Notification bubble is sometimes misplaced

[Ben James]

Notification bubbles often appear lower than expected - in the second notification "slot" - as if there is an already existing notification.

Note that this does not affect all notifications - roughly half the time, all notifications stack up correctly, however in some cases they do not.

See attached screenshot.

[Ben James (something-for-the-pain)]

Here's another example. It appears that this only affects connecting to/disconnecting from a wireless network. I'll update the bug report if I notice this on anything else.

[sn0re (ferrigno)]

This is the so-called "fixed slot allocation". The first slot is reserved for "synchronous" notifications, which I believe means they respond to user feedback. E.G., you can adjust the volume while the notification is still on the screen and the volume meter updates.

The distinction is meaningless to the user, in my opinion. Considering that having one notification of both types is probably not as common as just one, the behavior just comes across as inconsistent and broken.

The fix is easy enough, just change the default allocation to dynamic.

[S.Rey (s.rey)]

Maybe this is not the right place to discuss, but I think that notifications that need feedback (at least those that are triggered by the user, pushing a key), such as volume or brighness, are the ones that could easily be separated from the notification area.
In fact, in previous releases, they were displayed at the center of the screen if I recall correctly.

Notifications such as the network related ones, need to be connected to the network applet. And in general, all those not being triggered by an user action, need to be connected to the notification area.

[Ben James (something-for-the-pain)]

It does seem that the reservation of one slot is visually inconsistent to the user.

How does one go about changing the default notification type to dynamic? Is this a user-selectable option, or is it a source code patch?

[sn0re (ferrigno)]

It's not exposed anywhere as far as I can tell. I attached a patch above.

[Sam Osborne (osborsam)]

Bug still present in Ubuntu 12.10. Sending a message with notify-send goes into this 'second slot' area, as do Rhythmbox notifications of new tracks. 'Confirmation' notifications (sound, brightness, etc.) still go into the 'first slot,' however, as though that upper slot is reserved solely for them.

Proposed fix: If a 'confirmation' notification comes in while a 'normal' notification is running, the normal one should move down the screen into the second slot. Although this defies the rule of 'Notifications may not move,' it seems logical to me.

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "slot_allocation.diff" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

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

[Sam Osborne (osborsam)]

Still present in 15.04.