Impossible to force the launcher to hide

[TomasHnyk]

I have set launcher to never hide via CCSM. However, sometimes I would like it to hide. Currently, there is no way to hide it unless I change the preference in CCSM.

What I would like to see would be a way to hide the launcher, preferably via a shortcut (unset by default). Ideally, it would be possible to configure unity so that the same shortcut would toggle the launcher.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: unity 4.24.0-0ubuntu2b1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-13.22-generic 3.0.6
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,move,vpswitch,resize,imgpng,regex,wall,animation,expo,compiztoolbox,grid,winrules,place,gnomecompat,snap,workarounds,session,ezoom,staticswitcher,fade,scale,unityshell]
Date: Thu Nov 24 14:24:29 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Thanks for the bug report. Could you be a bit more explanatory about the use case to support this particular feature?

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Well, I translate a lot (documents) and often I do this by having two windows side by side (basically pressing alt ctrl 4 for one and alt ctrl 6 for the other). If this is the case, I would like to have as much horizontal space as possible. When I am done doing that, I prefer the launcher to be always visible. Doing that through ccsm is tiresome plus the launcher gets in my way because one cannot just tell it to hide unless invoked (via super).

Other use case is that I just hate autohiding magic - I guess I am just too stupid to predict when it is going to hide and the thing popping in and out just annoys me. I would still like to be able to control whether the launcher is shown though, especially if it were controllable through keyboard.

I recognize, that if someone inadvertedly turned this feature on, she would be in trouble. One possible solution would be if Dash home (the upper most item in the launcher) went to the very upper left corner (where it was in 11.04 and where currently "close" button for maximized application is). But I imagine that would be more demanding to implement.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

since "always show" is not the default option in Unity, I marked it as wishlist and am confirming the status so that if anyone interested could implement this feature. Unity team does not focus on the "always show" case.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Well, as I said, the autohide behaviour drives me crazy, so this is more about adding a possibility to "never show" launcher (ability to switch would then follow).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

there will be a new option in the control center this cycle to change the activation from the edge to the corner, note that you can do the same already in ccsm and change unset the activation on the edge if that's the issue you are having that should stop the issues where the launcher shows up without you wanting it

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Seb128: thanks, I know, what drives me crazy is more "when it dissapears" than "when it shows". Anyway, as I said, I would much like if it were possible to control this manually.

But I understand this is not a priority for Unity developers, so maybe I will learn how to code and implement it or something ;-).

[Paul Whittaker (launchpad-pdw)]

Just to confirm that there's more than one person (still) affected by this, and to provide a second use-case example. Apologies if this bug report is too old to be noticed any more. Although the issue described below doesn't prevent me from doing anything in the long term, it is very irritating.

I'm using 12.04 64-bit with standard Unity (not 2D), and I have autohide set (so the launcher isn't normally visible) to maximise usable screen space on my laptop.

Sometimes I trigger the launcher by accident when trying to interact with GUI elements awkwardly close to the left edge of the screen. When this happens the launcher pops out and covers the items I'm trying to click on, at which point I have no choice but to wait... and do nothing... until the autohide triggers and the launcher gets out of my way again. A common cause of this is aiming for the "back" button in (maximised) Firefox and overshooting, but there are other times when I need to point to several things in succession.

Ideally I would be able to bind some key to let me "cancel" opening the launcher, so that I could keep this at hand when I'm having to work with such applications/websites. The faster this binding made the launcher disappear, the better.

Using corner activation (as suggested in post #6 above) is a poor workaround for me. Since side activation is the default setting and I work with (and support users on) a number of Ubuntu installations, it is hard for me to unlearn its use. So, when I do use corner activation on my own machines, I inevitably only get it right after trying (and failing) to use side activation a couple of times, after which I remember why it isn't working and head up to the corner. This removes one inconvenience and introduces another.

If there isn't much appetite for adding this feature, I'd be (perhaps even more) happy to learn of a keyboard workaround that used existing features instead. I had been hopeful that double-pressing Alt-F1 -- to enter, and then exit, keyboard navigation mode -- might quickly hide the launcher, but it does not.