Amule completely disappears when auto-started iconized

[Hariolf Häfele]

Binary package hint: amule

I have Amule start automatically with the Gnome desktop. Amule has the options "start minimized" and "minimize to tray icon". With those options turned on, Amule disappears completely after it is auto-started. It still runs in the background, but it doesn't show in the task bar or the system tray.

Steps to reproduce:
1) The amule package needs to be installed, obviously
2) Go to System -> Preferences -> Session and make a new entry for Amule (/usr/bin/amule).
3) Start Amule.
4) In Amule, go to Preferences -> General and check "Start minimized", "Enable Tray Icon", and "Minimize to Tray Icon".
5) Quit Amule, restart X
6) After Gnome initializes, Amule should be running (check with ps -A | grep amule), but you won't see Amule anywhere on the screen.

There is a way to bring the Amule window back: Start Amule as you manually would, i.e. Applications -> Internet -> Amule.

Ubuntu version: Feisty Fawn, herd5
Amule version: 2.1.3

[Hariolf Häfele (hariolf)]

After the latest update, it sometimes works now. That is, sometimes after Gnome starts up the Amule icon is visible like it should be, sometimes it isn't.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Can you test this in Feisty?

[Hariolf Häfele (hariolf)]

I am using Feisty, with the latest updates.
I have version 2.1.3-1ubuntu2 of the amule package installed. I am not sure if this bug is Amule's fault, though. Maybe it has something to do with the Gnome Panel since that is where the Amule icon should show up. The gnome-panel package I have installed is version 2.18.0-0ubuntu3.

[Hariolf Häfele (hariolf)]

Seems fixed in Gutsy!

[Hariolf Häfele (hariolf)]

I spoke to soon. The icon only sometimes shows. I noticed that when I set Visual Effects to "none", the icon is displayed in all white instead of the normal colors, and it isn't in the system tray, but right below the Ubuntu menu symbol on the top left. The discolored Amule symbol stays there even after I turn visual effects back on.

Thought I would mention this, maybe it helps.

[Kevin (kevin64-deactivatedaccount)]

I found some info:

http://forum.amule.org/index.php?topic=12511.0

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Yes, sounds like a race.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Reassigning to gnome-panel as this is likely a bug in notification-area (it happens with others applications, see the upstream report).

[Hermes (PL) (hermes85pl)]

What Kevin fount is not my case. For me GNOME does not remember programs. I have added it manually to Startup Applications. Works fine for other programs, yet aMule disappears when minimized, somehow. It does not disappear if opened by hand, i.e. without autostart enabled.

I have also checked that aMule is working and responding while being hidden. I terminates nicely when I tell it to End through System Monitor.

[Hermes (PL) (hermes85pl)]

One more thing I've noticed, which makes me believe it is NOT AMULE'S FAULT, BUT A BUG IN UBUNTU.

I have installed Adobe AIR recently. I created an application for AIR that starts without window and with an icon in system tray. It also uses AIR's autostart feature. There is only one way to do it in AIR, so it is not possible that I did something wrong.

If started by hand, the application behaves as it should. No window opens. I can see it in tray.
If started with autostart, still it shows some pop-ups with reminders (as it should) so I can see that it's actually working fine. However, THERE IS NO ICON IN TRAY. It prevents me from changing the app's preferences (through tray menu), etc.

What I wanna say is that it is the same problem, THIS TIME WITH ADOBE AIR - whole runtime for many future applications! Therefore I believe that it is not aMule's fault, but it is buried somewhere deeper in Ubuntu.