Bug 297315 - deskutils/mate-indicator-applet depends on obsolete libindicator instead of libayatana-indicator
Summary: deskutils/mate-indicator-applet depends on obsolete libindicator instead of l...
Status: New
Alias: None
Product: Ports & Packages
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Individual Port(s) (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: amd64 Any
: --- Affects Many People
Assignee: freebsd-gnome (Nobody)
URL: https://www.freshports.org/deskutils/...
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2026-08-06 18:52 UTC by Ott Köstner
Modified: 2026-08-06 18:52 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
bugzilla: maintainer-feedback? (gnome)

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Description Ott Köstner 2026-08-06 18:52:18 UTC 
The FreeBSD port deskutils/mate-indicator-applet has an outdated build dependency on devel/libindicator. The port's upstream build system already supports Ayatana Indicators, but the FreeBSD Makefile still forces the obsolete Ubuntu Indicator implementation.

Environment

FreeBSD: 15.0-RELEASE-p10
Ports tree: current ports tree at time of report
Port: deskutils/mate-indicator-applet-1.26.0_4

Description

The port Makefile currently contains:

make
BUILD_DEPENDS=  libindicator>=12.10.1:devel/libindicator

This dependency pulls in the old Ubuntu Indicator implementation:

libindicator-12.10.1_3

However, the upstream `configure` script for `mate-indicator-applet-1.26.0` checks for both Ubuntu Indicators and Ayatana Indicators:

ayatana-indicator3-0.4 >= 0.6.0
indicator3-0.4 >= 12.10.2

On a FreeBSD system, the Ayatana implementation is available and satisfies the requirement:

ayatana-indicator3-0.4 >= 0.6.0

but the old Ubuntu implementation provided by `libindicator` does not satisfy the required version:

Package dependency requirement 'indicator3-0.4 >= 12.10.2' could not be satisfied.
Package 'indicator3-0.4' has version '12.10.1', required version is '>= 12.10.2'

This causes the configure stage to fail with:

configure: error: Either Ayatana Indicators or Ubuntu Indicators are required to build mate-indicator-applet.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install/build `deskutils/mate-indicator-applet` from ports:

cd /usr/ports/deskutils/mate-indicator-applet
make install

2. The port installs:

devel/libindicator

as a build dependency.

3. The configure stage fails because the Ubuntu Indicator version is too old.

Workaround

Manually modified the port Makefile:

Replace

make
BUILD_DEPENDS=  libindicator>=12.10.1:devel/libindicator

with

make
BUILD_DEPENDS=  libayatana-indicator>=0.6.0:devel/libayatana-indicator

After this change make completes successfully.

Expected behavior

The port should use the actively maintained Ayatana Indicator implementation or otherwise provide an OPTIONS-based selection between Ubuntu Indicators and Ayatana Indicators.