xfce4 panel disappeared off end of screen

[markling]

My xfce4 panel woke up like this: seven icons disappeared off the right-hand side of the screen.

These were, counting in from the right: user menu, Tor icon, update icon, notes, network, time and one from the bunch of workspace icons I have up there.

I found that I could get the icons back if I changed the panel settings to vertical. The icons are all there. When displayed horizontal across the top of the screen, a space about the size of the icons that were lost off the side has appeared on the panel, between those on the left and those on the right. I know the icons are still there not only because I can see them if I switch them to vertical, but also because I can just see the edge of the last workspace icon off the edge, especially if I move to that workspace.

Two notable factors: i) my screen is oriented portrait; and ii) one more notification icon appeared than usual, possibly on startup (I can't be sure because it appeared off screen), possibly creating the pile up.

i) Interesting to note in respect of this that when vertical, the panel only reaches down my portrait screen as far as it would have to reach to reach from left edge to right edge when horizontal. That is, it's about 30cm long, no matter if horizontral or vertical. 30cm is enough to reach edge to edge when its vertical. But to reach top to bottom when vertical, it would need to be about 38cm. The difference of about 8cm (about 7.7cm to be more precise) is the same length as the amount of icons that have disappeared off the right edge when the panel is horizontal. These icons display perfectly well when the panel is vertical. It is just the panel itself runs out before it reaches the bottom.

Also of note: on either opening the panel properties or changing the faulty top, panel 1, to a vertical orientation, panel 2 appeared in a wonky place. It appeared at the 30cm point down the screen: the point at which would have been the bottom of the screen if it's orientation was landscape, and now the point which marks the farthest my vertically oriented panel 1 will reach. If I changed panel 1 back to a horizontal oritentation, panel 2 stuck firmly to its wonky spot. The only way to get panel 2 to behave is to remove it altogether. I can't actually remember if in normal circumstances before this morning I had panel 2 displayed at all. Funny that. I think not. But maybe it was. I do however remember my computer not being entirely comfortable with the portrait setting and have a vague recollection of panel 2 sitting like this before, and my perhaps removing it altogether then. I have however been using portrait well enough for quite a while.

ii) I recall panel 1 going awol like this before when I tried to stuff it with too many icons. I think cutting it back and a reset might have solved the problem. The problem then and now was unexpected notification icons pushing the panel over the edge. This time it was a second Tor icon that had not appeared before telling me of some problem that had not occured before, coming in conjunction with the update notifier. I'll delete some unwanted launcher icons, reset and see what happens.

So three appear to be two problems, perhaps related: the way the panels deals with portrait orientation and icon overloading.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: xfce4-panel 4.10.0-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-29.42-generic 3.8.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Sep 7 14:03:23 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-28 (282 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.1)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: xfce4-panel
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-05-14 (115 days ago)

[Sean Davis (bluesabre)]

Xubuntu 13.04 is EOL. Marking this ticket as closed. If you are able to reproduce this issue in a current Xubuntu release (focal, impish, jammy), please reopen or create a new ticket. Thanks!