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The first external drive in Ubuntu 18.04 appears on the desktop but to access subsequent drives it seems I have to use "Files".

My desktop is sometimes a bit messy and it would be easier if all external drives appeared in the dock.

Is there any way to have external drives appear in the dock, as it was in Ubuntu 16.04?

Organic Marble
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Garoolgan
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  • As far as I know it's not easily doable yet with Ubuntu dock in GNOME, but you can still use Unity: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1040890/how-to-make-ubuntu-18-04-desktop-be-like-ubuntu-14-04-use-unity – pomsky Sep 18 '18 at 07:14

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Removable Drive Menu is a status menu for accessing and unmounting removable devices. The Removable Drive Menu status menu is accessed by clicking its icon in the Panel notification area as shown in the below screenshot. The Removable Drive Menu GNOME Shell extension can be installed from Ubuntu Software.

enter image description here

It appears that this GNOME Shell extension extension is sometimes either delaying or interfering with the normal loading of other notification icons in the GNOME shell Panel. This problem is not necessarily related to the Removable Drive Menu extension specifically as other GNOME shell extensions have been known to cause the same problem.

The way to restore the missing networking icon to the Panel is by restarting GNOME Shell. Press Alt + F2, and then type r in the pop-up Run a Command window and press Enter to restart GNOME Shell without interfering with any already opened windows.

Alternatively you can run the following to command restart GNOME Shell by replacing the running window manager:

Open the terminal and type:

setsid gnome-shell --replace

Press Enter again before you close the terminal.

setsid gnome-shell --replace restarts the GNOME shell without closing any open applications. For example, after restarting the GNOME shell an existing Firefox window and all of its existing tabs would remain open.

karel
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  • I have lost the Ethernet visual notification in the dock since adding the Removable Drive Menu GNOME Shell extension. – Garoolgan Sep 19 '18 at 04:29
  • Does it come back when you run this command setsid gnome-shell --replace ? After it comes back you need to press the Enter key before closing the terminal. If this works I will explain why it worked in the next comment. – karel Sep 19 '18 at 04:32
  • Yes thanks the icon with the 3 little squares (Ethernet) has come back. Another thing I'm noticing is that the flight mode is often switched on. I suppose that doesn't make any difference when cable connected but I switch it off each time. – Garoolgan Sep 19 '18 at 05:10
  • I do think, even having installed "The Removable Drive Menu GNOME Shell extensions " moving the connected external drives to the desktop is a mistake and in order to be fair and so I don't think it necessarily a mistake, I simply don't like the fact that all applications now with 18.04 come up in full screen. – Garoolgan Sep 23 '18 at 08:29
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    Having tested a few times I can now confirm that whether or not the external HDD appears after boot-up depends on when the powered USB hub (through which the HDD is connected) is switched on. I now try to remember to switch ON the hub, before hitting the ON button on the PC. – Garoolgan Oct 04 '18 at 08:45