Comment 10 for bug 985788

This still happens occasionally for me on login, but I figured out that I can reproduce it deterministically if I restart nm-applet while gnome-shell is running:

$ pkill nm-applet
$ nm-applet &
[1] 9146
** Message: applet now removed from the notification area
** Message: applet now embedded in the notification area
** Message: applet now removed from the notification area
** Message: Stopping registered applet secret agent because GNOME Shell is running
** Message: using fallback from indicator to GtkStatusIcon
** Message: applet now embedded in the notification area

Now the VPN doesn’t work, and gnome-shell logs this error:

      JS LOG: Error 'VPN plugin at /usr/lib/gnome-shell/nm-openconnect-auth-dialog is not executable' while processing VPN keyfile '/etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-openconnect-service.name'
      JS LOG: Error 'VPN plugin at /usr/lib/gnome-shell/nm-pptp-auth-dialog is not executable' while processing VPN keyfile '/etc/NetworkManager/VPN/nm-pptp-service.name'
      JS LOG: Invalid VPN service type (cannot find authentication binary)

$ pkill gnome-shell
$ pkill nm-applet
$ nm-applet &
[1] 9782
** Message: applet now removed from the notification area
** Message: using fallback from indicator to GtkStatusIcon
$ gnome-shell &

Now when I try to connect to the VPN, gnome-shell logs the same error(!), but now nm-applet takes over and lets me log in and connect.