Changed resolution/monitor causes panel applet order and position messed up

[Martin Wildam]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

When the resolution of the screen changes (e.g. connecting a notebook to an external monitor and then again when detaching later or when temporarily using a beamer/projector) the Gnome panel applets (not matter if top or bottom panel) all the applets on the right side get messed up in position and order. Happens in approx 70-80 % of times, however - not always.

I found Bug #472926 - which has been classified as wishlist. Well that particular solution idea could be a wish, but the effect is IMHO a bug. It is completely annoying - show that a new user considering a switch from Windows and guess what he/she thinks when the desktop neither remember system tray / notifier position...

I guess, there is no automatic recognition when panel elements/applets are intended to stick to the right side.

Other than for Bug #472926 which in particular talks about a specific feature, I could see more possible solutions, e.g. a flag in an applets context menu "Stick/Anchor to right" or - for an automatic solution: When repositioning (=moving) elements manually It could check whether there is space in between until the end of the panel on the right. If that way panel notices that an element has been put on the righthand side then it could automatically remember a flag that it should stick to righthand side. Then of course it needs to remember order/relation of the other elements also sticking to righthand side. If just manually flagging or automatically - if the position/order/space is then calculated from the righthand side resolution changes would not do harm any more.

Another solution attempt could be to remember position of elements related to the righthand side as soon as it is positioned in the right half of the panel or in the rightmost third of the panel - something like this.

I am not advocating a particular solution, if a solution like described in Bug #472926 is considered best, ok (although I think one of the attempts mentioned here could be easier and less problematic to implement). Anyway the problem of the elements getting messed up is very annoying. Using notebooks with external monitors (and docking stations) or beamers/projectors is by far not an uncommon use case. In companies it is a standard situation.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.30.2-0ubuntu0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-25.44-generic 2.6.32.21+drm33.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-25-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Fri Oct 8 08:06:00 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-panel

[Bruno Santos (bsantos)]

Now that the external monitor configuration works almost perfectly (compiz sometimes still crashes/quits) on my laptop in 10.10, this bug is showing up more often. I tried forcing the applet positioning order in gconf but they change to some seemingly random number when the panel changes size.

Being able to stick the applets to either side (middle?) without editing the gconf key would be nice too.

[Martin Wildam (mwildam)]

Glad to hear that the external monitor problem got better.

You have a workaround using gconf editor? - Can you tell me more about that?

[Bruno Santos (bsantos)]

On Sat, 2010-10-23 at 16:19 +0000, Martin Wildam wrote:
> Glad to hear that the external monitor problem got better.
>
> You have a workaround using gconf editor? - Can you tell me more about
> that?

Not really. I tried to set the panel_right_stick key and choose the
position key accordingly, but somehow the position key value is changed
when the panel changes size...

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May you please test with that version and comment back if you're still having or not the issue? Please have a look at http://www.ubuntu.com/download to know how to install that version.Thanks in advance and sorry for the late response.

[Martin Wildam (mwildam)]

Hi,

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 21:38, Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden> wrote:
> Thanks for the report, it has been some time without any response or
> feedback in this bug report and we are wondering if this is still an
> issue for you with the latest release of Ubuntu the Natty Narwhal, May
> you please test with that version and comment back if you're still
> having or not the issue?

Don't have a bigger monitor at home but tried manually reducing the
resolution including rotation of the screen. After restoring to
default, panel items still are on the upper right in the right order.
Tried under Unity and Gnome.

Then:
Only under Gnome I was able to add further items to the panel and to
unlock the panel and move it. Made several tests and now I can tell
you exactly when it happens (still on Natty Narwhal):

Steps to reproduce:
1. Unlock applets on the upper right panel.
2. Reduce screen resolution and apply.
3. Move applet(s) more to the left and back to the right corner.
4. Increase screen resolution and apply.

You can see that panel applets remain somewhere in the middle
(according to lower resolution top right).

The problem seems, that when you put something on the rightmost
position, it saves that as absolute position from the left. When you
put something to the right top, it should save the position
calculating from the right side or something like this.
--
Martin Wildam

http://www.google.com/profiles/mwildam