In unity-2d gedit from dash does not show window the first time

[Colin Law]

In Unity-2D if I run gedit from the Dash then the first time I run it I see it appear in the launcher, blinking, for a few seconds, then it disappears from there. No window appears (nor can it be seen using Alt Tab) but there is a gedit process running. Starting it from the Dash a second time shows the window immediately.
The symptom is not seen in Unity 3D

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity-2d 4.12.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Oct 18 20:44:31 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity-2d
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-14 (4 days ago)

[Jacobsallan (jacobsallan)]

Started /usr/bin/gedit from the command line. No edit pane ever shows up. From another terminal, I can see the gedit is sleeping
$ ps -eal |grep gedit
0 S 1000 4653 4587 0 80 0 - 87114 poll_s pts/0 00:00:00 gedit

In Gnome Classic, gedit functions fine. This is a Unity 2D problem and it is not related to the Dash at all.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Jacobsallan (jacobsallan)]

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
$ apt-cache policy gedit
gedit:
  Installed: 3.2.1-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 3.2.1-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 3.2.1-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.2.0-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages

[Colin Law (colin-law)]

For the record I only see this issue when starting gedit from the dash. If I run it from the command line it is ok.
@Jacobsallan, you say it is ok in Gnome Classic yet you are using 11.10 where Gnome Classic is not available.
If you start gedit from the Dash (in unity2d) do you also see the problem.
Do you see the problem in unity 3d and if so from the command line or from dash?

[Isak Enström (isen)]

This bug is bugging(!) me too. Every time gedit has been closed it has to be opened twice from the dash for the window to appear. Opening from the terminal or from nautilus always works the first time.
This only happens in Unity 2D.

Ubuntu 11.10 i386
unity-2d - 4.12.0-0ubuntu1.1
gedit - 3.2.3-0ubuntu0.1

[iGadget (igadget)]

Just adding that it also affects amd64.

[Erik Reuter (misc71)]

I got tired of waiting for this to be fixed, so I implemented a workaround.

I moved the gedit binary to gedit.bin, then I created a shell-script named "gedit" that calls gedit.bin with the --standalone option:

% mv /usr/bin/gedit /usr/bin/gedit.bin
% vi /usr/bin/gedit

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/gedit.bin --standalone "$@"

% chmod 755 /usr/bin/gedit

Hopefully this helps someone who is having this issue.