[SRU]Update indicator-sound-gtk2 with patch

[TK]

[Impact]

 * The indicator menu for sound not displaying is a major user interface failure.

 * The justification for making this upload is that the number of workarounds proposed are actually damaging to system integrity as well as allowing for shifts between desktop environment.

 * This patch resolves a conflict that will allow the menu to display.

[Test Case]

 * Install stock Xubuntu 13.10. The indicator menu for sound should fail to display when clicking on the sound icon.

[Regression Potential]

 * There is a risk of further conflict between the gtk2 and gtk3 sound indicators. In previous releases the two versions were almost identical but this changed in Saucy (this is also the reason -gtk2 broke). In particular, there is a potential for the two indicators to use gsettings configuration keys in different ways which may lead to problems. Testing should be done on systems with both Unity and Xubuntu installed.

 * While Xubuntu is working on landing gtk3 indicators for 14.04 the landing of such for 13.10 now would be a massive change requiring approval by potentially the Technical Board.

[Other Info]

 * In general Xubuntu users have been distressed over not having the indicator sound menu available which makes this an issue we would like to resolve expeditiously.

 * Xubuntu will need to adjust its website documentation slightly to note that users must select "Download updates while installing" during an installation from the LiveCD to ensure this fix is picked up to avoid a broken interface experience.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1208204

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

I can confirm that this bug does exist.

I have also found that if you kill the currently running indicator-sound-service and run /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service it starts working again.

Since the running process in both 13.04 and 13.10 is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-sound-service, does this mean the latest version does not fall back on /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service? I haven't dove into the code yet, but maybe this is a simple fix?

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Thanks, Sean
For those looking for a temporary workaround, look at /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service and change the Exec line

Exec=/usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service

[Elfy (elfy)]

that appears to work

[TK (tkrishan)]

Editing indicator-sound.service file works for me.

Also, falling back to using the Raring's binary also works.
indicator-sound_12.10.2daily13.04.12-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

[TK (tkrishan)]

Still experiencing the issue with “indicator-sound” 12.10.2+13.10.20130812.1-0ubuntu1.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Marking 'Low' right now since easy workarounds exist.

[TK (tkrishan)]

Will the importance be raised as 13.10 nears release? The reason I ask is whether easy workarounds should include having users search through bug reports to find the "easy workarounds" that require editing system files?

I can understand that there are probably far more important issues to work on right now; I'm just trying to understand what an easy workaround includes. From a non-technical user's perspective who just wants something to work, I would rate this as medium.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Yes, I planned to raise the importance as release nears. I'm hoping it gets solved long before that, though.

[Daniel Hollocher (chogydan)]

I think technically, this bug is of high importance: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance
You can't adjust sound, which is core functionality.

The workaround is easy only if you happen to be looking at this bug report. I suspect that by easy, the guide means that an uneducated user could find a workaround, just by playing around.

Please don't change the importance as the release nears. Please just set it correctly. Low means ignore potentially forever. High means, fix at least before release. Changing it will just confuse or surprise the dev.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

I have been running with the patch that dtl131 described in message #5 for the last 3 days - when he alerted me to the fact that https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4-indicator-plugin/+bug/1215852 is a duplicate of this report. Since applying the patch, I have rebooted around 20 times for various other reasons and I no longer experience xfce4-indicator-plugin crashes (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4-indicator-plugin/+bug/1181134) nor do I ever lose my volume control on Panel 0 (this report). Saucy Alpha-2 has become my everyday system - very stable.

So, could anyone who has access please fix the package 'indicator-sound' with the one liner as described in the patch? I'll be happy to volunteer for QA duty. I can run tests and/or collect specified logs.

Richard

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

I just looked at my 13.04 server. Interestingly enough, after applying the above patch to /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service, then the 13.04 and 13.10 versions of that file are identical in content.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Note that the indicator-sound package containing the file needing the patch of message #5 was just re-released yesterday without the patch (scheduling issue?). I had to re-apply the patch.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

The bluetooth indicator is also affected (see duplicate bug 1219938). Maybe the problem lies in the xfce4-indicator itself?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

@daniel: I don't think it is directly related to the xfce4 indicator applet - I'm testing gtk3/indicator-ng support from upstream, and with it the sound menu works fine, but bluetooth menu is still broken. So it is either unrelated bugs, or something fixed in indicator-sound and not indicator-sound-gtk2 and indicator-bluetooth (which has no gtk2 version).

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Actually, I'm not sure how the reporter of bug 1219938 even got the bluetooth indicator to appear in Xubuntu given that is has no gtk2 version.

