The first IM message from a buddy does not launch a notification bubble

[Ricardo Pérez López]

Binary package hint: pidgin

The first IM message from a buddy (i.e. the message which starts a new conversation) does not launch a notify-OSD notification bubble. However, the subsequent messages correctly triggers notifications. This is annoying, illogical and incoherent.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

I open the notify-osd, because I don't know if this is a pidgin issue or a notify issue. Please, sorry for the noise.

[David Barth (dbarth)]

Hi,

Could you try to reproduce this by using the notify-send command just after you open your desktop session?

To get the notify-send command: apt-get install libnotify-bin

To create a notification: notify-send "Hello" "World"

Can you report if the notification shows up in your context or if it does not.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

Hi David,

The notification shows perfectly when I type: notify-send "Hello" "World".

Maybe I need to explain a bit more: I can see the notification for any IM message, EXCEPT for the IM messages which starts a conversation.

For example:

1. I start Pidgin.
2. Alice says me "Hello!". Result: the notification is NOT shown, because her IM message starts our conversation.
3. Alice then says "How are you?". Result: the notification IS shown, because this is her second IM message and it doesn't start a conversation (the previous conversation is still opened).
4. Alice then says "Are you there?". Result: the notification IS shown, because again her IM message doesn't start a conversation.
5. Now Bob says me "Hi!". Result: the notification is NOT shown, because his IM message starts a conversation.
6. New Alice says me "Hi again!". Result: the notification IS shown, because her IM message doesn't start a convesation.
7. Now I close the Alice message (or tab in a tabbed Pidgin window), so the Alice conversation is now closed.
8. Alice says me "Hey!". Result: the notification is NOT shown, because I previously closed her window, and now her new IM message starts a new conversation.

I hope that now everything is clear.

[David Barth (dbarth)]

Ok, so it's confirmed as a pidgin issue, not a notify-osd one. Thanks for your feedback.

Now, we need to figure out if it's a normal behavior or if it's not.
Does pidgin open a window with "Hello!" at step #2? Or does it silently receives the message, does not display a window with "Hello!" and does not display a notification either? The former would explain why you don't see a notification, ie because you see the message in the window anyway, so there is no point duplicating the visual signals. Whereas the latter would be a bug, because the application is just "eating" the first message.

All that may sound obvious, but depending on your settings some "apparently" fine behavior may be a bug, so that's why I'm asking.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

Thanks for the reply, David.

In step #2, Pidgin opens an unfocused, pop-under window. When I'm working with a maximized Firefox, I'm unable to notice when a new IM conversation is started. So the only "notification" I can see is a new, silent button in the task bar.

[Felipe Figueiredo (philsf)]

I have the same issue. I don't recall having it when trying Jaunty beta.

Please indicate if there's anything I can do to help testing or debugging.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

Confirmed by another user.

[_ppr (ppr-vitaly)]

Confirming!!
1s message of the any conversation is never notified (No sound and no popup-message)

[illogic6 (mm4rtin-deactivatedaccount)]

THANK GOD I'm not the only one with this problem. Confirmed here too.

I have sound on the first message. To activate that tick "message received begins conversation" in the sound tab in Pidgin's preferences. NO OSD NOTIFICATION no matter what I do though.

I was pulling my hair out over this for the past 24 hours... lol

[abujafar (abujafar)]

This is a serious bug. People often send just one message to know if you are there and you won't get the notification.
I Don't understand why it is marked Low Priority and forgotten.

This bug is a duplicate of #351545.

[Felipe Figueiredo (philsf)]

Bug #351545 is marked as a dup of this one, but that one was recently closed as fixed (in karmic only).

Should the duplicate status be reverted, so this one is marked as a dup of that one?

[Ted Gould (ted)]

On Fri, 2009-09-25 at 16:11 +0000, Felipe Figueiredo wrote:
> Should the duplicate status be reverted, so this one is marked as a dup
> of that one?

Yes, good catch.

  bug 351545
  duplicate no

  bug 363108
  duplicate 351545

[Robert Hollencamp (rhollencamp)]

this issue was introduced in ubuntu_notify_support.patch. find attached a patch to fix this regression

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "first-message-regression.diff" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]