X11 window (usually AnyDesk) at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals mouse clicks

Bug #2012388 reported by Mauro Gaspari
368
This bug affects 64 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu AppIndicators
Unknown
Unknown
gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu)
Triaged
High
Marco Trevisan (Treviño)

Bug Description

Hardware Model: Dell Inc. Inspiron 16 Plus 7620
Firmware version: 1.5.1
CPU i7-12700H x20
GPU: Nvidia RTX3060 / MaxQ
GPU: Intel Alder Lake-P
Release: Lunar Lobster
Architecture: AMD64
Kernel: 6.1.0-16-generic
GNOME version: 44.rc

Using Latest daily image of Ubuntu Lunar Lobster, I noticed an issue with window focus when windows are placed under the top-right system tray.

Since it is hard to explain, I am attaching a screenshot. I am unable to click or interact with anything in the area within green rectangle. Applications affected:
- Firefox (snap)
- Chromium (snap)
- Vivaldi Browser (deb)
- Mattermost (snap)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.04
Package: gnome-shell 44~rc-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.1.0-16.16-generic 6.1.6
Uname: Linux 6.1.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.26.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Mar 21 20:35:05 2023
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-01-23 (56 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.10 "Kinetic Kudu" - Release amd64 (20221020)
RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 44~rc-1ubuntu3
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to lunar on 2023-03-02 (19 days ago)

Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Looks like we've leaked a picking rectangle/actor from either an indicator or the aggregate menu.

Please try:

  gnome-extensions disable <email address hidden>
  gnome-extensions disable gTile@vibou
  gnome-extensions disable <email address hidden>

and possibly others from 'gnome-extensions list' :)

You might also be able to find out what the rectangle *is* by:

 1. Alt+F2
 2. Type: lg
 3. Click the target icon
 4. Move the mouse over the problematic area

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :

Thank you for your help. I have been running some tests:

- Disabled all extensions and re-logged the sessionSame result. However, when hovering over the previously mentioned rectangle, I noticed that a popup was appearing, repoting "Anydesk", an application that was set to autostart and had an icon on the taskbar.
- Presto I went to prevent this application from auto starting on login, and I cannot reproduce the issue any more.
- I re-enabled all gnome extensions, left Anydesk with autostart disabled, and re-logged. I cannot reproduce the issue.
- I have other applications that are set to auto start and have a taskbar icon, such as ProtonMail Bridge, Nextcloud client, and Polychromatic. However I cannot reproduce the issue with those applications.

Note. I have been using Anydesk for a long time and on Gnome and this is the first time I saw this problem. Do you believe it is worth exploring more about this issue or consider this resolved? I am happy to help if needed.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

I think it's worth exploring first by reporting a bug upstream to Anydesk. However you do that.

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Opinion
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

If you run 'xwininfo -all' and then click on the rectangle, what do you get?

Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :

I am trying to report the bug upstream and jumping through the required steps to create a customer account, waiting for it to be activated. I will report back on that if I manage to actually file a bug there.

Regarding your question to run 'xwininfo -all', please find output below here.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x600e5f (has no name)

  Root window id: 0x49c (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x49c (the root window) (has no name)
     1 child:
     0x4a0001c "AnyDesk": ("AnyDesk" "AnyDesk") 200x200+0+0 +2940+5
        1 child:
        0x4a0001d (has no name): () 1x1+-1+-1 +2939+4

  Absolute upper-left X: 2940
  Absolute upper-left Y: 5
  Relative upper-left X: 2940
  Relative upper-left Y: 5
  Width: 200
  Height: 200
  Depth: 24
  Visual: 0x41
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x40 (installed)
  Bit Gravity State: ForgetGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: yes
  Corners: +2940+5 -300+5 -300-1235 +2940-1235
  -geometry 200x200+2940+5

  Bit gravity: ForgetGravity
  Window gravity: NorthWestGravity
  Backing-store hint: NotUseful
  Backing-planes to be preserved: 0xffffffff
  Backing pixel: 0
  Save-unders: No