[Simon Steinbeiß (ochosi)]

I assume that it uses indicator-application-gtk2.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Weird. In 13.10 bluetooth is a Unity service/indicator-ng, but it still uses appindicator APIs, but it doesn't use the library version of them, so it must have it's own.

[TK (tkrishan)]

The bluetooth applet I use in XFCE is blueman-applet. It appears as an indicator but also does not display any options when clicked on. Only a small empty box appears under the indicator.

Here's the error message when I click on the indicator:
(blueman-applet:27228): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: About to Show called on an item wihtout submenus. We're ignoring it.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Ok - there's two things going on here.

First, when you get the bluetooth icon with an empty menu, that isn't indicator-bluetooth. It is blueman, which uses appindicator. Something is wrong there so it sends an empty menu.

Second, indicator-bluetooth is also broken - but in this case it's so broken it doesn't appear at all. It is trying to create a menu of com.canonical.indicator.switch, but this menu model cannot be found. It isn't part of IDO, and I don't know where it is supposed to come from.

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

@a-j-buxton: so I take it the bluetooth indicators should be separate bugs split off from this one?

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

@dtl131 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glipper/+bug/1203888/ covers blueman-applet - that bug also affects glipper.

indicator-bluetooth and indicator-sound I am not sure of - they could be the same bug or they could be different.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

indicator-bluetooth is now working for me. It still produces the error about com.canonical.indicator.switch, but it is showing up on the panel, including the menu. The blueman-applet is right next to it and is still broken. This is after i've been playing around all day killing services and so on, so there may be some logic which normally prevents both loading at the same time.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

Without comment #5 i would not have this possible fix
Possible solution:
Replace the Exec= line in /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service with this line
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(pidof xfce4-session)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

This will make the change only affect the XFCE desktop environment so it will not effect the Unity/KDE/Gnome/Lubuntu DEs for example

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

The indicator-sound package was just re-released with the same bug. I had to use the patch in message #5 above to re-apply the work-around.

Version from dpkg = 12.10.2+13.10.20130913-0ubuntu1

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

@Richard: Every time there's an update, it's going to overwrite the change. Put the package on hold to prevent updates:
echo "indicator-sound hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Daniel

I realise that. Not trying to be a pest.

I just want the indicator-sound maintainer to understand that the package
is being rereleased for other reasons but unfixed w.r.t. to this bug and
the fix would be so simple. I don't mind reapplying the patch until a fix
is permanent.
On Sep 14, 2013 12:11 PM, "Daniel Letzeisen" <email address hidden>
wrote:

> @Richard: Every time there's an update, it's going to overwrite the
> change. Put the package on hold to prevent updates:
> echo "indicator-sound hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1215852).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1208204
>
> Title:
> indicator-sound no longer functions with xfce4-indicator-plugin
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-sound/+bug/1208204/+subscriptions
>

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Richard, the suggestion in comment #5 is a workaround/hack for xfce users to use the old gtk2 sound indicator until this gets sorted out. It is not a suitable patch or fix by any means, since users of other desktop environments would be forced to use the old gtk2 indicator as well.

Seeing as how the icon shows up, but doesn't reflect the sound status or respond to sound changes, I've got a gut feeling it's not connecting to pulseaudio properly (but I could be way off base).

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Hmm... what you've written here doesn't really make sense. You can only use the gtk2 indicator in the current xfce packages. There is absolutely no way to load gtk3 indicators without installing a custom version of several xfce components.

So whatever the problem is, it's a problem with the gtk2 indicator (because the gtk3 indicator works fine if you install those patches). Therefore your workaround is actually what needs to be done for the real fix. It just needs to be implemented in a way that does not impact other desktops.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

So this is my final analysis:

The sound indicator has two parts: there is the part which gets loaded to the panel and displays the icons and menus, and then there is the dbus service which coordinates between the indicator and all the audio players. Both these parts exist in both the gtk2 and gtk3 version of the plugin. However, the gtk2 dbus backend is not normally used. The package does not include a service activation script so it can never get loaded automatically. The gtk2 package depends on the gtk3 package which installs a service activation script to start the gtk3 dbus backend.

In raring this worked fine: the two different dbus backends were interchangable so it did not matter which one was running. However, in saucy, the gtk3 indicator backend has been rewritten and the gtk2 one has not changed, so they are now out of sync. That is why it doesn't work.

The changes in the backend are very big - I think it would be difficult to port them over to the gtk2 indicator. The easy alternative is the workaround from comment 27, and a harder but more permanent fix is to bring xfce to gtk3 indicator support and dump the gtk2 one entirely.

