Xfce4 Indicator Plugin

Indicator element appears over the panel, not above

Bug #1416843 reported by Ron Johnson
30
This bug affects 5 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Xfce4 Indicator Plugin
Confirmed
Medium
xfce4-indicator-plugin (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

$ apt-cache policy xfce4-indicator-plugin
xfce4-indicator-plugin:
  Installed: 2.3.2-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.3.2-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.3.2-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

When I click on an icon in the Indicator "region", the pop-up menu pops up overlays the xfce4 panel, instead of being above the panel as was the action in 13.10, and even currently in tools(?) like Whisker Menu an Places.
This means that the lowest menu item sits directly over the mouse. For an app like Transmission-gtk, where "Quit" is the lowest item in the menu, this leads to many errant closings of the program.

I tried to create a screenshot, but it doesn't work when a Panel menu has popped up.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: xfce4-indicator-plugin 2.3.2-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-44.73-generic 3.13.11-ckt12
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-44-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Feb 1 08:19:36 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-05-22 (619 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130423.1)
SourcePackage: xfce4-indicator-plugin
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2015-01-04 (27 days ago)

Revision history for this message
Ron Johnson (ron-l-johnson) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I cannot reproduce this bug, or maybe I do not understand the problem.

You should be able to create a screenshot with the following command (5 second delay):

xfce4-screenshooter -f -d 5

Revision history for this message
Elfy (elfy) wrote :

I can reproduce if

panel is at bottom rather than top

If I enable reserving space then with panel at bottom I do not see this, however currently testing intellihide so option unavailable normally

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in xfce4-indicator-plugin (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Elfy (elfy) wrote :

Meant to say, seeing this in Vivid.

Revision history for this message
In , Elfy (elfy) wrote :

Running Xubuntu Vivid 15.04

With panel placed at bottom of screen, using any app located within the indicator plugin it's menu covers the panel rather than appear just above the panel.

If space reserved for borders is enabled the indicator menu appears properly above the panel.

(Currently testing the intellihide panel hide, so that option is unavailable)

If panel is at screen top - then indicator menu appears correctly regardless.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in xfce4-indicator-plugin:
importance: Unknown → Medium
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Ron Johnson (ron-l-johnson) wrote :

Here is an example of the bug. Note that it did not occur in 13.10.

Revision history for this message
In , Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton) wrote :

This happens because the the indicator applet now uses Gtk3 indicators. In gtk3, the menu placement code has been rewritten in gdk. It now follows the struts and _NET_WORKAREA_GEOMETRY more closely.

This X atom is used to inform all applications which areas of the display are covered by panels. gdk will attempt to stop menus from overlapping these areas, and the window manager will attempt to keep fullscreen windows from overlapping these areas (those would appear behind panels, menus in front.)

So clearly the autohide panel should not squash fullscreen windows. It should appear above them. But that means when the panel unhides, it can't set a strut. And that means gdk3 will draw menus on top of it. Gtk2 continues to not do this though, for reasons I don't understand.

So this appears to be a regression in Gdk3, which is also the cause of https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10625

Revision history for this message
flan_suse (flansuse) wrote :

Confirmed. This happens for me as well. Even on the Xubuntu live CDs.

Revision history for this message
Ron Johnson (ron-l-johnson) wrote :

The problem still happens in Xubuntu 16.04 with xfce4-panel 4.12.0-3ubuntu2 and libgtk-3-0 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.

Revision history for this message
flan_suse (flansuse) wrote :

Fully updated Xubuntu 16.04.1, and this bug still exists. Definitely the most annoying, longstanding bug for Xubuntu / Xfce users.

I don't want to place the panel on the top of the screen, since it breaks Fitt's Law for closing windows and clicking on Google Chrome browser tabs.

Revision history for this message
Sean Davis (bluesabre) wrote :

Upstream bug still open after GitLab migration: https://gitlab.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-indicator-plugin/-/issues/6

tags: added: focal impish jammy
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