Unity: auto-hide using mouse reveals launcher inconsistently

[Kasper Holst]

With Unity 5.8 and auto-hide on, the launcher is being revealed inconsistenly when mouse is used.

Expected Behaviour:
Every time I move the mouse cursor to the left side of the screen, the launcher must be revealed.

What actually happens:
When I move the mouse cursor to left side of the screen the launcher is not being revealed all the time. Sometimes I must touch the left side several times before its shown and other times the Launcher is being revealed normally.

Attached is a video screencast showing the behaviour.

I'm using Ubuntu precise (development branch), release 12.04.

unity 5.8.0-0ubuntu1
compiz 1:0.9.7.2-0ubuntu1

[Nekhelesh Ramananthan (nik90)]

Thank you for reporting this bug. The video you attached has a lower frame rate due to which it is not clearly visible to see the response of the launcher.

However, here is how it is supposed to work. On moving the mouse cursor to the left side will reveal a shadow line as you can see in the video. However to actually make the launcher appear, you need to push (apply pressure) against it. This is to avoid any false revealing of the launcher. If this behaviour is not what you experience then please comment again.

[Kasper Holst (porresuppe)]

Here is a capture with more frames.

[Kasper Holst (porresuppe)]

Here is a detail from unity_launcher_autohide_v2.mkv. Notice the gap between the left side and the mouse cursor. This gap is not there when I am using the desktop - the mouse cursor is touching the left side. It seems like the screen is bigger than it should be. I guess this is the cause of the bug.

[Kasper Holst (porresuppe)]

Perhaps it is related, but this screen dump shows that the Window title is distorted. Look at the D in Desktop.

[Nekhelesh Ramananthan (nik90)]

The distortion of the text that you refer to has already been reported. It is fixed in the upcoming Unity 5.10. You can see the bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nux/+bug/927441.

Looking at the new video, when you move the mouse fast enough the launcher appears all the time. It is only when you try slowly, you can see the black shadow clearly. I am unable to see this as a valid bug. However, instead of incomplete I am marking it New. And I will ask some other developers to look at this. They can either confirm or reject it based on what they think.

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

This is likely a user-configuration error/preference.

Ghost, can you navigate to "System Settings>Appearance>Behavior" and see if moving the sensitivity slider all the way to the left helps?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Er, I meant all the way to the right.

[Kasper Holst (porresuppe)]

I have tried to move the sensitivity slider all the way to the right but it doesn't help.

Some more observations:

If I hit the left side of the screen with the mouse cursor very fast, the greater sensitivity somehow helps. The only problem is that it's not very pleasent to travel that fast with my finger on the trackpad.

Conversely when the cursor is moved slowly towards the left side of the screen, then it's very hard to reveal the launcher. Most of the time I only see a shadow on the left side of the screen.

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Hm, this is a strange bug, indeed. What about if you use Unity 2D? It looks like something is indeed blocking your cursor from actually hitting the left border (which really looks like it shouldn't ever even let it reveal the launcher at all given how far away it looks). What video card/driver are you using? Do you have any custom configurations with compiz via CCSM?

[Kasper Holst (porresuppe)]

Same situation with Unity 2D.

glxinfo says video card is Intel 945GME. Specification (http://shop.lenovo.com/ISS_Static/merchandising/US/PDFs/sseries_techspecs_012809.pdf) says it's Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (GMA 950). The machine is a Lenovo Ideapad S10e.

Driver is intel (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so).

I have no custom configurations with compiz via CCSM. It's a clean install (no upgrade).

I think the problem is less apparent by using a mouse, because I can move the mouse further to the left (compared to a trackpad).

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

I'm really thinking this is an xorg problem as it affects Unity 2D as well. Something is really wonky and looks like your binding box for mouse movement is too short on the left (maybe even the right.)

In the meantime, you could try 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' in a terminal, rebooting, and seeing if that works.

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Looking at your video again, though, I'd have to take what I said above back. As strange as that gap is, it looks like it's connecting cleanly. The issue seems to be a ridiculously high threshold. I'm afraid I don't know where to find that value.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

try changing the launcher reveal sensitivity?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

That has already been asked.

Also, I had this bug affect me when I was testing a git version of xorg on my intel graphics machine. Unfortunately, I wiped/reinstalled the machine due to it being pretty much hosed from xorg so the bug is gone for me.

The behavior was very much wrong, not revealing despite my hardest efforts.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Franck (alci)]

I can see this same behaviour now in Raring with Unity 6.12.0daily13.02.26-0ubuntu1.

Sometimes, the Launcher fails to reveal when pushing left with the mouse. Super key works fine...

[Lucas Clemente Vella (lvella-gmail)]

In Raring, when the cursor approaches the left side, if the launcher is responsive, a shadow appears to show that "pressure" must be applied, this is the normal behavior, and if I "press" the cursor to the left, the launcher pops.

In the cases it is irresponsive, not even the shadow will appear. It feels like the launcher has crashed and is been restarted (but I don know if that is the case; I don't even know if the launcher is a different process).

[Filiprino (filiprino)]

I also have this problem. Must use super key to activate. Before upgrading to Raring I didn't have this bug.

Get your act together. Unity shell is improving quite slowly.