Old indicator items are not removed, just hidden

[Sebastian Geiger]

[Impact]

In Focal the indicator-applet (12.10.2+20.04.20200409-0ubuntu1) contains a bug that can cause duplicate icons to appear in the applet. When an application which creates a notification item is closed, then the indicator applet will just hide its item and not remove it. If the application is started again, a new item will be added to the applet, but the old item is still present (just hidden). When the panel is moved or otherwise refreshed, then all items will be made visible again, causing many duplicates.

The required fix is included in https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~indicator-applet-developers/indicator-applet/trunk.14.04/revision/451 and needs to be back ported into the new SRU release.

For more details see this merge request:
https://code.launchpad.net/~lanoxx/indicator-applet/fix-duplicate-icons/+merge/390344

[Test Case]

 1. Open an application which adds a notification item to the indicator applet. Examples for such an applications are VLC, Network Manager Applet, or Skype.
 2. Close the application and reopen it.
 3. Hold Alt key, then move the panel which has the indicator applet to an different edge of the screen.
 4. Observe that new two icons of the respective application are visible (e.g. to VLC icons).

[Regression Potential]

 * The regression potential is minimal. The only user of this package are the GNOME Flashback packages. The biggest impact this change could have is that indicator applet items behave incorrectly, which is not worse than the current situation.
 * I have tested this patch for several weeks now and not found any regressions.

[racb] The code path being changed is the signal handler that fires when indicator items are removed. Regressions may manifest if this code path is exercised in some unexpected way.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Uploaded, it’s waiting in the queue: <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/focal/+queue?queue_state=1>.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

Hello Sebastian, or anyone else affected,

Accepted indicator-applet into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-applet/12.10.2+20.04.20201004-0ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Hi Sebastian!

I noticed that on Ubuntu Groovy, indicator-appmenu is behaving incorrectly. It shows a menu for the application, but only until some dialog is opened. For example:

1) Start LibreOffice Writer — there will be a menu;
2) Open the About dialog — the menu will disappear (correctly);
3) Close the dialog — the menu should be back but it isn't (in Unity session it works fine).

That may be related to this change. Can you please test this case when you will be verifying the fix?

If it's really related, then we will need to reject this change.

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Based on my comment above, and no reply from Sebastian, I am marking this as verification-failed.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

Hey Dmitry! You mentioned indicator-appmenu on Ubuntu groovy, even though the SRU is targeting focal. Did you mean to say that the same fix is also present in groovy and that there it seems to be causing invalid behavior?

[Dmitry Shachnev (mitya57)]

Hi Łukasz! Yes, the version in groovy is identical to what is in focal-proposed. And both these versions are buggy, unfortunately.

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The version of indicator-applet in the proposed pocket of Focal that was purported to fix this bug report has been removed because one or more bugs that were to be fixed by the upload have failed verification and been in this state for more than 10 days.