Alert highlight/flash not functional for all windows

[Sam Lade]

When a window urgency flag is set, it should cause the window title bar to blink and the window's task bar item to blink. The title bar blinking seems to be working for all windows, but the task bar blink is not working consistently for all windows.

It works fine for XChat, but Qt applications using QApplication::alert() show only the title bar blinking. Taskbar blink functions correctly for the same software in other desktop environments such as KDE. Another user in #lubuntu reports the same issue with the Firefox download manager window.

(The "flash when there is a window requiring attention" setting for the task bar is enabled.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: lxpanel 0.5.8-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-15.26-generic 3.0.13
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-15-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: i386
Config_Home_Lubuntu:
 [Command]
 FileManager=pcmanfm %s
 Terminal=lxterminal -e
 Logout=lubuntu-logout
Date: Tue Jan 24 00:07:25 2012
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lxpanel
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-14 (101 days ago)

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

I have a similar problem with firefox.
I'm using firefox 10, With the downloads window open.
When a download completes, the icon on the panel starts blinking. and it doesn't stop blinking.
Is this a bug?

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

i'm asking the bug reporter for steps to reproduce this bug

[Sam Lade (sam-sentynel)]

I verified with Quassel IRC, as I had it installed on the system already. Mentions of your nickname trigger alerts by default in Quassel.
I originally observed the issue with my own Qt software. If you happen to have python-pyside installed on the system, this script is sufficient to demonstrate the issue: http://pastebin.com/83HkQCSp

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

thanks to Sam, I verified that a QT script (calling QApplication.alert()) does not cause lxpanel to blink the program icon/icon+name.

also found a bug upstream? http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=3142953&group_id=180858&atid=894869
appears to be exactly the same bug, but with no useful info attached.

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

I also verified that the Task Bar applet settings window had "Flash when there is any window requiring attention" checked.

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

Sam, can you verify that the script alerts on non-lxde?

I'm asking because I just logged into gnome 2 desktop environment, tried your script out, and didn't see any flashing.
Is it possible your script doesn't demonstrate the bug?

[karl anliot (kanliot)]

oops mistake. Your project does work in gnome 2. but you need extra steps to show the bug.

In gnome 2, run the script, then move another window over the script window before the timer fires. if the window isn't covered by another window, the taskbar won't blink.

oops :)

[Sam Lade (sam-sentynel)]

Ah, that must be some sort of clever GNOME2 feature. I'm not particular familiar with that environment. I've tested in KDE4, and the taskbar blinks as expected when the alert goes off if the window does not have focus, whether it's visible or not.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 11.10 (oneiric) reached end-of-life on May 9, 2013.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.