[Daniel Hollocher (chogydan)]

I do think the issue is that the xfce4 panel is in gtk2, and the gtk2 sound indicator was written specifically to support xfce. see: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1048217

Given what's in 1048217, I think comment #27 needs to be adjusted to work for lubuntu as well, and then it can be a proper fix. And it should also probably check against pidof xfce4-panel, since that is the relevant program, right?

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

If lubuntu is also affected this adjustment will handle it:
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(pidof xfce4-session)$(pidof lxsession)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

about using xfce4-penel with pid does the panel start before the file is called that launches the sound indicator? or does the panel launch the sound indicator?
if the panel or the indicator applet is what calls sound indicator that would work fine

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

The part that matters (the dbus service) is launched using dbus activation. That means that when any program tries to access the dbus service at namespace "com.canonical.indicator.sound", the dbus daemon will run the activation script (the bit you want to patch). In theory this should never happen when the panel is not running but there is no guarantee of this.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Also, checking for the PID isn't the greatest idea if there are multiple user sessions. It might be better to check the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP environment variable.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

true but "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" is null when it runs

using xfce4-panel pid would only effect someone using multiple sessions and different DEs which would be limited to certain combinations for example Xubuntu and Lubuntu DEs would get along with each other but they would not get along with the others, but all the others would get along with the others

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

perhaps this will solve that issue with the workaround:
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel) ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

opps: missed a closing quote

chad@chad-VirtualBox:~$ cat /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service[D-BUS Service]
Name=com.canonical.indicator.sound
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[Evan Carroll (evancarroll)]

I just installed 13.04 and did an immediate update to 13.10. This bug is still present.

[Karim Rekik (wkrekik)]

I just tried Xubuntu 13.10 beta 2 : bug still present

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

@Evan and wkr: There is no need for "me too" comments unless the bug has been marked fixed released and you still experience it. They only generate noise and extra e-mail (like this comment). The best way to help is to use the link at the top of the bug to indicate it affects you. Thanks.

[David (david-9ei9nyjpwdex)]

Recently clean installed Xubuntu 13.10 beta 2 x64 and this bug is present. I was previously running 12.10 and never had this issue.

The volume control icon on the indicator plug-in is dark grey rather than the usual 'active state white'. It does nothing but I can still control volume by running pulse audio volume control from the menu.

[Marco Giannini (marco-giannini)]

Same bug here. Xubuntu 13.10 daily build 32-bit (07/10/2013) fresh install

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

A bug is not assumed to be fixed if it is not marked Fixed Released/Committed , so please do not make "me too" comments, as it only generates e-mail and will not get the issue fixed faster. Use the link under the title if you would like to indicate it affects you.

[Jeff (sybrjth-deactivatedaccount)]

Status accidentally got changed to fixed in error! Admin, please reset to triage. I

[Shuhao (shuhao)]

Still present in release? ...

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Yes still an issue
On Oct 16, 2013 8:11 PM, "Shuhao" <email address hidden> wrote:

> Still present in release? ...
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1215852).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1208204
>
> Title:
> indicator-sound no longer functions with xfce4-indicator-plugin
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-sound/+bug/1208204/+subscriptions
>

[Stephen Michael Kellat (skellat)]

The time has passed to get it in the image. Now we wait for a Stable Release Update potentially. Raring is still supported for three months yet so there is still time before an upgrade is unavoidable.

[Jools Wills (jools)]

It is a shame this didn't get addressed - despite there being some fixes that could at least be worked from. Now anyone installing the upcoming xubuntu are going to have a non working volume control. Get ready for a lot more bug reports - reflects a little poorly too on ubuntu as a whole - something like this should be a blocker bug. I really wish ubuntu had a schedule based on being ready rather than time.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

A number of folks will upgrade from raring to saucy for various reasons and
be quite unpleasantly surprised. In effect, they will lose audio volume
control every time this package is rereleased without a permanent fix.
On Oct 16, 2013 8:50 PM, "Stephen Michael Kellat" <email address hidden>
wrote:

> The time has passed to get it in the image. Now we wait for a Stable
> Release Update potentially. Raring is still supported for three months
> yet so there is still time before an upgrade is unavoidable.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1215852).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1208204
>
> Title:
> indicator-sound no longer functions with xfce4-indicator-plugin
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-sound/+bug/1208204/+subscriptions
>

[Scott Moore (scottbomb)]

I filed bug #1231219 which may be a duplicate of this one but I'm not sure. When using default icon themes, I have a normal speaker icon (which does not work) but when I use Oxygen or Gnome icons, I get a white box with a red circle and a slash through it.

