Gnome add to panel > add (custom) Menu Bar | icon size is too big!

[mr. adams]

Binary package hint: gnome-panel

After upgrading from Jaunty to Karmic, having a "Menu Bar (custom menu bar)" (with (Ubuntu Icon) | Applications | Places | System) present on the Gnome panel nearly doubles the size of all icons in the panel. Trying to change the icon size via the panel's Properties has no effect.

Removing the "custom menu bar" changes all icons back to the right size. Icon size can now be changed via Properties. Adding to the panel a "Main Menu (the main GNOME menu)" works as expected.

How do I add a the Menu Bar without the exaggerated icon size?

gnome-panel:
  Installed: 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu6
  Candidate: 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu6
  Version table:
 *** 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu6 0
        500 http://debian.nctu.edu.tw karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Nov 1 15:12:32 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-panel
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: gnome-panel 1:2.28.0-0ubuntu6
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gnome-panel
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[mr. adams (christopher-lee-adams-deactivatedaccount)]

Attached is a Screen Capture showing the enlarged icon size. Note that the notification Wireless Network Connection and the Notification Applet are the CORRECT size. All of the other icons are too large.

[mr. adams (christopher-lee-adams-deactivatedaccount)]

For comparison, this is what the panel looks like if I remove the offending Menu Bar. The icons are shown at the correct height of 24 pixels.

[ericmc783 (ericmc783)]

Just out of curiosity... do you get the same behavior if you use a different theme? (system | preferences | appearance | and change the theme).

[mr. adams (christopher-lee-adams-deactivatedaccount)]

You have good intuition.

The problem is with the Icons. My custom theme was using the Tangerine icons; selecting any of the other Icons (Human, Humanity, etc.) results in the correct appearance.

Are the Tangerine icons outdated or no longer supported, or do I need to reinstall from another source?

apt-cache policy tangerine-icon-theme
tangerine-icon-theme:
  Installed: 0.27
  Candidate: 0.27
  Version table:
 *** 0.27 0
        500 http://debian.nctu.edu.tw karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[dirk (dirk-kuijsten)]

I had the same problem. It cost me half an hour to get to find out it was this bug and I had to change the icon set. Thanks for the info.

[André Ventura (afv)]

This is still present at gnome-panel 1:2.30.0-0ubuntu1 with Lucid's Ambiance, Clearlooks, Dust, New Wave, etc.

[chelz (twelvetales64)]

I encountered this issue and found this bug searching for a solution. I have just upgraded from 8.10 "Intrepid" to 9.04 "Jaunty" then to 9.10 "Karmic". I didn't notice if this issue was present on Jaunty, but it definitely is on Karmic.

After a bunch of trial and error, I have a workaround of three short and simple commands:

sudo mv /usr/share/icons/Tangerine/icon-theme.cache /usr/share/icons/Tangerine/icon-theme.cache.1
sudo mv /usr/share/icons/Tangerine/32x32/places/start-here.png /usr/share/icons/Tangerine/32x32/places/start-here.png.1
killall gnome-panel

You might get a file not found error if the file icon-theme.cache doesn't exist, this is fine, but you probably won't. Sudo is only needed for the first two.

My testing consisted of copying everything from /usr/share/icons/Tangerine into another folder in /usr/share/icons, selecting that icon theme, then deleting the "*start-here*" files (as in find /usr/share/icons/Tangerine -iname "*start-here*") and running killall gnome-panel after each delete to see if it did anything. You can actually remove all of the "*start-here*" files and somehow still have those icons present in the "Menu Bar" ("A custom menu bar") applet but they'll not be in the "Main Menu" ("The main GNOME menu") applet; the only file that changes anything is the 32x32 png one. The issue is definitely around that file. If other themes are having this issue, perhaps this solution could work for them too.

Here's some info about my system:

$ apt-cache policy tangerine-icon-theme
tangerine-icon-theme:
  Installed: 0.27
  Candidate: 0.27
  Version table:
 *** 0.27 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.31-22-generic #60-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 27 00:22:23 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 9.10"