  Someone wants these events:
      StructureNotify
      PropertyChange
  Do not propagate these events:
  Override redirection?: Yes

  No window manager hints defined
  Window manager hints:
      Window state:
          Skip Pager
          Skip Taskbar
      Process id: (unknown)

  No normal window size hints defined
  No zoom window size hints defined

  No window shape defined
  No border shape defined

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Thanks. So "AnyDesk" is a real 200x200 window of class InputOutput. Since it has "Override Redirect State: yes" it will always be on top. Just the fact that it's completely transparent means you can't see it even though it still consumes the mouse clicks.

So the bug in AnyDesk is either than it's failing to render anything, or failing to hide itself when unused.

summary: - Unable to focus Windows below system tray (wayland session)
+ AnyDesk X11 window is invisible and steals mouse clicks
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: Opinion → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote : Re: AnyDesk X11 window is invisible and steals mouse clicks

Although if you try logging into a Xorg session and a window is actually visible there, then this would be a rendering bug in mutter/gnome-shell.

Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :

I logged into a Xorg session and I could not see the window.
However, I noticed I can actually see the window for a few moments, both on Wayland and Xorg, when I switch between virtual desktops.

There is a small difference is when I switch between virtual desktops:
- Wayland: the window appears for a moment, and it looks black
- Xorg: the window appears for a moment, and it looks like Anydesk icon

I am attaching a short video I took from Xorg session.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Thanks, it looks more like a bug in AnyDesk now.

Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :

I managed to file a bug with AnyDesk, and I linked this Launchpad bug report in it.
However, I was not given a bug tracker link by AnyDesk, so I am unable to provide it here.

affects: gnome-shell (Ubuntu) → ubuntu
Revision history for this message
Rasmus Pedersen (sundowndk) wrote :

I'am also affected by this bug, and even after closing/stopping Anydesk the transparent window is still there. Sometimes it manifests itself as black square and sometimes as the Anydesk logo.

However, I found that disabling support for "Legacy Tray Icons" in the Ubuntu Appindicators extensions it goes away. So does the Anydesk tray icon, but I can manage without the icon for now.

affects: ubuntu → gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu)
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu):
status: Invalid → Opinion
summary: - AnyDesk X11 window is invisible and steals mouse clicks
+ AnyDesk X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals
+ mouse clicks
Revision history for this message
Jürgen Hörmann (hoermannn.j) wrote (last edit ): Re: AnyDesk X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals mouse clicks

This is not a bug in Anydesk.

I can reproduce this with at at least one more application (Zoiper 5 Desktop).
If I hover over the "ghost" area I get mouse pointer hints for both, Anydesk and Zoiper on different parts of the area.

If I disable the "legacy tray icons" option in the extension and log out of Gnome session and log in again, the ghost-area is gone.

To me, this looks like a problem in the handling of the legacy tray icons.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Yes that explains why it suddenly became a problem in 23.04.

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu):
status: Opinion → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Hi Daniel, just in case this is not an Anydesk bug. I installed anydesk today but I have had the issue since the first day I installed Ubuntu.23.04. I am saying this because my bug report was marked as duplicate of this one but it is not an anydesk issue. I did not even have anydesk installed since today.

summary: - AnyDesk X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals
- mouse clicks
+ X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals mouse
+ clicks
Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote : Re: X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals mouse clicks

If I disable the "legacy tray icons" option...

How can I disable the legacy tray icons to try to replicate this? Just to test it thoroughly.

Revision history for this message
Enrique Rojano (kikezzdrums) wrote (last edit ):

Open gnome-shell-extension-prefs, scroll down to 'Ubuntu Appindicators' and disable it.

I already did, and icon tray stopped stealing click actions.

'Enable Legacy tray icons' is an option of 'Ubuntu Appindicators' extension. You can see it if you click on Settings at 'Ubuntu AppIndicators' extension, but disabling only that setting did not work for me, I had to disable the entire extension.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

@Daniel, you said that's a newer issue, did we change the default of that option?