[Eric_net (eric-ferreira-net)]

Xubuntu 13.10 final : bug still present (Portuguese: o bug está presente na versão final do Xubuntu 13.10 testado em 17 de outubro de 2013, após o lançamento)

[Randall (rlague)]

This bug is also present in the core Ubuntu release - It's not isolated to Xubuntu.

[huy tran (novo2809)]

please fix .... i just installed xubuntu 13.10 today, everything is fine but sound control

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

complaining does not get it fixed any faster, to get it working there is a temporary workaround in comment #41
if you need help applying it ask on the forums (ubuntuforums or askubuntu)

[robert (ekstraadresse3)]

I have this bug too, in Xubuntu. Upgraded today.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

pq,

In 1969, it was understandable that we fixed our Unix bugs ourselves using punched cards or an actual "tty". The user was either a Mathematician or a Scientist. In 2013, we have quite a few purely end-users that have never opened a terminal window (and have no wish to). They have been led to believe that the various *buntus can operate as simply as a Mac which has been generally true lately.

We need to cater to both audiences (computer-tech and GUI-only users) and the gray area of users in-between. So, we can probably expect some confusion in not being able to control audio via the desktop for XFCE users. That's life. I'm sure the permanent fix wasn't simple or there would have been a solution already. My day job is like that too.

Richard

[Theredbaron (theredbaron1834)]

Lubuntu is effect by this as well.

Thanks to #5 for the fix. I "need" this a bit, and was worried I would have to go back a release to get it working.

[vinipl87 (vinipl87)]

Is this an UI glitch only? Anyone with a notebook or fancy keyboard can tell me if you can adjust volume with hardware keys?

A bit awkward such an apparently simple-to-fix bug been rolling since august, but ok so.
#27 solution seems quite good btw.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

yes keyboard controls work, but if you need to change the audio output device (eg switch to hdmi) it can be annoying without the menu entry to open the window, i don't know another way to get that dialog window to open
notice comment #41 it has a update or two for #21

[Dennis Blois (crystalknight)]

Just upgraded from Xubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 x64 today on a virtual machine and separately on a physical laptop, same problem as this guy on both:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2174926&p=12790972#post12790972

I have to open the pulseaudio volume control app to change the volume.

[Andrey T (tandrey-office)]

How come saucy has been released so untested. It just pissing me off.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

It has been tested, by myself and others, they just never fixed this extremely obvious bug and since it has been released with this one i doubt it will be fixed and ever be released to saucy as the proper fix will be a large rewrite that adds GTK3 support
we may get a fix one day via the xfce 1.12 ppa (not in there at this time and it does change the wallpaper system in xfce)

@Richard
Very nice, though i would have just tested if xfce4-panel was installed by checked if the file /usr/bin/xfce4-panel was present on the system
* line 7 of patcher.1208204.sh

`ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel` is null if the current user is not using the xfce4-panel
i did it that way so you can have multiple session with multiple DEs running without breaking anything (in theory that works)

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

just noticed my workaround was specific to the 64bit version, the 32bit workaround line is this:
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

pq, I didn't test on a 32-bit OS either because I don't have one. I should have eyeballed that in any case. Message #65 does not cover the x86 case.

I am using the patch in message #5 instead (no conditional code). This is fine because the script exits in a non-XFCE case ahead of time.

Please see the included READ-ME file. Hope this automation makes the work-around situation less painful for any machine architecture using XFCE.

Richard

[Theredbaron (theredbaron1834)]

Might also be good to check for LXPanel, as it has the same problem and the fix works for it as well.

[Kevin Otte (nivex)]

You can use /usr/lib/$(arch)-linux-gnu/indicator-sound-service to ensure you get the right architecture to invoke.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

@Theredbaron i booted up the lubuntu 13.10 64bit iso the other day and did not have this issue i assumed it only happens if you use the xfce4-panel on lxde
@Kevin thanks

Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/$(arch)-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[Theredbaron (theredbaron1834)]

I am on Lubuntu 13.10 64bit. Now Lubuntu doesn't come with indiactor-volume by default, but as the default volume applet sucks so I installed it with indicator-volume-gtk, turned it on in the indicator settings, and I got the same error. It didn't work till I did the "fix".

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

then try this, this should work with the lxpanel and the xfce4-panel

Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | egrep lxpanel|xfce4-panel)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/$(arch)-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Hello,

had te same bug and the exec bugfix works fine for the sound applet. But have the same error with the bluetooth applet, what kind of bugfix is needed there?

