Jaunty Beta: Pidgin does not come to the foreground when clicking it in the indicator applet

[Don Cristóbal]

Binary package hint: indicator-applet

Summary: The new indicator applet on the gnome panel does not work properly, at least with Pidgin: Pidgin does not reliably come to the foreground (which worked fine in 8.10).

1) Ubuntu Jaunty Beta

2) indicator-applet: (not sure this is where the bug lives)
  Installed: 0.1.4-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.1.4-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.1.4-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

pidgin:
  Installed: 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://ch.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) I expect Pidgin to jump to the foreground of the current Desk whenever I click it in the indicator applet. This worked fine in 8.10, before the new indicator applet was introduced.

4) What happens typically (but not absolutely reliably: I was not able to find out the ultimate rules*):
== Staying on the same desk ==
a. [OK] If Pidgin is already displayed on the current desk and in the foreground: It disappears.
b1. If Pidgin is not displayed at all because it was closed with Alt-F4 or the x button (top right):
* [not OK] It appears on the current desk, but /under/ the top window if that window is not the same as the one that was directly under Pidgin before it was closed.
* [OK] It appears in the foreground if the top window is the same as the one under Pidgin before.
b2.[not OK] If Pidgin is not displayed at all because it was closed from the indicator applet: It appears on the current desk, but always under the top window.
c. [not OK] If Pidgin is displayed on the current desk, but covered by some other window: It flashes to the foreground for a very short time, then goes back to where it was (which is not necessarily directly under the top window).

== Changing the desk ==
d. [not OK] If Pidgin is already displayed on another desk: It appears in the foreground, but it does not have the focus (title bar of it's window is grey).
e. [OK] If Pidgin is not displayed on any desk: It appears in the foreground and has the focus.

In general, the Pidgin window is displayed as active (bold typeface) in the window list on the panel when it should be in the foreground but is not. This applies even in the case of d.

*) I suspect that using key combinations like alt-tab, or changing desks back and forth somehow have an influence.

By the way, a similar problem exists with Ekiga (that, however, does not cooperate with the indicator applet): It only appears on the current screen if it is not displayed anywhere else. I'll post a separate bug report and link it here.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: indicator-applet 0.1.4-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: indicator-applet
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

[Don Cristóbal (doncristobal)]

See also Bug 353795 about Ekiga and Skype.