I use Gnome. If XChat is added to the startup applications list or if gnome-panel is forcibly reloaded (e.g., killall) with XChat already running, the XChat icon does not appear in the tray anymore. The common in the two cases is that XChat is loaded before gnome-panel. The same issue appears to be reported at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xchat/+bug/410525 . Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run XChat 2. Run "killall gnome-panel" Actual Results: All other icons remain as they should, but not the XChat one. Expected Results: The XChat icon is persistent. Portage 2.1.9.24 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop/gnome, gcc-4.4.4, glibc-2.11.2-r3, 2.6.34-gentoo-r12 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.34-gentoo-r12-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T8100_@_2.10GHz-with-gentoo-1.12.14 Timestamp of tree: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:00:02 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.1_p7 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r1 dev-lang/python: 2.6.5-r3, 3.1.2-r4 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.1-r2 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.14-r1 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.3-r1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.65-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.20.1-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 4.4.4-r2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.10 sys-devel/make: 3.81-r2 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.30-r1 (sys-kernel/linux-headers) ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="*" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--ask --jobs=2 --load-average=3" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.tups.lv/source/ http://mirror.elen.ktu.lt/gentoo/" LANG="ru_RU.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="ru en lv" MAKEOPTS="-j3 -l3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /var/lib/layman/armagetron /var/lib/layman/quake3" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acpi alsa amd64 avahi bash-completion berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt cxx dbus djvu dri dts dvd dvdr eds emboss encode evo exif fam ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gdbm gdu gif gnome gnome-keyring gpm gstreamer gtk hal hddtemp iconv ieee1394 jpeg latex lcms libnotify mad mikmod mmx mmxext mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib nautilus ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf perl png policykit ppds pppd python qt3support readline samba sdl session smp spell sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg symlink sysfs tcpd theora threads tiff truetype unicode upnp usb v4l2 vim-syntax vorbis wifi x264 xcb xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid xvmc zeroconf zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="ru en lv" PHP_TARGETS="php5-2" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Actually, it's a bit more generic (and most likely an effect of xchat hacks) as I don't use gnome-panel, yet am still affected by this problem (though I don't recall specific circumstances).
Packages was removed from tree, see bug #460038
