GNOME login fails to stay in the overview if DING is enabled

[Burque Computers]

Ubuntu 22.04 (April 9 daily, latest)

If you either disable the ubuntu-dock or remove it all together. On every login after that, the Activities window appears for just a few seconds. After those few seconds the Activities window automatically closes, which exposes the desktop.

What I expected to happen is no Activity window to appear on login. I just want the desktop to appear, no dock, no Activities. More or less, I'm going for a "kiosk" type of desktop.

Thanks for your time!

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 22.04
Package: gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock 72~ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-25.25-generic 5.15.30
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu80
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Apr 10 19:42:00 2022
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-04-11 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" - Daily amd64 (20220409)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Burque Computers (burq)]

It might be easier to show the issue, than trying to describe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfc05kA6FII

Before I started recording, I installed the latest Ubuntu 22.04 daily ISO on a VM (issue happens on bare metal too). The only thing I did before hand was run sudo apt full-upgrade. So this should be easily reproducible.

I didn't know if I should be filling this as a gnome-shell issue. Or as a gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock bug. Please change it if I messed that up when filling this bug.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Oh you're right, sorry. Correct behaviour without extensions is for GNOME to stay in the overview upon login. That's the upstream designed behaviour.

This bug appears to be caused by the desktop-icons-ng extension starting. I think because that is a full desktop window and maybe GNOME is designed to leave the overview when any startup application launches.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Burque Computers (burq)]

Hi Daniel,

I guess I just didn't realize that showing activities overview window was "a feature, not a bug."

After removing gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng, I completely agree with your analysis. Thanks for also correcting the incorrect tags I used.

What I ended up doing to achieve my desired result was to install this extension: https://github.com/fthx/no-overview

It would be cool if that could one day be included in Ubuntu's repo. It's pretty short and easy to read.

Thanks for your help!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I think we might need to improve on a related fix that went in 8 months ago:

  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/1925

[Sergio Costas (rastersoft-gmail)]

After checking that extension, I think that I can use the same trick for DING.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The messiness mentioned in comment #7 should be avoidable starting in GNOME 46:
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3305