Ubuntu
gnome-shell-extension-appindicator package

  1. Bug #2012388
  2. Comment #53

Comment 53 for bug 2012388

Revision history for this message
Davi Medrade (davimedrade) wrote :

I have this bug with AnyDesk. Like, disabling AnyDesk autostart prevented the bug from happening as soon as I logged in, but it would still happen as soon as I opened AnyDesk (to connect to another computer or to allow someone else to connect to mine). Whenever I clicked the invisible square, another AnyDesk window would open. Then even if I closed AnyDesk the “invisible square” would still be there, but it would be dead (clicking on it wouldn't do anything, but would block the click from reaching the window beneath it).

By the way, yes, rebooting or logging out and logging back in fixes the issue when it happens, but it's not necessary to go that far. Restarting the shell is enough. Here's how:
1. Quit Anydesk (or whichever app triggers this bug in your computer). Make sure that it's not running in the background (for AnyDesk, right-click the tray icon and close the app from there, so that the app closes and the tray icon disappears).
2. Restart the Gnome Shell: hit Alt+F2 to open the “Run a Command” window, type the command “r” (yes, just a lowercase letter “r”, without quotes or other parameters) and hit Enter.

That makes the bug go away (until Anydesk or another app that triggers it is started again) without forcing you to close all your programs. But, as stated, the problem with this is that once you start the app again the bug will happen again (so once you're done with the app you have to do steps 1 and 2 above again).

The workaround I ended up adopting was disabling legacy tray icon support.

The extension I use is “AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support”, and I didn't even have to disable it completely; I just had to go into the options and disable the option “Enable Legacy Tray icons support”. Just disabling the option does not get rid of the invisible square in the current session, so if it's already there you'd have to perform steps 1 and 2 above one last time. Now I can use AnyDesk without getting that invisible square. One small downside is that the AnyDesk tray icon doesn't appear anymore, but I can live with that.