xfce4-panel: some icons missing (sometimes)

[Rosika]

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.

[stevef]

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.

[Rosika]

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". 

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.

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

Great, I´ll try that next time.

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

[Rosika]

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:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/staging

and then:

Code:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

This would provide

Code:

xfce4-panel/jammy 4.18.2-1~bpo22.04 amd64 [aktualisierbar von: 4.16.3-1]

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

[stevef]

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.

[Rosika]

[member=9039]stevef[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your views on the matter. 

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.

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

Well, this one didn´t work for me:

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:

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

[TimeTravel]

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 .

[Rosika]

[member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your post.

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

[TimeTravel]

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).

[member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

Hi and thank you for your post.

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

[Rosika]

[member=7651]TimeTravel[/member]:

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