[Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

Bug #284975 reported by Giuseppe Pennisi
38
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
human-theme (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Kenneth Wimer

Bug Description

Binary package hint: human-theme

The new Gnome Panel is very nice but if I want switch to another theme already installed or that I have install, the Gnome Panel not switch to another theme but persists the defaul panel of human theme.

I think that the problem is because the panel_bg.png isn't inserted in gtkrc code (bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "panel_bg.png") but in the gnome-panel properties.

gp

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Revision history for this message
Adam Del Vecchio (tux.ice) wrote : RE: [Bug 284975] [NEW] [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

I will work on a fix.

-----Original Message-----
From: Giuseppe P. <email address hidden>
Sent: October 17, 2008 9:19 AM
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 284975] [NEW] [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

Public bug reported:

Binary package hint: human-theme

The new Gnome Panel is very nice but if I want switch to another theme
already installed or that I have install, the Gnome Panel not switch to
another theme but persists the defaul panel of human theme.

I think that the problem is because the panel_bg.png isn't inserted in
gtkrc code (bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "panel_bg.png") but in the gnome-panel
properties.

gp

** Affects: human-theme (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

--
[Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284975
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Artwork Team, which is subscribed to human-theme in ubuntu.

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

Great. Thanks.

gp

Revision history for this message
Adam Del Vecchio (tux.ice) wrote :

THis could be a problem with your theme, i do not see any errors in the gtkrc. YOur theme is not refreshing the panel_bg.png.

Revision history for this message
Dylan McCall (dylanmccall) wrote :

The issue at hand, as I understand it, is that Ubuntu sets a background image for the panel /outside/ of the theme. If you take a look at Panel Properties, you'll notice that the background tab has (instead of "None. Use system theme"), an arbitrary background image set by default.
This will cause confusion for users and issues with, for example, low contrast themes.

I believe this is a hack to fix a bizarre issue where some applets seem to cope fine with drawing themselves on top of a user-specified image background but fail miserably with all sorts of awful transparency problems when they are drawn on even that same background as part of the theme. However, the fix is problematic for the reasons outlined here...
Personally, I still think it's worthwhile just for the sake of having a nice looking panel, but perhaps a few little hacks will solve it completely. (For now).

Deepest apologies if I have managed to double post this.

Revision history for this message
Adam Del Vecchio (tux.ice) wrote : Re: [Bug 284975] Re: [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

Ok, i understood the problem differently.

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:39 PM, Dylan McCall <email address hidden>wrote:

> The issue at hand, as I understand it, is that Ubuntu sets a background
> image for the panel /outside/ of the theme. If you take a look at Panel
> Properties, you'll notice that the background tab has (instead of "None. Use
> system theme"), an arbitrary background image set by default.
> This will cause confusion for users and issues with, for example, low
> contrast themes.
>
> I believe this is a hack to fix a bizarre issue where some applets seem to
> cope fine with drawing themselves on top of a user-specified image
> background but fail miserably with all sorts of awful transparency problems
> when they are drawn on even that same background as part of the theme.
> However, the fix is problematic for the reasons outlined here...
> Personally, I still think it's worthwhile just for the sake of having a
> nice looking panel, but perhaps a few little hacks will solve it completely.
> (For now).
>
> Deepest apologies if I have managed to double post this.
>
> --
> [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284975
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
> Artwork Team, which is subscribed to human-theme in ubuntu.
>

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote : Re: [Bug 284975] Re: [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

Exactly. If in the Panel Properties is not set "None. Use system theme"
when user change theme, the panel is not refreshed correctly because
persists the background image in Panel Properties and not takes the
system theme.
This can be very frustrating for user because might not know how to
solve it.

gp

Il giorno sab, 18/10/2008 alle 03.39 +0000, Dylan McCall ha scritto:
> The issue at hand, as I understand it, is that Ubuntu sets a
> background image for the panel /outside/ of the theme. If you take a
> look at Panel Properties, you'll notice that the background tab has
> (instead of "None. Use system theme"), an arbitrary background image
> set by default.
> This will cause confusion for users and issues with, for example, low
> contrast themes.
>
> I believe this is a hack to fix a bizarre issue where some applets
> seem to cope fine with drawing themselves on top of a user-specified
> image background but fail miserably with all sorts of awful
> transparency problems when they are drawn on even that same background
> as part of the theme. However, the fix is problematic for the reasons
> outlined here...
> Personally, I still think it's worthwhile just for the sake of having
> a nice looking panel, but perhaps a few little hacks will solve it
> completely. (For now).
>
> Deepest apologies if I have managed to double post this.
>

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

For example, you try to change from "Human" to "DarkRoom" (or "NewVawe" or "Dust").
Moreover in others themes the buttons panel aren't consistency with background panel image.
For a default theme I think this can't be a good way.

gp

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

Can be fixed for RC? I tried to make a hack but i don't know like to do it.

gp

Revision history for this message
Kenneth Wimer (kwwii) wrote :

If you select a theme which includes a defined panel bg in the gtkrc it will change. If you do not select a theme in which a panel bg is defined you need to right click on the panel, select the Properties menu entry, select the background tab and then select the "None (use system theme)" option.

