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Desktop Notifications

Apps inside the container cannot show desktop notifications on their own. The container has its own D-Bus session bus, and no notification server runs there. The notify proxy is an opt-in feature that forwards notifications from the container to your host desktop.

The main use is Outlook on the web in the container's Edge: new mail and calendar reminders show as normal host notifications.

What it does

When enabled, intuneme starts a proxy on the host. It claims org.freedesktop.Notifications on the container's session bus and passes each notification to your host's notification server (GNOME Shell, KDE Plasma, mako, dunst, and so on).

Clicks come back too. A click on a notification opens the mail or event in Edge, and buttons on the notification work.

Enable the proxy

intuneme config notify-proxy enable
intuneme stop && intuneme start

If the container is already running, the stop and start are required. intuneme start exposes the container's session bus at boot and then starts the proxy.

Important

Edge looks for a notification server only once, when it starts. Start Edge after intuneme start has finished. If Edge was already running when the proxy started, close and reopen Edge.

After enabling, intuneme status includes a line showing whether the proxy is running.

The proxy stops when your host session ends, for example at logout. Notifications then stop until the next intuneme start.

Outlook on the web

  1. Open Outlook on the web in the container's Edge.
  2. Allow notifications for outlook.office.com when Edge asks, or in Edge site settings.
  3. In Outlook, open Settings → General → Notifications and turn on desktop notifications for mail and calendar.

Outlook on the web sends notifications only while its tab or window is open.

Disable the proxy

intuneme config notify-proxy disable
intuneme stop && intuneme start

Requirements

  • Container must be running (intuneme start)
  • A notification server on the host session bus (standard on any desktop)

Note

Any app in the container can show notifications on the host while the proxy runs. The proxy limits what they can do: it passes only a fixed set of hints, copies notification images from the container's /tmp after safety checks, cannot replace or close the notifications of host apps, and allows about one notification per second after a burst of 10.