Taskbar won't stay auto hidden

[Monkeyman]

I decided to bring this over from my introduction thread to see if I can't get some more help.

I installed Linux Lite 2.0 a few days ago.  I tried a couple other distros in the past with little success.  (I don't like the terminal.)  I'm having a couple issues with LL with the major one being the taskbar.  I like to auto hide it so I can see the entire window I'm working in.  The problem is that it won't stay auto hidden.  It'll stay auto hidden for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours but eventually, it will stay hidden, no matter what I do.  I've tried as many different combinations of options within the panel preferences as there are with little luck.  If I reboot, I get the auto hide function working again.

At this point, I'm pretty well frustrated and ready to revert to Windows.  I hope someone can help me figure this out.

[sonic]

First of all calm down. There might be an easy solution for this. That's the menu that you can change the autohide function: Go to Settings > Panel and you will see a similar window as below.



Automatically show and hide the panel must be checked. I don't there is other way to do this. Also  check that the panel is locked. If it is not be sure that lays at the bottom of the screen and then lock it.

[TeemarkTh0mas]

neat trick.. i like that.. thanks for sharing

[Monkeyman]

sonic --- Thanks but I've played around with that menu over and over.  It hasn't seemed to make a difference.  The problem isn't getting it to work the first time.  It does that (after a reboot).  The problem is trying to keep it working.  After a few minutes, a few hours or a day, the auto hide feature stops working and the task bar remains visible constantly.  When this happens, I can't see whatever part of the screen that's covered by the task bar.  (Besides, I like a clean desktop.)  I don't care for a side bar (I prefer the task bar at the bottom of the desktop) but I'm trying that now to see if it makes any difference.  I've tried to duplicate the error but it happens under different circumstances every time.

[Monkeyman]

I've had the task bar on the side all night and worked the computer pretty hard.  It's still auto hiding.  I'm on my way to bed so I'll see if it still works after the computer has been idling for 8 hours.  If this works, there must be a glitch in the system somewhere as it should work no matter where the task bar is placed.

I'll post when I get up.

[Monkeyman]

Three days with the taskbar on the side and it's been fine so far.  I can deal with this but I'd still like to know "why" the auto hide feature is stable when it's on the side but not when it's on the bottom.

[Monkeyman]

Not that anyone's reading this but there's a new development.  I had to reboot (must have maxed out the memory as things got VERY slow).  When I did, the side bar stopped auto hiding.  I tried putting it back on the bottom of the desktop and it auto hides just fine.  This must be an issue with LL.  Any suggestions?  This is getting annoying, fast.

[Scott(0)]

Hi Monkeyman

Not that anyone's reading this but there's a new development.

Just because there are no replies doesn't mean people are ignoring your post. It's more likely they just don't have an answer for you currently.

Have you tried the xfce website and forum?
www.xfce.org

When Googling the phrase
"xfce panel won't hide"
I get many results.
https://www.google.com/#q=xfce+panel+won%27t+hide

Here's one link to a Linux Mint forum post titled - xfce panel won't autohide.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=173227
from this link (this is just one part of the entire post):

hmmmmm I found a solution. reset the panel with 'xfce4-panel -r' but that begs the question why does it need to be reset or..... what happened to cause it to need to be reset?

[Monkeyman]

Hi Monkeyman

Not that anyone's reading this but there's a new development.

Just because there are no replies doesn't mean people are ignoring your post. It's more likely they just don't have an answer for you currently.

Have you tried the xfce website and forum?
www.xfce.org

When Googling the phrase
"xfce panel won't hide"
I get many results.
https://www.google.com/#q=xfce+panel+won%27t+hide

Here's one link to a Linux Mint forum post titled - xfce panel won't autohide.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=173227
from this link (this is just one part of the entire post):

hmmmmm I found a solution. reset the panel with 'xfce4-panel -r' but that begs the question why does it need to be reset or..... what happened to cause it to need to be reset?

You're right and I apologize.  After previous issues with other Linux distros, I'm just getting overly frustrated.

I didn't know the taskbar was called an xfce bar.  I'm pretty new to Linux and don't know all the jargon.  I did a search for "taskbar won't auto hide in Linux" and got plenty of results but none that seemed to solve the problem.

I assume the "xfce4-panel -r" command should go in a terminal.  If the taskbar DOESN'T need to be reset, will this hurt anything?  Will it erase all the settings/icons/etc I've already put in there?

[Scott(0)]

I assume the "xfce4-panel -r" command should go in a terminal.  If the taskbar DOESN'T need to be reset, will this hurt anything?  Will it erase all the settings/icons/etc I've already put in there?

Yes, the command

Code:

xfce4-panel -r

should go in a terminal

I did a test of this command in virtualbox and it didn't hurt anything on my system. I can't say for sure what it will do on your system.

A safer testing environment would be to create a new user account
Menu > All > User Manager, or

Linux Lite Manual > Install Guide > Adding another user
file:///usr/share/doc/litemanual/install.html#adduser

and test things there. It's still possible to cause damage but it's less likely to damage your primary user account if something does go wrong.