrade, no amount of clicking brings up the 'tray' - this red gui application still hasn't shown up.  I'm not sure what to do now.  I think it's another bug between the most recent Gnome and PIA.  

EDIT:  I don't think the app is even starting properly.  The red 'not connected' message flashes on the top right part of the screen and that's it.
I just thought I would try running PIA using Ubuntu Gnome Classic but the experience was no different. 

I apologize for the poor explanation but I don't know how to explain it.   I believe it will connect fine once I am able to click 'connect' with the application but it's not showing up at all.   When I click the bottom left corner, all that happens is the Gnome menu 'Show Applications' brings up all the applications/programs - typical Gnome operation.  

Help?

Petro

Wow, so many complaints of PIA not working on Ubuntu 17.10.  I think you're likely to lose customers than people moving to a different distro.  That's pretty bad, man. 

Max-P

Which version of the app are you using, and have you tried reinstalling it?

Ubuntu basically replaced Unity with Gnome on 17.10, and as such your previous install of it might be missing some stuff it needs.

There are three ways to produce a tray icon, and PIA supports two of them: Xembed, and AppIndicator. The AppIndicator support is pretty much exclusive to Ubuntu, and in the absence of it, PIA just falls back to Xembed.

The problem is that, Gnome has officially dropped support for Xembed, so you have to use AppIndicator support if you want it to work on Gnome. This will only work if Ubuntu's AppIndicator extension is also loaded in the shell.


The upcoming v76 release addresses a ton of the Linux issues thankfully!

Petro

I thought, I would follow your steps but the output is as follows when trying the last step:
$ ./pia-v75-installer-linux.sh
Private Internet Access is already running. Please quit it and run the installer again

LOL!

Imho, you have to step up your support in Linux.  I don't even like Gnome but unfortunately, it is one of the most popular ones...in fact, I don't like any of them now including KDE.  Btw, I tried it using the Cinnamon desktop just for fun and the icon is in the right corner but when you right-click to get the servers, it's just a bunch of 'boxes.'   I took a screenshot.   I can only shrug. 

Max-P

Yep, also known and fixed in the upcoming version.

Workaround: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/comment/51299/#Comment_51299

Petro

Reinstalled and can click the icon in the menu but nothing happens now.   LOL!!   It doesn't even show the red disconnected message. 

Petro

Edit:

Okay, I tried all your steps and here's an update as applies to my situation.

I hope you or someone can comment....

If you are familiar with Ubuntu (17.10?), they have a newer version, 17.10 Artful A. and newest Gnome 3.26.1?   I understand they will use Wayland (Server), too, so I am not sure what the login sessions options are.   There's Ubuntu w/ xorg and Gnome w/ xorg.  After completing the steps, I found:   The PIA application doesn't work with the Gnome w/ xorg session.  It's the same thing - the pia application will not indicate it was started - I see nothing now.  That is, not even the red 'disconnected' flash.

If I log in with the 'Ubuntu xorg' session, it does work - the application shows up on the top right corner of the screen with the icon.   It logged in on 'it's own' which is what I am not used to.   Previously, it would just show the 'disconnected' message and allow me to choose the server.  It chose a local server and I had to disconnect and pick a different one if I wanted.

I was not having any success a while ago so I downloaded and installed 'the rest' of the Cinnamon desktop environment.  I tested PIA with it and after the last step I was given (the 'workaround'), it works well.   I am able to start the app and connect.   It actually looks pretty good w/ Cinnamon.    I might be wrong but there seems to be some buggy thing going on with Gnome/Ubuntu - if anyone wants me to try and describe my experience better (i.e. in more detail), I can try?   I just thought it was interesting that the two sessions provided totally different experiences.  

Petro

I hope those who read this thread read my other posts (in 'Debian Stretch' thread).  

Thanks for your patience and leniency.  

Max-P

Hi again! I'll try to reply to each things in turn - if you have any more questions please just ask more questions and it will be my pleasure to reply to them for you.

After completing the steps, I found:   The PIA application doesn't work with the Gnome w/ xorg session.  It's the same thing - the pia application will not indicate it was started - I see nothing now.  That is, not even the red 'disconnected' flash.

I have mentionned it in the Debian thread but I'll expand here for posterity:

Gnome decided tray icons are deprecated. They support neither the legacy Xembed (the thing that showed up in the bottom left corner previously) nor AppIndicator (which Ubuntu puts in the top right beside the user menu).

Ubuntu being pretty invested with their AppIndicator and having to deal with backwards compatibility of what they introduced, they brought back AppIndicator to their Gnome session. This is done through a Gnome-shell extension, and the "Ubuntu on Xorg" vs "Gnome on Xorg" basically just toggles between vanilla Gnome or Ubuntu's customized profile to load its dock (modified Dash-to-Dock extension) as well as its AppIndicator extension. If you check in gnome-tweak-tool, they're there:

If you pay close attention to the above screenshot, you'll see that I also have Topicons plus installed. This is an option I explored before 17.10 dropped in case we couldn't update the app in time before we ended up being able to make it work with AppIndicator for now. If you'd like to use vanilla Gnome, this is a good option to consider as it will bring back the legacy Xembed tray right into the menu bar at top.

It's also possible to make it work with AppIndicator on GNOME, but we first have to convince the app it is an Unity session by adding the environment variable:

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity ~/.pia_manager/pia_manager/run.sh

Once you've confirmed it works, you can add it permanently to the shell script the above command calls.

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Also, you mentionned in another thread having the unreadable menu. This one is another side effect of the 17.04->17.10 upgrade which seems to have changed something with regards to font libraries. When using a desktop environment that's not Gnome/Unity, PIA uses Xembed as all the other DEs uses that. This uses the standard GTK tray icon with a standard GTK menu and this is where the squares appear: it's not the same menu as with AppIndicator at all. Entirely different code path. This one is managed by nwjs, which is why I linked you to the workaround to update it manually (v76 will come with it up to date obviously).

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As for it automatically connecting, it is fortunately an option in the settings that you can toggle, once you get the tray icon to work properly

If you have any further questions or trouble don't hesitate to ask them here and I'll do my best to explain why and provide workarounds as necessary (in addition of reporting them on our bug tracker of course).