notify-send does nothing, yet, libnotify is installed

Question

I am trying to use notify-send, but it doesn't display.

I am reasonably sure I have the correct packages installed, but I am not expert in configuring the notification settings.

I know I have some sort of notification package working - I get notifications from Pidgin (sporadically).

What is the correct configuration for notify-send to operate correctly?

I have libnotify-bin installed
I have the notification-daemon installed

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 14 '17 at 10:40

22

There are no special configuration files as far as I know so I would try and reinstall the package

sudo apt-get --reinstall install libnotify-bin notify-osd

edited Aug 14 '17 at 10:40

Anwar

77,924

answered Jul 18 '11 at 20:07

arrange

15,249

You don't have to reinstall the two packages separately, but can do so with a single command: sudo apt-get --reinstall install libnotify-bin notify-osd – Eliah Kagan Jul 05 '12 at 12:39
3

Under Debian Wheezy I need also start notification daemon like /usr/lib/notify-osd/notify-osd – gavenkoa Aug 08 '12 at 19:45
1

I also discover notification-daemon under Debian which have nicer look. – gavenkoa Aug 08 '12 at 19:50
For arch users: pacman -Rnsdd libnotify && pacman -Sy libnotify – Mark K Cowan Nov 25 '16 at 16:40
@gavenkoa THANKS it solved my problem! Gosh GOLD for you! :D – Jane Jan 27 '23 at 12:50
1

@gavenkoa can you please add that as an additional answer, just because I found it so incredibly helpful! thanks! ️ – Jane Jan 27 '23 at 12:52

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 20 '13 at 07:26

5

In my case, the notification was not displayed because I had netbeans in full screen mode in the background.

For some weird reason, the message was getting hidden.

edited Sep 20 '13 at 07:26

Simon

4,843

answered Sep 20 '13 at 02:06

StandardSpecification

281

Strange. Had the same problem with a terminal running full screen trying this. Making it a window magically fixes it. – jaxrtech Apr 10 '14 at 23:19
I had the same with PHPStorm, thanks for commenting as it was confusing me as to why it wasn't working. – Chris0 Aug 13 '17 at 18:26
Same thing but with emacs on full-screen, strange. – Asaf Jul 27 '23 at 18:52

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 11 '18 at 07:34

3

In my case, it only works with a zero time limit (-t 0) or with critical urgency (-u critical).

notify-send -t 0 "Nagging you."
notify-send -u critical "It's critical"

answered Jun 11 '18 at 07:34

fuujuhi

282

If you have xfce4-notifyd installed and it is happening to you, then open xfce4-notifyd-config and go to applications and let allowed the notify-send entry. – R. W. Prado Aug 26 '21 at 21:16

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 09 '17 at 13:25

3

In my case is because of I accidentally disable Notification Banners settings.

Note that this answer might not relevant to OP case which claims that Pidgin is working. But it should help someone based on the question title.

answered Mar 09 '17 at 13:25

林果皞

596

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 13 '11 at 20:53

1

You need to install libnotify-bin to be able to use the "notify-send" command.

edited Jul 13 '11 at 20:53

Jorge Castro

73,907

answered Jul 13 '11 at 20:35

Alin Andrei

7,358

It's been installed. – Paul Nathan Jul 13 '11 at 20:58
@Paul: then it should work... I am sure that's the required package to be able to use notify-send, unless something is wrong with libnotify on your system. – Alin Andrei Jul 14 '11 at 20:56

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 25 '14 at 07:56

little hint:

From: [https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-notifier/+bug/300463]

As described in http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=114&p=287 the update-notifier daemon is not run automatically on other desktops who support it, so I don't get automatic updates as specified in the configuration unless I manually run the update-manager (which works alright).

In:
   /etc/xdg/autostart/update-notifier.desktop
There is a line inside this file read like this:
   OnlyShowIn=GNOME;XFCE;
This line should be changed to: NotShowIn=KDE; Or other unsupported desktops.

I'm using Xubuntu 8.10 and the LXDE desktop environment (that's how I found out)

notify-send does nothing, yet, libnotify is installed

6 Answers6

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