Re: [gnome-flashback] Regressions from previous gnome-panel releases

[Dmitry Shachnev <mitya57 ubuntu com>]

Hi Alkis,

On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 11:28 PM, Alkis Georgopoulos <alkisg gmail com> wrote:
> Using Ubuntu Trusty 14.04, I'm experiencing the following issues, which
> didn't exist in e.g. 12.04.
> I've seen references for some of them here in the mailing list, and some
> other references in launchpad, but some of them I couldn't find reported
> anywhere, so I thought I'd gather here the most significant ones:

Thanks for the report, I will try to comment on some issues.

> 1) The Applications menu is now a mess. Applications that were previously in
> the Accessories menu now appear in Accessories, Utilities, Sundry and Other.
> The System Settings submenu was moved under Applications instead of System
> Tools. Etc etc, the changes don't make much sense except maybe only for
> gnome-shell.
> Is it possible to somehow ship/use the previous version of
> /etc/xdg/menus/gnome-applications.menu ?

Strange, I don't see any major changes to gnome-applications.menu in
the latest versions:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-menus/log/layout/gnome-applications.menu

There was https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=706763 but it was
fixed in 3.8.1.

Can you please name a specific app that changed location after that file update?

Also, using a tool like alacarte can fix the problem for you.

> 2) The panel needs more than a minute to load (LP: #1256961).
> I provide a crude workaround in comment #8 there.
> I saw it was also mentioned in the mailing list here.

I have just pinged some developers on #ubuntu-desktop about that.

> 3) The panel doesn't get re-aligned on resolution changes (or when plugging
> external monitors).
> I think I saw a patch in git for that, after 3.8.0...

Which particular commit? 66f077722a12e4? I can backport it in Ubuntu
if you want.

> 4) When I try to move applets, they get stuck in the top left side.
> I think I saw a patch in git for that too.

Again, which one?

> 5) The panel sometimes only gets half-loaded in LTSP clients (LP: #1078679)

This looks like something Jonathan Carter (CCed) can know better than me.

> I think the following are Ubuntu-specific:
>
> 6) The indicator-keyboard applet doesn't respond to switching layouts (LP:
> #1260226).

Yes, indicator-keyboard only watches 'org.gnome.desktop.input-sources
current' GSettings key, which is changed by gnome-settings-daemon.

However, the keyboard plugin has been removed from upstream
gnome-settings-daemon, and in Ubuntu the functionality can be moved to
Compiz/Unity in 14.04, which is a big problem of course. We should
either write our own keygrabber, or our own keyboard indicator.

> 7) nm-applet, the pidgin applet etc don't appear at all in
> indicator-applet-complete, so one needs to insert notification-area manually
> in order to see them. I've uploaded a patch for that in LP: #1263591, but I
> think in previous versions indicator-applet-complete handled those, there
> was no need for notification-area.

Ubuntu's patched versions of nm-applet and pidgin *should* show in
indicator-applet-complete. You are probably using your own builds or
something like that.

> 8) Indicator-session assumes there's only one active user:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-session/+bug/1263438
>
> 9) indicator-session menus are not policykit aware:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/indicator-session/+bug/474392

Let's hope these two will be looked at soon.

> 10) Having the real user names on the panel was very nice in the last
> versions, so com.canonical.indicator.session show-real-name-on-panel should
> be true by default...
> And when it's true, the "gear" icon should be in the right side of the name
> like it used to be... :)

+1, however that looks like a Canonical design decision that's not
going to be changed :(

> Could someone please upload a newer version of gnome-panel, with the latest
> changes from git, maybe in a launchpad PPA or in debian experimental, so
> that we can test and see if some of those issues are already resolved?

I prefer to not ship unreleased upstream snapshots, but if you point
me to the patches that need backporting, I will be happy to do so.

Also, Philipp, any news on the next release?

--
Dmitry Shachnev