netbeans icon does not show in unity launcher after starting and stopping netbeans a few times

[Alex Athanasopoulos]

If I close and reopen netbeans 2-3 times, then it ceases to show up in the unity launcher. If I minimize it, I have no way of restoring it. If I do "Lock in Launcher" while netbeans is starting, the icon stays in the launcher, but pressing it attempts to start a new instance of netbeans instead of bringing up the existing instance.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Reboot
2. Start Netbeans by clicking on a .desktop file
3. Close Netbeans
4. Repeat steps 2 + 3 a few times until the following happens:
Result: Netbeans icon does not show in Unity Launcher
Expected Result: Netbeans icon should show up in Unity Launcher

The problem gets fixed after a reboot, but happens again after a few launches of netbeans, as described above.
I noticed this after I upgraded Netbeans (from within Netbeans). I have installed Netbeans from a netbeans installer.

related to bug 980729
------------------------------------
Configuration:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with Unity

Netbeans 7.0, installed from the netbeans installer.
netbeans-I start netbeans by clicking on a .desktop file that I have in ~/Desktop/netbeans-7.0.desktop
Its contents is:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=NetBeans IDE 7.0
Comment=The Smarter Way to Code
Exec=/bin/sh "/mnt/storage/opt/netbeans-7.0/bin/netbeans"
Icon=/mnt/storage/opt/netbeans-7.0/nb/netbeans.png
Categories=Application;Development;Java;IDE
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=0

[Alex Athanasopoulos (filopodaros)]

After a fresh reboot launching netbeans temporarily shows two netbeans icons in the launcher. When netbeans finishes launching, the second icon goes away.
When the bug happens, only the temporary icon shows up in the launcher, and then it goes away.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I have noticed this happen with other applications, too, ie the unity launcher somehow loses track of the application so it no longer appears in the launcher, but I don't know what causes it.

When it happens, does ~/.xsession-errors contain any useful information?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Fahmy (fahmi)]

I'm using Ubuntu 12.04...this is happen to me too. I hope this will fix soon.

[Fahmy (fahmi)]

By the way this is log form xsession-errors.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

There is a video of the bug on https://launchpadlibrarian.net/105971600/netbeans-icon.ogv

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, could you try if that update makes a difference:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/5.12-0ubuntu1.1

it could be similar to bug #995916

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

setting to incomplete, I just downloaded netbeans 7.1.2 to test and the behaviour seems similar to gimp (open a loading screen then dismiss it and open the ui) and the icon is correctly listed with the stable update from yesterday, does anyone still get the issue with the current unity version?

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

I have latest Unity and latest NetBeans (7.1.2).

I get this behavior, but not so often. You can't just download and try few times. I can't reproduce it any time, but it happens. I recorded a video you mentioned in comment #6, and have running both latest versions at the time of recording.

More often it happens with skype windows, I can reproduce that one any time.

If you need some additional information (logs, configs...) I can provide that.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Sasa: when you say you have the latest unity, which version do you have? the fix just got uploaded as a candidate update (you need to opt in for proposed) yesterday, did you install it, restart your session and got the bug since?

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

@Sebastien Ah, sorry. When I say latest, I mean my system is up to date http://oi45.tinypic.com/345okli.jpg.

I'll wait for unity update then.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Sasa: you can get the update to test following the instructions on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed

[Alex Athanasopoulos (filopodaros)]

The latest precise-proposed version of unity seems to fix the problem for me.
I launched NetBeans 10 times in a row, and the icon was in the launcher every time.
In 2 of those launches the launcher showed 2 NetBeans icons, but relaunching fixed it.

p.s. I didn't want to update all my packages from precise-proposed, so I did "apt-get upgrade unity". But, I think it upgraded all packages. Should I have created /etc/apt/preferences as in the instructions? Could I add the file in /etc/apt/preferences.d? Can I disable precise-proposed and go back to the standard versions?

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

When will this sweet update land in regular update?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> When will this sweet update land in regular update?

in a week if no regression is found (that's the staging delay for stable updates)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the update has been published since, could you try with it?

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

I have latest updates installed. I still have same problem with Skype chat windows.

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

But, wait, it says "restart to complete updates" :)

[Sasa Stamenkovic (umpirsky)]

I have restarted my system.

Now I have 2 NetBeans icons.

Please see screenshot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Unity because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for unity (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Alex Athanasopoulos (filopodaros)]

I'm surprised that the status is "Confirmed", because I haven't encountered this problem since my last comment in May 2012. I'm still Using Ubuntu 12.04 and I've been doing all the updates.

[Rodrigo Lledó (rodhos-hp)]

I'm closing this bug. See comment #22.