Linux Lite Forums

Hi all, 

I´m using Linux Lite 6.2 which makes use of (a modified version of) the xfce DE. By default it comes with the xfce-panel. The version of the panel LL uses is 4.16.3-1.
I´m sure you all know that. 

Every now and then I notice that some icons are missing from the panel. Those icons should be visible at all times when a certain programme/process is started.

Here´s an example:

I start nixnote2 and the respective nixnote-icon is shown in the panel. That´s alright so far. But suddenly - seemingly out of nowhere - the icon vanishes although the nixnote process is still running.

The same can theoretically happen to any other icon, like the Linux Lite Terminal-icon.  :-[

However: when I restart the panel process with "xfce4-panel -r" all icons are there again. Well, although this seems not to be anything major it still can be a bit annyoing to a certain extent.

Curiously enough there are days when all works well, without any hiccups but today I needed to restart the panel already twice...  :032:

Has anyone of you encoutered anything similiar to that? And if so, could you fix the issue?

Many thanks for your help in advance and many greetings

Rosika  :wave

P.S.:

BTW: there are no log entries indicating that something would not be right. I looked for that with lnav.

I've experienced this on occasionally.

I think it is this xfce bug which should be fixed in in xfce4-panel 4.16.4 and 4.17.0

https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues/188

Another workaround suggested is to just hover the mouse pointer over the launcher area.
I never remembered to try that - normally just use Alt Tab to find the missing application and the panel eventually self fixes.

Hello [member=9039]stevef[/member], 

thank you very much for your answer.

Also: thanks for the link. I´ll read it through carefully.

It´s good to know I´m not alone with this "problem". 

Quote:I think it is this xfce bug which should be fixed in in xfce4-panel 4.16.4 and 4.17.0

O.K. This gives me some hope then. I´ll gladly wait for updates on the present panel, knowing the issue will likely be fixed then.

Quote:Another workaround suggested is to just hover the mouse pointer over the launcher area

Great, I´ll try that next time.

Quote:normally just use Alt Tab to find the missing application and the panel eventually self fixes

Good to know. I´ll try that as well.


So now I know a bit more about the subject.
Thanks a lot for your help.  :043:

Many greetings from Rosika  :wave

Hi again, 

just another question.

Now that I´ve learned that the 4.18 version of the xfce4-panel doesn´t have the problem discussed here... what about this procedure:


and then:
This would provide

but it would also affect 45 other packages... :023:

So I´m not quite sure about that. Can this be considerd to be really safe?

As far as I know Linux Lite is making use of a modified version of the xfce DE.
I´ve no idea whether using the xubuntu-dev/staging ppa would interfere with this “speciality” or not…

What do you think of it?

Many thanks and many greetings from Rosika.  :wave

Quote:What do you think of it?

For me the issue is very rare.
At worst it is a temporary inconvenience and very easy to work around.
The value of using a stable and supported platform with LTS status is much greater.

[member=9039]stevef[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your views on the matter. 

Quote:The value of using a stable and supported platform with LTS status is much greater.

Yes, I totally agree.  :045:

Well, actually I haven´t done the upgrade of those packages. I just wanted to take a look at potential changes.
After that I deleted the ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging entries from software-properties-gtk again and refreshed the package cache.
So it´s back to the defaults again.

Quote:At worst it is a temporary inconvenience and very easy to work around.

Well, this one didn´t work for me:

Quote:can be rectified by hovering the mouse over a launcher in the panel, without depressing any mouse buttons: any erroneously missing window-buttons are restored.

(from: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/-/issues/188 ).

I´ll still have to try this one:

Quote:An other way to rectify this bug without using xfce4-panel -r, is to right-click on the panel, and go to dashboard -> settings.
When the settings window appears, "any erroneously missing window-buttons are restored, and any superfluous blank window-button spaces (left over from previously closed windows) are eliminated"

Thanks a lot for your kind help.

Many greetings from Rosika  :wave

(04-14-2023, 01:52 PM)Rosika link Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all, 

...

Has anyone of you encoutered anything similiar to that? And if so, could you fix the issue?

Many thanks for your help in advance and many greetings

Rosika  :wave

P.S.:

BTW: there are no log entries indicating that something would not be right. I looked for that with lnav.

I am experiencing something similar (I'm using Linux Lite 6.4).  For me, I can reproduce a panel disappearing situation each time by adding the program Audio Recorder as a launcher and then removing from the panel.

What I did was use the program Autokey to create a script that issues the xfce3-panel to recover the panel.
I set Autokey to start each time the system starts and assigned the script to Ctrl+F6 keys (can be assigned to any key(s) you choose).

This doesn't stop the panel from disappearing.  However,  now when this happens, to recover, I just press the Ctrl+F6 keys to run the Autokey script .

[member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your post.

Quote:However,  now when this happens, to recover, I just press the Ctrl+F6 keys to run the Autokey script .

That´s a great solution. Thanks for sharing.

I´m still running xfce4-panel 4.16.3-1. So the problem I described still occurs, but not very frequently.

I´m using this workaround now:

In the keyboard-settings-GUI I defined the two shortcuts I need:

- CTRL+Alt+R  for the command  "xfce-panel -r"
- CTRL+Alt+N  for the command  "xfce-panel"

I need the second one only if the first one doesn´t have any effect, which might be the case sometimes.

Many greetings from Rosika  :wave

You are very welcome.  Sounds like you have a similar working solution  by assigning the needed commands to CTRL key combinations.

(I meant to say xfce4 in my previous comment, not xfce3).

(08-11-2023, 02:02 PM)Rosika link Wrote: [ -> ][member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your post.

Quote:However,  now when this happens, to recover, I just press the Ctrl+F6 keys to run the Autokey script .

That´s a great solution. Thanks for sharing.

I´m still running xfce4-panel 4.16.3-1. So the problem I described still occurs, but not very frequently.

I´m using this workaround now:

In the keyboard-settings-GUI I defined the two shortcuts I need:

- CTRL+Alt+R  for the command  "xfce-panel -r"
- CTRL+Alt+N  for the command  "xfce-panel"

I need the second one only if the first one doesn´t have any effect, which might be the case sometimes.

Many greetings from Rosika  :wave

[member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

Quote:I meant to say xfce4 in my previous comment, not xfce3

I didn´t even notice you wrote xfce3. In my mind I just converted it to xfce4.  ^-^
Still: thanks for the correction.

Many greetings from Rosika  :wave