# Network Manager woes

## Gurt

Hello all, 

I'm having two problems with Network Manager:

1) when I start a Xfce session, the nm-applet icon won't show up in the notification area of the panel. The connection works fine, I get the usual messages like "Connected to [SSID]" etc, but the icon just isn't there. By some dark sorcery, changing the desktop theme makes it show up properly.

2) I can't get a working VPN connection. Openvpn and networkmanager-openvpn were emerged just fine and the VPN settings are correct, so I am absolutely clueless as to what might be going wrong here.

Thanks for the attention!

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## Gurt

Okay, solved #2... I had stupidly forgotten to build tun/tap support in the kernel. Now I still need to figure out #1...

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## fredbear5150

 *Gurt wrote:*   

> Okay, solved #2... I had stupidly forgotten to build tun/tap support in the kernel. Now I still need to figure out #1...

 

Did you solve issue #1?

I have been getting something similar for a while, I use the MATE desktop with openrc, plus the same problem occurs across two different laptops.

I too get no nm-applet icon in the MATE notification area, if I go to a shell prompt and restart NetworkManager it then appears, and I can connect. This usually happens on wi-fi and when I have moved a laptop between different wi-fi networks between reboots.

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## BillyD

I haven't used XFCE for a while, but last year when I tried it out I remember I had to reload the panel to get some of the notification area icons to show up (alt+f2 r maybe?)

Not sure if they fixed that issue or not, but it was a known bug.

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