See attachment, same problem. Cannot switch or use bluetooth from the missing menu.

[Theredbaron (theredbaron1834)]

@EricDHH, I had to install blueman from the debian tree in order to get it to work, as the debian one uses a plain old applet that. Not an idea solution, in any way, but it worked for me.

[oneone (7-one)]

Same problem here. Fresh install of Xubuntu 13.10 amd64, sound applet not working, but sound is playable with aplay. Installed Ubuntu 13.10 amd64 on the same machine (Lenovo T510 ), sound and applet working ootb.

[Caleb Howland (Menzador) (menzador)]

By affecting XFCE, this bug also indirectly affects Ubuntu Studio.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Ubuntu Studio (and other) XFCE folks:
1) Does the patch of message #69 provide a usable work-around for the indicator-sound issue?
2) Does the operational work-around described in message #76 work for the bluetooth issue?

[Scott Moore (scottbomb)]

I don't know what you mean by "message #69" but if you're talking about
the work-around described here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/360806/volume-indicator-issue-after-xubuntu-13-10-upgrade

then yes, I have it working on 3 systems.

On 10/25/2013 08:29 AM, Richard Elkins wrote:
> message #69

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

#69 works for me, but blueman was installed so #76 did not work for me. Reinstall of blueman also did not help, no menu available.

[Theredbaron (theredbaron1834)]

You have to purge blueman (sudo apt-get purge blueman), then install the debian tree blueman for it to work. I just grabbed the deb from here: http://packages.debian.org/stable/x11/blueman. Also make sure to not update it.

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Got it, the debian package works well for #76. Thank you

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

So, message #76, amended:
1. sudo apt-get purge blueman
2. Download and install blueman from http://packages.debian.org/stable/x11/blueman, based on the appropriate architecture (near bottom of the page).

[habtool (clive-wagenaar)]

So, message #84, amended:
1. sudo apt-get purge blueman
2. Download and install blueman from http://packages.debian.org/stable/x11/blueman, based on the appropriate architecture
3. Install the downloaded debian blueman package
4. sudo echo "blueman hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

(Bear in mind that blueman will not receive security updates while held as above)

[Aaron Patterson (apatters)]

The workaround in #5 worked for me, thanks.

[Artem (kolomytsev1996)]

The workaround in #5 worked for me, too. Thanks!

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

The printer indicator is also bothered by this problem, no menu available. Any bugfix idea for that?

[Nahun (nate-wheeler)]

Workaround in #5 also worked for me

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

Appears to be fixed in xubuntu 14.04 (pre alpha), anyone able to confirm?

[Gaspar (gaspar-ag)]

Two things:

- Workaround in #5 kind of worked for me: The indicator appeared ok, but still no sound. I didn't got sound until I installed all optional add-ons of the pulseaudio package in the Software Center and execute a "sudo alsa force-reload".

- Certainly having no sound at all was a clear stopper for me, and not seen #5 workaround in the official iso after 3 months is something I still cannot belive.

[Scott Moore (scottbomb)]

I'm curious, since we have a fairly simple work-around, why not just implement the workaround in the ISO until the actual bug is fixed? From a public relations standpoint, it seems to me that would be the best way to address this very visible bug.

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Thanks god i have one laptop with mint (13.04) and i will not upgrade it to prevent this mess. The battery applet is also affected and shows no menu, the whole indicator is bugged since 13.10.

[Set Hallstrom (sakrecoer)]

On 2013-11-20 08:59, EricDHH wrote:
> Thanks god i have one laptop with mint (13.04) and i will not upgrade it
> to prevent this mess. The battery applet is also affected and shows no
> menu, the whole indicator is bugged since 13.10.
>

Sorry for interfering with my n00biness. But this "downgrade" you
discuss, is that the action of removing the old sound indicator from the
panel and replace it? That's what i did after the upgrade
13.04 -> 13.10, and my indicator is working fine (except the audacious
control is gone, but i don't miss it) and my sound works perfect.

Yours,

--
Set Hallstrom
AKA Sakrecoer
http://sakrecoer.com

WARNING: Remember clear-text email is subject to mass surveillance
systems. Alone this information is useless. Our summed communications
are worth humanity.

Please keep in mind Internet is a boulevard in a crowded virtual city.
Privacy is found under the cloaks.