The default theme was set this way to avoid a bug in the windows spawned by the panel (about, for instance) in which the panel bg is used as a background for the entire window.

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

Il giorno lun, 20/10/2008 alle 22.23 +0000, Kenneth Wimer ha scritto:
> If you select a theme which includes a defined panel bg in the gtkrc it
> will change.
>
No. For example, try to use NewVawe of Community Theme or others from
Gnome-Look.

> If you do not select a theme in which a panel bg is
> defined you need to right click on the panel, select the Properties menu
> entry, select the background tab and then select the "None (use system
> theme)" option.
>
>
Yes, I know. But new or normal user? Knows it?
This can be very frustrating for user because might not know how to
solve it. And he can think that theme is bad.

> The default theme was set this way to avoid a bug in the windows
> spawned
> by the panel (about, for instance) in which the panel bg is used as a
> background for the entire window.
>

Revision history for this message
Kenneth Wimer (kwwii) wrote :

The themes you mention do not have a panel pixmap defined in the gtkrc.

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

> The themes you mention do not have a panel pixmap defined in the gtkrc.

#=========================================================
# Dark panel
#=========================================================
style "panel" = "newwave-default"
{
 [.... cut ....]

 bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "Images/MenuMenubar/PanelBar.png"

}

I also tried to download from gnome-look many themes with a panel pixmap defined in the gtkrc but the panel not change.
Or rather it does not change for all panel.

gp

Revision history for this message
Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott) wrote :

Ken?

Changed in human-theme:
assignee: nobody → kwwii
importance: Undecided → High
milestone: none → ubuntu-8.10
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Kenneth Wimer (kwwii) wrote :

We currently set the panel bg with gconf for a couple of reasons:
a) this works around windows spawned by the panel (like "about") using the panel background image tiled vertically
b) we need to set the panel bg to stretch which, unless I am wrong, cannot be done with the murrine engine

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

Ah ok...I understood, but this solution may cause confusion amoung users.
By default must be easy to switch from a theme to another theme.

gp

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

I noted that if upgraded from hardy the new panel is not always set, persists the old configuration of the panel.
Paradoxically for people that upgrade from hardy not have the problem in object of the panel that not changes when switches theme.

gp

Revision history for this message
Dylan McCall (dylanmccall) wrote :

Let's look at this in perspective.

The current workaround with a pre-set panel background is applied to resolve an issue that affects the GNOME desktop on every distribution, which the GNOME folks are presumably aware of and maybe even working on. Certain applets look really ugly when used upon a panel with fancy background as set by the theme. It is a cosmetic issue most noticeable when users choose to customize their panels. Bugs should be filed for the respective applications because these problems need to be fixed.

However, the workaround produces some cosmetic issues relating to customization:
 * If the user changes his theme, his panel contents will likely become unreadable. This is especially problematic with the high contrast themes.
 * If the user creates a new panel, it will have the theme's default panel background, which is plain white, as before. That is confusing. He will not know how to get back to the default panel background.

I think a user is more prone to change his theme than to add an offending applet to the panel, especially at the moment with Ubuntu and /especially/ since Intrepid has some really nice looking themes in the repositoeis (most of which are meant to have dark panels, I should add). Further, with this workaround, some bad things happen to the process:
 * We gain a kludge. I can imagine this workaround evolving into some kind of horrifying beast of ugly that spans every GNOME-using distro out there.
 * Bug reports and issues are spawned from users with unreadable panels, saying that the panel is not updating or some such thing. Instead of reports hitting the actual source of the problem, momentum builds around enhancing the workaround. Tomboy and Workrave continue to behave poorly as panel applets and the panel continues to permit this because there is no longer bug tracker noise toward fixing it on their end.
 * It will then be noted that "Ubuntu's panel is broken", while Fedora's and SUSE's works fine. Much confusion ensues.

Overstated, yes, but my point is that this workaround is entirely cosmetic (and it does look pretty). Its negative impact to functionality far outweighs the positives.

And that's my thought. Other thoughts are of course welcome :)

Revision history for this message
perfectska04 (perfectska04-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I had filed a bug regarding this to the ubuntu-artwork package before coming across this one. I'll just post the description here, since this bug report is more active and I believe this is an important issue that needs to be considered before the final Intrepid release.