Changed in gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
tags: added: rls-ll-incoming
Revision history for this message
Enrique Rojano (kikezzdrums) wrote (last edit ):

When disabled 'Ubuntu AppIndicators', clicks at minimize worked ok; but later, those clicks stopped working again even with all extensions disabled :/
Update: Discovered that I was clicking at an specific pixel that is not stollen by the icon tray.

I noticed that even the 'hover' mouse action over minimize-restore-close buttons, does not trigger.

Revision history for this message
Enrique Rojano (kikezzdrums) wrote :

Attached video reproducing how mouse pointer does not affect windows at certain point at top-right corner.

Revision history for this message
Jürgen Hörmann (hoermannn.j) wrote :

@kikezzdrums.
If you disable/uninstall gnome-shell-extension-appindicator or disable the legacy tray icons option, you have to log out of your active gnome session and re-login again. If you do not log out, the bug will still occur.

Revision history for this message
Jürgen Hörmann (hoermannn.j) wrote :

@vanvugt
This bug is also present in Wayland session, not only on X11. Maybe it makes sense to cover this in the bug report title.

Revision history for this message
Enrique Rojano (kikezzdrums) wrote (last edit ):

Yeah, thankyou @hoermannn.j it worked that way.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

It might be me going crazy (just in case). But I am getting the feeling the invisible box sometimes grows downwards, taking more space so even if you drag windows down, you can not click them unless you drag them to the left side of the screen. It also grows in a specific rectangular way. What I mean with this is that, when dragging windows for example you can not drag them in a certain part of the window (because of the ghost window) but any other part to the left or right will work. Here is an image to give you an idea:

https://imgur.com/a/e5UjluM

Inside the red, I can not drag either the telegram app or sublime in the background, but if I move the mouse over to the right or left I can drag/click again.

Revision history for this message
Yohandra (yohandra) wrote :

Hello everyone, so I updated 2 days ago from 20.04 to 22.04, then to 22.10, and lastly to 23.04. After which I am also experiencing this problem. I do not have any of the apps mentioned above like anydesk. But I do have that weird issue that I can not click on buttons when a window has the button in a ghost zone as mentioned.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

If you run 'xwininfo -all' and then click on the rectangle, what do you get?

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :
Download full text (3.6 KiB)

I got the following:

luis@xtreme:~$ xwininfo -all

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you
          would like information by clicking the
          mouse in that window.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x400028 (has no name)

  Root window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
     0 children.

  Absolute upper-left X: 3010
  Absolute upper-left Y: 5
  Relative upper-left X: 3010
  Relative upper-left Y: 5
  Width: 200
  Height: 200
  Depth: 24
  Visual: 0x21
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x20 (installed)
  Bit Gravity State: ForgetGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: yes
  Corners: +3010+5 -230+5 -230-1235 +3010-1235
  -geometry 200x200+3010+5

  Bit gravity: ForgetGravity
  Window gravity: NorthWestGravity
  Backing-store hint: NotUseful
  Backing-planes to be preserved: 0xffffffff
  Backing pixel: 0
  Save-unders: No

  Someone wants these events:
      StructureNotify
      PropertyChange
  Do not propagate these events:
  Override redirection?: Yes

  No window manager hints defined
  Window manager hints:
      Window state:
          Skip Pager
          Skip Taskbar
      Process id: (unknown)

  No normal window size hints defined
  No zoom window size hints defined

  No window shape defined
  No border shape defined

luis@xtreme:~$

When I was suppose to get this:

luis@xtreme:~$ xwininfo -all

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you
          would like information by clicking the
          mouse in that window.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x460000a "luis@xtreme: ~"

  Root window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
     1 child:
     0x460000b (has no name): () 1x1+-1+-1 +424+72

  Absolute upper-left X: 425
  Absolute upper-left Y: 73
  Relative upper-left X: 425
  Relative upper-left Y: 73
  Width: 3041
  Height: 785
  Depth: 32
  Visual: 0x82
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x4600009 (not installed)
  Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: no
  Corners: +425+73 --26+73 --26-582 +425-582
  -geometry 425x36--26+73

