Opening libreoffice writer document creates second launcher icon

[Greg Lynch]

Since the last update to bamf (a week or two ago), opening a libreoffice writer file will create a second icon on the launcher, rather than associating the opened file with the icon that is pinned. Opening additional documents will add new arrows to the second icon.

Restarting fixes the problem for a while, but then it will usually come back later in the session.

One thing I've noticed is that usually lo docs first create the generic white lo icon on the launcher, and then quickly snap to the more specific icon where they belong. When the bug occurs, the white icon never appears; the blue writer icon just shows up in the launcher and stays there.

Precise 64 bit

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

Here's a screenshot

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

Perhaps a related problem: currently lo writer is associated with the correct icon, but opening a second instance does not add a second arrow to it. Clicking on the icon will still spread the open windows as it should.

The problem seems to be unique to lo. I opened a second instance of firefox and it added the second arrow as it should.

[Philipp (flashdoebi)]

It affects all applications of libre office. As soon as I open and close an application of lo three times in a row, a second icon appears.
It is reproducible on Precise 64 and 32-bit.

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

Another symptom I've noticed: when the bug occurs, the pinned icon doesn't function as it should. When you right click it, the menu says 'New Document' in the top slot, the middle slot is blank, and the bottom one says 'lock to launcher.' (The last one is especially odd, since the icon is already locked.)

I thought this was connected to Bug #1026426, but apparently not. I downloaded the patch for that bug, and it seems to be fixed, but this one remains.

[Philipp (flashdoebi)]

It also appears in Quantal Quetzal 64 bit.

[Josh Burghandy (kid1000002000)]

confirmed on my machine. is there a duplicate bug somewhere? there isn't much attention to this report like there has been in the past.

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

Here's the behavior I'm noticing -- it's almost like when the error happens the existing icon (the one pinned to the laucher) dies, and so upon opening a document Unity creates a new icon as if there weren't already a Writer icon pinned.

When the error is occurring, right-clicking on the pinned icon shows a quicklist, but the menu items aren't correct. The middle item is blank, and there's no option to remove it from the launcher. If you drag it to the trash bin to delete it from the laucher, it doesn't disappear immediately, but upon logging out and back in it's gone. Then you can drag the icon from the dash to the laucher, and it works again.

I've also found that, without logging out, simply dragging the Writer icon from the dash to the laucher replaces the 'dead' pinned icon with a new, living one.

Does anyone know where the config file that stores the information about what is to be displayed in the laucher is located? It would be interesting to see if this file is different when the bug is occurring than when it isn't.

[Florian Diesch (diesch)]

When the bug appears after clicking a Lo-Writer starter icon

  gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites

still contains only one entry for libreoffice-writer.desktop

[Sebastian Ilea (s3b4)]

This bug (not limited to LibreOffice icons) keeps reappearing in newer Ubuntu releases, although it is marked as "fixed" in previous ones. Unity is not usable like this. I keep reverting to XFCE/Xubuntu, but with XFCE it is like going back in time a few years.

[mabox (mabox)]

For me this problem is fixed in Ubuntu 13.04. I can not reproduce it anymore

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

I just upgraded to 13.04 and I can confirm the problem still exists.

[Philipp (flashdoebi)]

Also I got the bug in 13.04 unfortunately again. I have tested a 32 bit version.

[Greg Lynch (gregalynch)]

Is there ever going to be any movement on this? This is a pretty annoying bug affecting one of the major applications in ubuntu, and no one has been assigned after nearly a year.

[klinge (rosgnilk)]

same problem here ubuntu 12.04 64bit. The problem apperars mainly with LO somethimes with other applications.

[Alex Baggott (alex-baggott)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.