synergy indicator state not updating

[henczati]

The Synergy indicator icon and its menu does not reflect (or rather detect) the connectedness state of the application.
I.e.: even after I start a server / connect a client in the synergy GUI window, the indicator icon shows no change and in the indicator drop-down menu the "start" option is still enabled while the "stop" option is disabled making management possible only by always opening the GUI window (by selecting "show" from the indicator menu).

Could this have arisen due to, say, using an outdated dependency package with a slightly different API while packaging?

Even if it could be, it would definitely not be your mistake, as this problem was already present in synergy 1.4.12-3ubuntu1 from the official ubuntu repos.

Btw, I use Lubuntu 14.04, and have the following (possibly relevant) packages with "indicator" in their names:

gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1:
  Installed: 12.10.1+13.10.20130920-0ubuntu4.1
--
indicator-application:
  Installed: 12.10.1+14.04.20140407-0ubuntu1
--
indicator-application-gtk2:
  Installed: 12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2
--
libappindicator1:
  Installed: 12.10.1+13.10.20130920-0ubuntu4.1
--
libappindicator3-1:
  Installed: 12.10.1+13.10.20130920-0ubuntu4.1
--
libindicator3-7:
  Installed: 12.10.2+14.04.20141007.1-0ubuntu1
--
libindicator7:
  Installed: 12.10.2+14.04.20141007.1-0ubuntu1
--
lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin:
  Installed: 0.6.1-0ubuntu3

[henczati (henczati)]

I just noticed that when I start synergy from the command line (while autoconnecting as a client) it outputs:

*** WARNING *** The program 'synergy' uses the Apple Bonjour compatibility layer of Avahi.
*** WARNING *** Please fix your application to use the native API of Avahi!
*** WARNING *** For more information see <http://0pointer.de/avahi-compat?s=libdns_sd&e=synergy>

Then when I stop it in the GUI window and click "start" in the indicator menu, it starts the client again, but also outputs:

Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property `GtkRange::activate-slider' of type `gboolean' from rc file value "((GString*) 0x7f70a7a06520)" of type `GString'

If I click the still enabled "start" option from the indicator menu again, it restarts the client (seen in the in-GUI log), but does not output the previous debug message again.

When I stop the client again and switch to server mode (but not starting it yet), it outputs:

*** WARNING *** The program 'synergy' called 'DNSServiceRegister()' which is not supported (or only supported partially) in the Apple Bonjour compatibility layer of Avahi.
*** WARNING *** Please fix your application to use the native API of Avahi!
*** WARNING *** For more information see <http://0pointer.de/avahi-compat?s=libdns_sd&e=synergy&f=DNSServiceRegister>

The indicator menu *does* detect whether the GUI window is shown, and enables/disables the "show" and "hide" indicator menu options accordingly.

[henczati (henczati)]

If I set GTK_DEBUG=1, the (first, as it occurs only once per run) click of the "start" indicator menu option outputs:

Gtk-Message: /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:45: failed to retrieve property `GtkRange::activate-slider' of type `gboolean' from rc file value "((GString*) 0x7f41969caf20)" of type `GString'

Checking out /usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc shows that this is probably not a serious issue, probably caused by an outdated rc file:

[...]
18: style "default" {
[...]
45: GtkScrollbar ::activate-slider = FALSE
[...]

So this message is probably not connected.

[Christoph Korn (c-korn)]

Yeah, I also saw this warning
"*** WARNING *** The program 'synergy' uses the Apple Bonjour compatibility layer of Avahi."

Already forwarded it to the devs. Don't know if it is connected to the problem.

[henczati (henczati)]

Thanks for the forward.

Its package description says that Avahi is a Multicast DNS Service Discovery framework that allows programs to publish and discover services and hosts running on a local network with no specific configuration.
Maybe the indicator is trying to detect the server and the client using Avahi's service discovery capability on localhost...or in this case, Apple Bonjour's, and there could be some kind of incompatibility. However this is just my ungrounded speculation.