[karmic] Empathy needs to be started twice to see the buddy list

[Johannes Maibaum]

Binary package hint: empathy

I discovered that if Empathy has not been started before in the current session (e.g. right after booting into your desktop or after having quit Empathy through Chat -> Quit (CTRL+Q) or technically if no Empathy process is running), you actually have to launch Empathy twice from the application menu to see your buddy list:
- The first time you click on the Empathy starter in the menu, Empathy only connects to your specified accounts (the status icon next to your user name in the panel is changed).
- To see your buddy list, you have to click on the starter again.

To me, the expected behaviour would be that if I launch Empathy through the application starter in the menu, both things should happen simultaneously: The buddy list should pop up and my online status should be changed. This should happen no matter if the Empathy process has been running before or not.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Oct 18 13:55:33 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: empathy 2.28.0.1-1ubuntu6
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: empathy
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2072): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2072): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2120): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2105): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:2104): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.2/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, did you close empathy while the buddy list was not on screen? it use the previous configuration when started

[Johannes Maibaum (jmaibaum)]

I'm not sure, if I got your question. Actually, I don't see another option to completely close Empathy (close = stopping the process) by clicking Chat -> Quit from the buddy list, as long as you don't count hardkilling the process (what you wouldn't do nomally). Simple closing the buddy list window does not stop the process, it only hides it until you open it again from the application window (the process keeps running in the background). In this case, everything works correctly.

What I mean, if the process is not running, you have to use the starter twice. This situation can happen either right after boot (since Empathy isn't started by default) or after using Chat -> Quit. And to an unexperienced user, at least the first case could be confusing, since he would expect the buddy list to open immediately after using the starter. I admit that I do not use the second option (Chat->Quit) very often, I just discovered it recently, while I was trying to find a way to reproduce the bug. Anyway, this should be fixed in my opinion.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The behaviour when not running and starting it is to display the buddy list if it was displayed when you stopped the software before (could be when restarting the computer) or to send it to the indicator if it was there, where was it on screen before?

[Johannes Maibaum (jmaibaum)]

I checked every case you mentioned, but the outcome is always the same. It doesn't matter, if the buddy list is on screen before I do a restart or not. Afterwards the first start sends Empathy to the indicator (the status icon next to my user name in the panel changes to "online") and the second start brings the buddy list back on screen. Everytime.
So, if you say that the buddy list should be displayed on starting when it was there before, it doesn't.

I hope I understood you correctly, since I am not a native English speaker... ;)

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

i cannot reproduce this in lucid

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

this was the default behavior in karmic. though if you launch empathy from gnome-menus then you will be able to see buddy list first time.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

actually in lucid buddy list appears on the first run either started from indicator applet or gnome-menus.