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Yes #93 is right, downgrading to the xfce-indicator-plugin from raring and set to hold fix _all_ problems. Things can be so easy, thanks Set.

ii xfce4-indicato 0.5.0-1ubunt amd64 the working one

[Denis Štogl (destogl)]

#5 worked for me also, but #85 doesn't for bluetoot with Headset. I found out that 'pulseaudio-module-bluetooth' is not instaled by default. After instalation and executing 'pulseaudio -k' I got working my headset with 'blueman' from ubuntu repository.

Maybe you will need to call 'pulseaudio -k' command after every restart.

[Gaspar (gaspar-ag)]

#5 STOP WORKING after a "sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade".

Bluetooth is working but, who cares when you cannot get a sound out of your laptop?

Cannot figure out how to downgrade to Raring applet.

So I will reinstall the hole system with Precise (or fedora xfce spin). The great "feature" they both have? You can listen to music and see a film !

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

you have to reapply #5
if the sound indicator packages updates w/out a fix you have to reapply it

there is another solution in #75 it should work better with multiple desktop environments installed and you have multiple users/sessions

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Gaspar (#97),

You shouldn't have to do this but I would suggest either re-apply #5 manually or use the automation in #69. Do you really want to re-install and go through re-customizing your laptop all over again? Personally, I am using the automation route.

All,

Why is this major annoyance "unassigned" still? Shouldn't this be assigned to the indicator-sound package maintainer? The XFCE desktop *bunutu distributions are losing users without a fix.

[Gaspar (gaspar-ag)]

Thank you very much for your quick response guys, really appreciated.

Of course I reapplied #5, the result was the same I used to have: The applet starts to work, but you have no sound. The funny thing is that when you open the sound preferences, the graphic shows you the sound bars going up and down with the music, you can "see" your music, but you cannot hear anything.

This is the output of the "automated" patch:

 ./status.1208204.sh
status.1208204.sh: Patch/Unpatch status follows
status.1208204.sh: Patched
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 369 nov 23 14:21 indicator-sound.service
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 110 nov 23 14:21 indicator-sound.service.ORIGINAL
status.1208204.sh: End

Yes, reinstalling is anoying but I cannot see another solution. On the "good" side: I made a full backup on 2013-11-19 to clean install xubuntu Saucy, so this time, for me, it is not a big deal.

[Set Hallstrom (sakrecoer)]

Hi guys!

Better safe then sorry, so i thought i might remind that the sound
preferences for pulse are now under:

main menu => Audio Production => Mixer And Card Control

Perhaps your sound is routed to another device in the pulse control? It
sort of make sens if you can see the sound in the "VU" meter :)

yours,
Set

On 2013-11-23 14:34, Gaspar wrote:
> Thank you very much for your quick response guys, really appreciated.
>
> Of course I reapplied #5, the result was the same I used to have: The
> applet starts to work, but you have no sound. The funny thing is that
> when you open the sound preferences, the graphic shows you the sound
> bars going up and down with the music, you can "see" your music, but you
> cannot hear anything.
>
> This is the output of the "automated" patch:
>
> ./status.1208204.sh
> status.1208204.sh: Patch/Unpatch status follows
> status.1208204.sh: Patched
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 369 nov 23 14:21 indicator-sound.service
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 110 nov 23 14:21 indicator-sound.service.ORIGINAL
> status.1208204.sh: End
>
> Yes, reinstalling is anoying but I cannot see another solution. On the
> "good" side: I made a full backup on 2013-11-19 to clean install xubuntu
> Saucy, so this time, for me, it is not a big deal.
>

--
Set Hallstrom
AKA Sakrecoer
http://sakrecoer.com

WARNING: Remember clear-text email is subject to mass surveillance
systems. Alone this information is useless. Our summed communications
are worth humanity.

Please keep in mind Internet is a boulevard in a crowded virtual city.
Privacy is found under the cloaks.

[intherye (intherye)]

In response to comment #90:

I still observe the same issue on a fresh Xubuntu 14.04 amd64.
The difference to the Saucy release is that I can't apply the fix from comment #5, because I don't have /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service. Where is the file now? Is it dynamically generated, or has something in the package changed?

