gnome panel icons don't show up

[Eugenia Loli-Queru]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

Reproducible on two new user setups on my laptop. I drag the "terminal" and "my computer" icons from the gnome menus on the desktop. Then, I drag them next to the firefox/evolution/help icons on the gnome panel. They stick there. Then I log out, and I relogin as these users. The new icons are not visible! However, when I retry to let's say drag the "terminal" icon again there, then the previously two invisible icons get VISIBLE again. But if I logout again and log back in, they are invisible again (they ARE there, just not rendering).

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for your report, I cannot reproduce this behavior, that works fine in my desktop with Gutsy, which version of Ubuntu are you running?.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

I run the latest Gutsy Gibbon. Please note that you have to create NEW users to reproduce this bug, not on your own old user account.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

There's no need to use capitals letters. I've tried with 2 new users and works fine, not confirming.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

Well then, I guess I will have to get a video of it all and upload it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

No need to get a video your description is clear. The bug doesn't happen on my gutsy installation. Does it happen with this launcher only? Does it happen if you dnd directly from the menu to the panel? Does the distance to the other icons make a difference?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

The distance does not matter. What does matter if you first DND the icon to the desktop and then get that desktop icon from the desktop and DND it to the panel. But if you DND it directly from the menu, it does work and it "remembers" it. But it doesn't work from the menu-desktop-panel.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

do you still get the issue in hardy?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

Yes, I was able to reproduce the same bug with Hardy as well. I first drag the Firefox icon on the desktop from its gnome menu. Then, I drag it from the desktop to the gnome panel. It's there. I log out. I log in. It has disappeared.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

when you do that is the launcher correctly displayed and working before restarting the session?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

Yes. There are other icons that ubuntu placed there that work fine before and after the login process. It also works properly if I directly drag an application icon from the gnome menus to the panel. But as I explained, it doesn't work properly if I drag an application entry from the gnome menus to the desktop, and from the desktop to the panel. This chain of events make the icon to disappear in the panel after I relogin.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

do you remove the desktop launcher after doing a dnd to gnome-panel? the gnome-panel configuration points to the source you dnd, when you use the menu that's the system .desktop, when you do it from the desktop it copies this uri, if you remove the desktop there then the icon will be broken, the behaviour is non intuitive, not sure how what to change there though

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

Yes, I remove the link from the desktop after I have DnD it to the panel. I see the problem now. Yes, this is not very intuitive. Maybe the solution is for the behavior to remain as is when dragging real files on the desktop that you later delete, but when you drag an actual shortcut icon, then the icon on the panel should stay put, as it should link to the original file and not the shortcut. What do you think?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

there is also bug #67332 about the topic, not a trivial case, doing a copy can be useful because otherwise you could not edit the launcher, the best option could be to make gnome-panel display a clear error about the launcher having being deleted mentioning the location so it would be clear to the user why the launcher is not there

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

I discussed the issue over a romantic dinner with my husband last night (he is a Google Android engineer, but he has desktop experience as he was one of Be, Inc.'s BeOS engineers back in the day). ;-)

So, we came up with three possible solutions:
1. Involve the package manager in it and create new icon shortcuts only by using the canonical name of each link.
2. Special-case this specific case and so when someone is dragging from the desktop to the panel, always symlink against the actual file instead of the symlink.
3. Try to solve the root of my usability problem. You see, the reason I was dragging first to the desktop and then to the panel, was because when I was opening the gnome menus to drag an application shortcut out, the menus were hiding/overlapping the place I wanted to drag to. So I had no alternative but to first drag to the desktop and then back to the panel. You can fix this by not allowing the gnome menus render on top of the panel. However, while this will fix my specific usability case, it won't fix the case of someone having a Firefox shortcut on his desktop for a few months, and then suddenly decide to move all his shortcuts to the panel and delete the ones on his desktop (there are many users who change their habits regarding icons overtime, you see).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

1. what do you mean exactly? just using the desktop filename? how would you figure in what directory it's stored then and if an user modified version or the system one should be used?
2. when you dnd from the desktop to gnome-panel the actual file is the desktop one
3. the menu should not overlap the gnome-panel bars, you should open a bug about that

when doing a dnd from the gnome-panel to the desktop you want to do a copy so the user can edit the launcher, when doing a dnd to the gnome-panel you want to point to the launcher so changes are reflected

the easier way there would probably to do a copy but update it dynamically when the launcher change or to have a clear error messages about the issue when using use a launcher not available

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

1. This method would require the package manager's apps to be the only installed apps.
2. Yes, but what I am saying is, is to special case this, and instead link the panel icon to the final destination file and not to the shortcut on the desktop.
3. The sub-menus, that include the applications that I want to DnD, *do* overlap and render on top of the gnome panel. The menus don't, but the sub-menus do. Do you still want me to open a open a new bug for that?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you describe the layout you are using and the options to get the submenu overlaping? they should be drawed where is some empty space but there might be some bugs in specific configurations

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

Image uploaded showing the overlap.