Shell boxpointer menus don't have scroll buttons when they exceed the screen height

[Dmytro]

I am using appindicator-1.0 in conjunction with Gtk+2.0 menu. Menu consist of constant items and many dynamically added items. If the screen pixel resolution is not so good as it must be then the last menu items are not visible. Ubuntu 16.04 automatically add top and bottom bars with "^" and "v" arrows to scroll menu when mouse pointer is over these bars. But in Linux Ubuntu 18.04 (and 19.04 too) such scrolling bars are not appearing.

On the other hand menu scrolling is working fine anywhere into usual GTK window with menu bar (without using appindicator). Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 use the same 12.10.1 libappindicator version.

Here is the test c program which illustrates the issue. It works fine in Linux Ubuntu 16.04 and has the described above problem in Linux 18.04:

#include <gtk/gtk.h>
#include <libappindicator/app-indicator.h>

#define LOGO_PNG "/home/super/my-project/menu-test/logo.png"

AppIndicator* c_indicator;
GtkWidget* c_menu;

void menu_quit_cb(GtkMenuItem* menuitem, gpointer user_data)
{
    gtk_main_quit();
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

    int i;
    GtkWidget* item;
    char title[128];

    c_menu = gtk_menu_new();

    item = gtk_menu_item_new_with_label("Quit");
    g_signal_connect(item, "activate", G_CALLBACK(menu_quit_cb), NULL);
    gtk_menu_shell_append(GTK_MENU_SHELL(c_menu), item);
    gtk_widget_show(item);

    gtk_menu_shell_append(GTK_MENU_SHELL(c_menu), gtk_separator_menu_item_new());

    for (i = 1; i <= 100; ++i) {
        snprintf(title, sizeof(title), "Item #%03u", i);
        item = gtk_menu_item_new_with_label(title);
        gtk_menu_shell_append(GTK_MENU_SHELL(c_menu), item);
        gtk_widget_show(item);
    }

    //

    c_indicator = app_indicator_new("Menu Test", LOGO_PNG, APP_INDICATOR_CATEGORY_APPLICATION_STATUS);
    app_indicator_set_status(c_indicator, APP_INDICATOR_STATUS_ACTIVE);
    app_indicator_set_icon(c_indicator, LOGO_PNG);
    app_indicator_set_menu(c_indicator, GTK_MENU(c_menu));

    gtk_main();

    return 0;
}

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: libappindicator1 12.10.1+18.04.20180322.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-50.54-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-50-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.6
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri May 24 21:15:59 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-07-03 (325 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
SourcePackage: libappindicator
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, could you take a screenshot or picture of the issue?

[Dmytro (tedim)]

I have checked test program in Linux Ubuntu 19.04. The result is the same as for Linux Ubuntu 18.04.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks, the issue is rather on the indicator side than on the library, reassigning to gnome-shell (but it could be the extension instead)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The menu code is provided by gnome-shell, so I don't think there's any reason to involve the extension in this bug.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Dmytro, could you report it upstream on https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues ?

[Dmytro (tedim)]

Yes, I have made https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/1332 .

[Dmytro (tedim)]

Maintainer Florian Müllner in https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/1332 says:
"Correct, it's the responsibility of the caller to add scrollbars if a menu may exceed the screen height. That is, this is a bug in the appindicator extension, not gnome-shell."

The issue report into gitlab.gnome.com is closed!

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for reporting it upstream and updating the bug!

[Dmytro (tedim)]

Is it possible to test what is fixed? When will it be in public?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

That's a Launchpad bug. Nothing is fixed. The bug was rejected and closed, which Launchpad misinterprets as "Fix Released":

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/1332

[Dmytro (tedim)]

In the .H files of the libappindicator I have found 2 authors' e-mails: Ted Gould <email address hidden> and Cody Russell <email address hidden>. I have written email and received the email-daemon answer that this e-mails are not valid. I see the problem and want to know who can help me to find the decision.

Could you be so kind to direct me in the right way and say the real email or website where I can ask how to resolve the problem?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Dmytro, the issue is not with the library but with the indicator, you can report to upstream on https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-shell-extension-appindicator

[Amr Ibrahim (amribrahim1987)]

I'm also affected by this bug in Ubuntu 18.04. I'm using Diodon the clipboard manager. Its appindicator menu does not scroll down when the clipboard entries exceed the height of the screen.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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