[Eric Walker (eqwalker)]

Just wanted to add to the list of people having this same issue. All three of my machines (two Xubuntu and one Ubuntu Studio) that I updated now don't have a functioning indicator on the sound. I am not keen to having to install a "workaround" that includes "holding" updates to keep the workaround in place. Much rather this be fixed permanently. Two of my friends that I got to switch from Windows to Xubuntu also now have the same problem and now they are doubting their decision. I can't see how this is remaining a low priority since this is so visual. I am very new to the Ubuntu world and have been most pleased with Xubuntu and Ubuntu Studio and so have my friends but this is not giving a good impression to them. Just saying.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

@eqwalker
This is a high priority bug, you can see it at the top of this page
This command will implement the workaround
sudo wget http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=4HHup7ZF -O /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service
then logout and login
to verify it worked run this
md5sum /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service
it should give you this:
ece5a3e0ad8dc32c00d6aec49c2017bf /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service

[Eric Walker (eqwalker)]

Thank you for your quick response. That has worked. I will pass this command on to my friends for them to run in a terminal window. Glad to see the priority is high. As I have mentioned I am new to the linux world and quite leery of messing around with commands in a terminal window but simply copying and pasting from your command made it simple. Look forward to the permanent fix. With the release of Windows 8 and how many of my friends do not like it, now is the time to get people to switch. That is why I switched and am so far pleased. I hope to learn more as time goes. Thanks again.

[renbag (renbag)]

In reply to comments #71, #72, #74 and #104:
The variable $(arch) on 32-bit systems returns the value "i686", not "i386", so the workarounds using it do not work if you are in 32-bit unity.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq (pqwoerituytrueiwoq)]

in that case lets make this long line another 25% longer
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'if [ -n "$(ps -U $USER | grep xfce4-panel)" ]; then /usr/lib/indicator-sound-gtk2/indicator-sound-service;else /usr/lib/$(if [ $(arch) == "i686" ];then echo i386;else arch;fi)-linux-gnu/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service;fi'

@eqwalker updated for 32bit compatibility
sudo wget http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=iUnRRuA6 -O /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service
verify with this
md5sum /usr/share/dbus-1/services/indicator-sound.service
3555d649a4fbd10fbb13c8a17a7977dd /tmp/tmpfile

I tested this on both a 64bit and 32bit live disk of 13.10

i have tried all of these and none return i386 or x86_64, so if anyone knows a command that does i would like to know, i wanted to keep that Exec line simple but it is getting ridiculous
$(arch), $(uname -m) and $(dpkg --print-architecture)

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Have rollbacked 3 computers to mint 15 (ubuntu 13.04) and get rid of this bug, it's a 13.10 feature. So my suggestion is a rollback of the affected packages to the 13.04 state. What has happened to the ubuntu quality, are we back into the "never change a running system" timeline?

[Stephen Michael Kellat (skellat)]

This bug is on the agenda for discussion at the Xubuntu meeting to be held on Thursday, December 5 at 19:00 UTC on #xubuntu-devel in the Freenode IRC network (chat.freenode.net).

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

PPA with fixed package:

https://launchpad.net/~a-j-buxton/+archive/indicator-sound-gtk2
ppa:a-j-buxton/indicator-sound-gtk2

This doesn't use the workaround from the bug report. It fixes it in a
way which is hopefully compatible with other desktops. It needs
testing though, on systems with both Xubuntu and Unity installed.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

Alistair,

I can confirm that this indicator-sound-gtk2 package update SUCCEEDS on 2 different Xubuntu Saucy machines in my house: one with an Intel i915 kernel module and one with a gma500_gfx kernel module (Modesetting Xorg video driver).

Thank you. Now I can start psychedelik.com radio without pissing off my cats! (-:

Hey Ubuntu Studio folks - please try this out, okay?

1. Make sure that the patch from message #5 (above), #69 (above), or wherever is *not* in effect.
E.g. With synaptic, re-install indicator-sound and indicator-sound-gtk from the repositories.
2. Verify that the audio widget in the upper-right corner isn't functioning as it ought to.
3. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:a-j-buxton/indicator-sound-gtk2
4. sudo apt-get -y update
5. sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade
6. Restart the desktop (E.g. sudo reboot)

Richard

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

This is a debdiff for the fix. It doesn't quite match what's on my ppa because I've edited the changelogs a bit. Version numbers/changelog will probably require further fixing anyway.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "Debdiff for the fix" seems to be a debdiff. The ubuntu-sponsors team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review and hopefully sponsor the debdiff. If the attachment isn't a patch, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are member of the ~ubuntu-sponsors, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issue please contact him.]

