multiple workspaces not shown in workspace switcher

[Michael Shulman]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

The workspace switcher applet on the gnome panel only displays the current workspace, although I have four. I can still switch between workspaces but only the current one is shown on the panel. This is despite that in the Preferences box the option "Show all workspaces" is selected (not "Show only the current workspace"). This worked fine in jaunty but is now broken in karmic alpha.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 19 22:14:58 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.27.92-0ubuntu4
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.34-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-panel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, not confirming there and nobody else is having the issue, setting low importance it's probably a local configuration issue

[Cameron Matheson (cameron-matheson)]

I am having this issue as well. One thing worth mentioning is that I am using openbox as my window manager. The workspace switcher has always worked perfectly in the past. I will try in metacity momentarily and report if the issue goes away.

[Cameron Matheson (cameron-matheson)]

The pager does work as expected when using metacity. The interesting thing is that it (the workspace switcher) is overriding my openbox configuration's default number of workspaces (3) so that I only get one upon initial login. After adding more workspaces with openbox, workspace switcher still doesn't show the additional workspaces (the windows on the visible workspace in the pager do change when switching workspaces with openbox though). Has the free desktop virtual desktop stuff changed and maybe openbox is behind the times? I wonder what window manager Michael is using.

[Michael Shulman (shulman)]

I'm using sawfish. The workspace switcher does work as expected with metacity. It doesn't override my sawfish configuration though; I still have all my workspaces, though it only displays the current one.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

May you please tell us a few easy steps in order to reproduce the issue? that works fine here. are you using metacity or compiz?

[Michael Shulman (shulman)]

I'm using sawfish, not metacity. Compiz is not installed.

I can reproduce the issue in a newly created user account by logging in from gdm and running "killall metacity && sawfish &". Sawfish then replaces metacity as the window manager. By default it has only one workspace, but you can insert more by middle-clicking on the root window and selecting Workspaces > Insert Workspace. I can insert lots of workspaces this way and move between them via this menu, but the workspace-switcher applet on the panel only ever displays one of them (the current one).