I didn't change anything, but ... (grin) ... I applied updates to my Ubuntu Lucid laptop.

Seriously, after a reboot, my gnome panel shows a notification area applet, but there are no status icons displayed. Normally I find
wicd, hplip, volume, evolution, battery, etc after a cold boot.
These did not show this time. I cannot find log entries that show
troubles with the notifier icon applets ... then I'm not sure what
I would look for or where to look.

I tried to remove the notification-area item from the panel and then reload it. This did not change anything.

I'll try to remove notification-area, reboot, add it back and see if that makes a difference.

Other suggestions?
~~~ 0;-Dan

Ok maybe is this offtopic but i think i heard something about removing notification-area in ubuntu..

It was there big as day after my Lucid install.
Now it is present, but empty.

I created a second username. After login, the notification
area was present and worked fine.

Soooooooooooooooooo

Now I know that I damaged my desktop parts somehow.
Can anyone offer a clue? (Thanks, the dot-something folders of my
$HOME folder. Nice.) I would prefer to fix the error rather than
move all my desktop parts aside and make all new. Again, I would
appreciate clues from someone who knows.

~~~ 0;-Dan

sorry if i was misunderstood, ubuntu notification area is being removed by ubuntu developers.

Why?

And is it even possible via package updates?

programs like transmission and rhytembox used it too much,
don't take this as confirmed news

If I used either of those apps I'd understand.
In my case things simply vanished from the panel, and I cannot get them back without running from a terminal and backgrounding them.
Any other way I try to start them at login no longer works and
no one seems to find out why.

Sigh
~~~ 0;-Dan