  Bit gravity: NorthWestGravity
  Window gravity: NorthWestGravity
  Backing-store hint: NotUseful
  Backing-planes to be preserved: 0xffffffff
  Backing pixel: 0
  Save-unders: No

  Someone wants these events:
      Exposure
      VisibilityChange
      StructureNotify
      PropertyChange
  Do not propagate these events:
  Override redirection?: No

  Window manager hints:
      Client accepts input or input focus: Yes
      Initial state is Normal State
      Displayed on desktop 0
      Window type:
          Normal
      Window state:
          Focused
      Process id: 77100 on host xtreme

  Normal window size hints:
      Program supplied minimum size: 387 by 145
      Program supplied base size: 66 by 1...

Read more...

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

It's the "has no name" window :(

Please try running 'xprop' and then clicking on the window and paste the output here.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Hi Daniel, I got this:

luis@xtreme:~/Desktop$ xprop
_GTK_EDGE_CONSTRAINTS(CARDINAL) = 170
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_PAGER, _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_TASKBAR
_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_ACTION_ABOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_BELOW

No idea what it means, hopefully to you it shows like the matrix.

Revision history for this message
tapion (tapion-8) wrote :

I have this problem as well.
Disabling the Gnome extension Ubuntu AppIndicators and rebooting works as a workaround.

Revision history for this message
Jürgen Hörmann (hoermannn.j) wrote :

$ xprop
_GTK_EDGE_CONSTRAINTS(CARDINAL) = 170
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_PAGER, _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_TASKBAR
_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_ACTION_ABOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_BELOW

xwininfo

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you
          would like information by clicking the
          mouse in that window.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x401c02 (has no name)

  Absolute upper-left X: 4728
  Absolute upper-left Y: 5
  Relative upper-left X: 4728
  Relative upper-left Y: 5
  Width: 200
  Height: 200
  Depth: 24
  Visual: 0x21
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x20 (installed)
  Bit Gravity State: ForgetGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: yes
  Corners: +4728+5 -192+5 -192-1235 +4728-1235
  -geometry 200x200+4728+5

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

If it serves any purpose. When the error happens and you go play CSGO there is a gray area at the top as seen here https://imgur.com/a/uAQe3N9

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

I followed the advice of Disabling the Gnome extension Ubuntu AppIndicators and rebooting which worked, but today I am seeing the following, if I click around the area in the circle it opens anydesk. This time, it ONLY happens to anydesk, not telegram or any other app in there.

https://imgur.com/a/xGfBu4H

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Sounds like we have two bugs:

1. gnome-shell-extension-appindicator

2. AnyDesk

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Hi Daniel, well you are 100% right. We tested with a German friend the following:

1. Ubuntu 23.04 with gnome-shell-extension-appindicator ONLY

2. Ubuntu 23.04 with AnyDesk running only

3. Ubuntu 23.04 without both.

Only by removing BOTH did it work correctly.

There is however a weird behavior also where, when you click the system bars at the top of an app, they do not get selected. you need to drag the windows for them to get focused.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Here is more information. This is without the gnome extension and anydesk:

luis@xtreme:~$ xwininfo -all

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you
          would like information by clicking the
          mouse in that window.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x40093f (has no name)

  Root window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
  Parent window id: 0x1ef (the root window) (has no name)
     0 children.