[Fixitman Arizona (fixitmanarizona)]

I just added Volti, an indicator for volume/sound and using alsamixer directly instead of the pulseaudio.
I like the volti "indicator" much better, as it is a classic volume (sound) icon with a very simple up/down bar, yet can be changed easily by simply hovering over it and rolling the mouse wheel.
Alsamixer is proven, Pulseaudio seems to have problems. I like to stick with what works. (Call me old-fashioned.)
Something this elementary (using sound on a system) shouldn't have any bugs, by the way.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I've uploaded this to the Saucy -proposed queue for review and also the same changes with a different version number to Trusty.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-sound-gtk2 - 12.10.0.1-0ubuntu3

---------------
indicator-sound-gtk2 (12.10.0.1-0ubuntu3) trusty; urgency=low

  * Make this actually work. (LP: #1208204)
    - Make the Gtk2 indicator use a different DBus name, so that the
      indicator-sound-service from this package is loaded instead of
      the Gtk3 one which is incompatible.
 -- Alistair Buxton <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:33:19 -0800

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello TK, or anyone else affected,

Accepted indicator-sound-gtk2 into saucy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-sound-gtk2/12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3 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 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, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

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

[Arek (arek75)]

Was hit by this bug on 2 xubuntu systems. One got pulseaudio yanked for various reasons, so the bug no longer applies to it. On the other one I just updated to the saucy-proposed version, which fixes the bug for me.

--Arek

[pioruns (pioruns)]

I am confirming that patch is working.

Freshly installed Xubuntu 13.10 AMD64 on desktop. Enabled saucy-proposed repo, installed only 1 package:

Package: indicator-sound-gtk2
Version: 12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3

PC rebooted, sound is working now.

[Richard Elkins (texadactyl)]

I removed the temporary PPAs provided in #110, added Saucy Proposed, reinstalled sound-indicator-gtk and sound-indicator, and rebooted. I can confirm that the patch is working.

[Nikolay Morozov (nmorozov)]

work for me

[quantumfoam (lmunchpad)]

Updating from saucy-proposed fixed the printing indicator on my machine (Xubuntu 13.10 amd64).

[Valentin (a0003719)]

I enabled the saucy-proposed repo and installed 'indicator-sound-gtk2'. Fixed the sound indicator on xubuntu 13.10 (64).

[Caleb Howland (Menzador) (menzador)]

Is this also going into Ubuntu Studio? They have XFCE, and the same problem.

[Henrik Karlsson (hkarlsson)]

I installed indicator-sound-gtk2_12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3_amd64.deb and sound indicator works fine now, thank you.

[Stephen Michael Kellat (skellat)]

Okay, this has marinated for 7 days. Can we promote the fix or not?

[Kenneth Wrede (kennethwrede)]

The patch works for me too.

Does it NOT work för somebody?

[openfred (openfred)]

Tested today on a new installation. Indicator now works great.
Unmute is working using menu, using keyboard specific keys (Thinkpad T500), using pavucontrol.
Regular users (not using proposed-updates) may use it now.
Never too late for a Xmas present :-)
Thx for the fix

[grundair (grundair)]

Tested today on Ubuntu Studio and it did not work. I then appplied the action in comment 104 and then it displayed. I use Studio to broad cast 3 web shows and it is vital that it works since Jack will not work correctly and IDJC will cease

[openfred (openfred)]

@grundair

The file provided by the package in proposed-updates is the same you can get after what is described in comment #4 and #104.
Hard to believe it is not working on your particular case, as anybody else seems ok.

As you said, you are using you PC to broadcast web shows, I was wondering if you logged off and on again ?
Indeed, it is mandatory to get the applet behaviour to become OK. I had to log off after updating the package.

You may be able to test without logging off, by simply adding a new Indicator applet, but I haven't tested it.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

@openfred

no. the proposed fix has nothing to do with the workarounds described in #4 and #104 which are harmful.

[Petri Piira (petri-piira)]

Just upgraded from Xubuntu 13.04 to Xubuntu 13.10, and got the issue of the sound indicator not working. (64bit system.)

I did the workaround described in http://askubuntu.com/questions/360806/volume-indicator-issue-after-xubuntu-13-10-upgrade

It worked.

Just posted to point out that the upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10 is still broken for this.

[Stephen Warren (srwarren)]

I installed indicator-sound-gtk2_12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3_amd64.deb, and it fixed the issue for me. Is there a good place to indicate test results for proposed packages?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-sound-gtk2 - 12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3

---------------
indicator-sound-gtk2 (12.10.0.1-0ubuntu2.3) saucy; urgency=low

  * Make this actually work. (LP: #1208204)
    - Make the Gtk2 indicator use a different DBus name, so that the
      indicator-sound-service from this package is loaded instead of
      the Gtk3 one which is incompatible.
 -- Alistair Buxton <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:33:19 -0800

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

[Kevin Otte (nivex)]

Last activity was three years ago and the other affected suites indicate Fix Released. Closing this out to tidy up my bug list.