Here's what I wrote for the other bug:

In the latest daily builds, semi-transparent panel backgrounds are being forced on the default Intrepid desktop. This idea is very badly implemented as it's not part of the Human GTK theme itself, interferes with the casual user's ability to change desktop themes and the background itself is poorly designed.

For example, when switching from Ubuntu's Human theme to another GTK theme, the panel background won't change. If a casual user wanted to use the Darkroom theme (or any similar theme for that matter), his panels would become unreadable and unusuable as the background is not removed. Not everyone knows instinctively that you must edit the panel's configuration if you're planning to use any other theme besides Human (and you shouldn't have to know this). Making the panel backgrounds optional instead of forcing them upon users should be the best course of action.

If the panel backgrounds are to be implemented regardless, the current way of doing so is not optimal. A good idea would be to integrate them into the Human GTK theme itself as a "bg_pixmap[NORMAL] =" value (so they are removed automatically when the theme is changed). This way of implementing panel backgrounds also fixes the borders of workspace switcher applet amongst other things. The only drawback is that transparency is not allowed, but this isn't an issue as a nice gradient panel would be an improvement over a normal flat panel.

And lastly, the background itself needs some redesigning. The last three pixels are a pseudo-shadow. While this looks nice at first glance, it seriously disrupts the visual integration of the lower panel. The window-list applet, the workspace switcher applet and regular panel buttons take up most of the vertical space in the lower panel and the pseudo-shadow causes the panel to appear as being smaller than the buttons/applets themselves.

I can only hope that these concerns are taken into consideration, as the release date of Ubuntu Intrepid is coming very soon and it would be a terrible thing to see something so simple overlooked and cause an unnecessary concern to casual users.

Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

I agree with Dylan McCall e perfectska04.

Why not to integrate the panel into the Human GTK theme as a bg_pixmap ?
This solution can't have transparency but I think is not a problem...this is a less invasive solution.

For me a theme must be totally independent of the system.

gp

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

This bug was fixed in the package human-theme - 0.28.5

---------------
human-theme (0.28.5) intrepid; urgency=low

  * Removing panel_bg to fix LP: #284975 and LP: #287639, setting rgba to
    false to fix LP: #274461, setting GTKMenu padding in DarkRoom to fix an
    unreported bug in the fusa applet icon placement.

 -- Kenneth Wimer <email address hidden> Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:25:27 +0200

Changed in human-theme:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Giuseppe Pennisi (giupenni78) wrote :

I confirm...the bug was fixed...in ubuntu-artwork was removed panel_bg to default setting.

gp

Revision history for this message
Nicolò Chieffo (yelo3) wrote :

This is not a fix! a fix is to move the the panel to gtkrc...
I really understand why the panel bg have been removed..

Revision history for this message
Dylan McCall (dylanmccall) wrote :

Don't worry about it, Nicolò; if you check out the Human theme right now you will see that is exactly what is happening. This is fixed on my end and has created no other issues.

Revision history for this message
Nicolò Chieffo (yelo3) wrote : Re: [Bug 284975] Re: [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.

I've realized that I made a mistake in the previous comment:
"I really DON'T understand why the panel bg have been removed.."

In my gtkrc there's not any reference to the background! And the panel
background image has been removed :(

Revision history for this message
JoseStefan (josestefan) wrote :

So the fix was to remove the feature in its entirety?

I use the RC live-cd and I see something I like, am I to understand that another user using the product one week later (final) will not see such feature?

I understand setting panel backgrounds has been there since before intrepid, but not every user is an expert artwork designer. I think the images should still be provided somewhere easy to fetch, like an optional universe package. So when a user is searching for backgrounds in Synaptics, he may find it.

Revision history for this message
Dylan McCall (dylanmccall) wrote :

Please consider this bug report closed (as it has been marked as
fixed). It would be better to discuss the resulting feature request
elsewhere -- for example the art mailing list or a different bug
report.

To the topic that has emerged here... removing the (mis)feature is
exactly what this bug report was about, so of course that happened.
Further, unless my eyes completely decieve me (which is possible since
I normally use the Unity theme for GTK), there /is/ a background for
panels now set in Human's gtkrc. It is opaque and the like so that
applets work happily with it, thus a bit more subtle :)

On 10/28/08, JoseStefan <email address hidden> wrote:
> So the fix was to remove the feature in its entirety?
>
> I use the RC live-cd and I see something I like, am I to understand that
> another user using the product one week later (final) will not see such
> feature?
>
> I understand setting panel backgrounds has been there since before
> intrepid, but not every user is an expert artwork designer. I think the
> images should still be provided somewhere easy to fetch, like an
> optional universe package. So when a user is searching for backgrounds
> in Synaptics, he may find it.
>
> --
> [Intrepid]When switch theme, the image of Gnome Panel not change.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/284975
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
> Artwork Team, which is subscribed to human-theme in ubuntu.
>

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