  Absolute upper-left X: 2854
  Absolute upper-left Y: 5
  Relative upper-left X: 2854
  Relative upper-left Y: 5
  Width: 200
  Height: 200
  Depth: 24
  Visual: 0x21
  Visual Class: TrueColor
  Border width: 0
  Class: InputOutput
  Colormap: 0x20 (installed)
  Bit Gravity State: ForgetGravity
  Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity
  Backing Store State: NotUseful
  Save Under State: no
  Map State: IsViewable
  Override Redirect State: yes
  Corners: +2854+5 -386+5 -386-1235 +2854-1235
  -geometry 200x200+2854+5

  Bit gravity: ForgetGravity
  Window gravity: NorthWestGravity
  Backing-store hint: NotUseful
  Backing-planes to be preserved: 0xffffffff
  Backing pixel: 0
  Save-unders: No

  Someone wants these events:
      StructureNotify
      PropertyChange
  Do not propagate these events:
  Override redirection?: Yes

  No window manager hints defined
  Window manager hints:
      Window state:
          Skip Pager
          Skip Taskbar
      Process id: (unknown)

  No normal window size hints defined
  No zoom window size hints defined

  No window shape defined
  No border shape defined

summary: - X11 window at top-right of the screen is invisible and steals mouse
- clicks
+ X11 window (usually AnyDesk) at top-right of the screen is invisible and
+ steals mouse clicks
Revision history for this message
Hiroaki Hashi (hashiz) wrote :

I have same issue with Zoiper 5.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Yes a lot of people are having it, but it is being worked on. I ended up removing anydesk completely because of this but the ghost area is still there. Nd it is horrible for a workplace. We just gotta wait. Soon the fix will be there.

Revision history for this message
Climax (pieterwjordaanpc) wrote (last edit ):

Removing just anydesk worked for me. I'll try the same with appindicators disabled and anydesk still installed. NOTE only works after rebooting. Signing out/in does not work it seems.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Same for me. It worked after deleting Anydesk and disabling the appindicator, but after around 30 minutes to 4 hours, the issue appeared again.

I then removed telegram, removed flameshot, removed cpufreq and even vital and clipboard. Again, after 30 minutes to several hours, the issue appeared again randomly. The only things left on the task area was the default icons for network, sound, microphone and power.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

I gotta update something here that I have noticed. Whenever the problem happens, any window on the system, when trying to click on it to get it focused on the system top bar, it will not handle the click, you would have to drag the window a bit to get it to focus. So basically, when the problem happens:

1. Try to click the top system bar of any window for it to get focus.
2. It won't work, so you need to drag the window for it to get focus

Revision history for this message
Climax (pieterwjordaanpc) wrote :

For me, disabling the legacy app icons extension and rebooting fixed it. I was able to install Anydesk again without issue. Of course, my Anydesk tray icon is not showing with the extension disabled...

Revision history for this message
Security XIII (securityxiii) wrote :

Important note: this is not only Ubuntu bug. I've got legacy tray icons enabled and AnyDesk as well on Garuda (Arch-based) Linux. Same thing here - invisible box with everything you're describing here. So, basically, I bet this bug affects almost all families of distributions.

Revision history for this message
Joe Bennett (kralos) wrote (last edit ):

I'm also having this issue on 2 separate computers. Both have Zoiper installed as we use it at work. I do not have anydesk installed

Revision history for this message
Abdullah Faheem (controloye) wrote :

Hello everyone,

temporary fix is just to disable AnyDesk in startup service.

I have disabled and now everything works perfect. Even if I open AnyDesk manually it does not override.

open terminal and run

sudo systemctl disable anydesk

:-)

keep posting if somebody have other fix.

Revision history for this message
Abdullah Faheem (controloye) wrote :

note:

sudo systemctl disable anydesk

after running this command you have to reboot your PC.

Revision history for this message
Santiago Alves (santiagooooo) wrote (last edit ):

Don´t work for me:

"sudo systemctl disable anydesk

after running this command you have to reboot your PC."

I enable the gnome in terminal again and execute this command mentioned, but the bug remained after the reboot

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Try:

  gnome-extensions disable <email address hidden>

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

Good morning Daniel, just updating you that I have tested for 7 days already. Your suggestion works beautifully.

Revision history for this message
Luis Alvarado (luisalvarado) wrote :

I am enabling <email address hidden> just for a couple of days to test out. Before, everything was working but of course I was unable to see the apps I had there like steam, telegram or flameshot.

Revision history for this message
gaurab (gaurablahkar) wrote :

For me it works by disabling anydesk. After disabling anydesk, reboot is required to take effect.

Revision history for this message
Davi Medrade (davimedrade) wrote :

I have this bug with AnyDesk. Like, disabling AnyDesk autostart prevented the bug from happening as soon as I logged in, but it would still happen as soon as I opened AnyDesk (to connect to another computer or to allow someone else to connect to mine). Whenever I clicked the invisible square, another AnyDesk window would open. Then even if I closed AnyDesk the “invisible square” would still be there, but it would be dead (clicking on it wouldn't do anything, but would block the click from reaching the window beneath it).

By the way, yes, rebooting or logging out and logging back in fixes the issue when it happens, but it's not necessary to go that far. Restarting the shell is enough. Here's how:
1. Quit Anydesk (or whichever app triggers this bug in your computer). Make sure that it's not running in the background (for AnyDesk, right-click the tray icon and close the app from there, so that the app closes and the tray icon disappears).
2. Restart the Gnome Shell: hit Alt+F2 to open the “Run a Command” window, type the command “r” (yes, just a lowercase letter “r”, without quotes or other parameters) and hit Enter.

That makes the bug go away (until Anydesk or another app that triggers it is started again) without forcing you to close all your programs. But, as stated, the problem with this is that once you start the app again the bug will happen again (so once you're done with the app you have to do steps 1 and 2 above again).

The workaround I ended up adopting was disabling legacy tray icon support.

The extension I use is “AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support”, and I didn't even have to disable it completely; I just had to go into the options and disable the option “Enable Legacy Tray icons support”. Just disabling the option does not get rid of the invisible square in the current session, so if it's already there you'd have to perform steps 1 and 2 above one last time. Now I can use AnyDesk without getting that invisible square. One small downside is that the AnyDesk tray icon doesn't appear anymore, but I can live with that.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Marco has assigned this to himself internally so assigning here too.

tags: added: udeng-937
Changed in gnome-shell-extension-appindicator (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Jack Kowalski (jackkowalski1865) wrote :

Temporary solution:
1. jack@jack:~$ xwininfo
2. Click on the invisible square in right top corner
3. Get the square ID (Window id):
"
> xwininfo: Please select the window about which you
> would like information by clicking the
> mouse in that window.
>
> xwininfo: Window id: 0xc02f07 (has no name)
"
4. jack@jack:~$ xdotool windowclose 0xc02f07

I need to do this every time i use AnyDesk

Revision history for this message
Mauro Gaspari (ilvipero) wrote :

I would like to add a quick update.

- HexChat also triggers the same issue as Anydesk, both wayland and x11.
- I upgraded to Mantic Minotaur and the issue persists
- I disabled legacy tray icons support from the extension Ubuntu Appindicators, and after a reboot the issue cannot be reproduced. Obviously HexChat icon does not show up on the tray, but it does on the dock, so it is a decent workaround for me until a fix is in place.

Revision history for this message
andrei (andrewternity) wrote (last edit ):

I inform you there is the same thread here https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator/issues/439
I also attach picture how any user can fix problem.

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

The video in bug 2039543 looks like it's related to this.

Revision history for this message
JSigma (jsigma) wrote :

Thank you for the assistance in this topic, particularly with xwininfo. I've resolved the Anydesk issue with a small bash script, which I execute via an alias to close Anydesk.

---

#!/bin/bash
window_id=$(xwininfo -root -tree | grep -E "200x200" | grep -E "\(has no name\)" | awk '{print $1}')
if [ ! -z "$window_id" ]; then
    flatpak kill com.anydesk.Anydesk > /dev/null 2>&1 &
    xdotool windowclose $window_id
fi

Revision history for this message
Jerther (jerther) wrote :

@JSigma thanks a lot for your script! Works on Fedora. I added "sleep 5" before the window_id line, added a menu entry so I can add the script to startup applications in Tweaks. Anydesk gets killed on startup, excellent!

tags: added: mantic noble
removed: lunar
tags: removed: rls-ll-incoming
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