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Desktop panels disappears
Status:
RESOLVED: FIXED
Severity:
critical
Product:
Xfce4-panel

Comments

Description Massimiliano Zattera 2006-08-07 09:15:32 CEST
User-Agent:       Opera/9.00 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
Build Identifier: xfce4-panel 4.3.90.lsvn+r21633-0ubuntu2

For no apparent reason, top and bottom panels disappear from the desktop. This happens during a regular working session not just at startup or after installing applications. Restarting/relogging-in does not help. 

Reproducible: Couldn't Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Happens randomly without an apparent cause.
2.
3.



Xubuntu was running inside a virtual machine in VMware 1.0.0.28343 running under Windows XP Pro.

I've seen other users reporting this behavior (Italian):

http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php?topic=29909.0
Comment 1 Brian J. Tarricone (not reading bugmail) 2006-08-07 09:32:25 CEST
Please report this bug to the Ubuntu bug tracker, as we cannot know what patches or specific version of xfce4-panel they have packaged.
Comment 2 Fabian Rodriguez 2007-01-17 17:35:32 CET
This bug was reported on Ubuntu's tracker at:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/53897
Comment 3 Olivier Fourdan editbugs 2007-01-17 20:18:44 CET
Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to debug such a random crash just like that. Oviso ously, if we could reproduce the problem, we would have fixed it already. We really need a backtrace to be able to investigate the issue.

To generate a backtrace, open your favorite terminal emulator, kill the panel:

  xfce4-panel -x

run the panel in gdb debugger:

  gdb xfce4-panel

From gdb, launch the panel:

  (gdb) run
  Starting program: /usr/local/bin/xfce4-panel 
  [...]

Use and play with the panel until it crashes. When it crashes, type bt (for backtrace) at the gdb prompt, and copy/paste the back trace in this bug report.

Chances are high that the crash is caused by a plugin, so you may also try to remove all plugins, one by one, until you find the one that's causing the crash.

Also, please update to the most recent svn build, if you can. Version 4.3.90.lsvn+r21633 is pretty old.
Comment 4 Laurent Minh 2009-01-01 12:05:52 CET
Step to reproduce :

1. Open "Gestionaire de paneau" maybe "Panel Setting" in english (I've a french version.

2. Remove all the panels

3. Msg : "Last panel can't be removed" or something like that.

4 It's impossible to add panels again
Comment 5 Peter Froehlich 2009-01-18 21:52:22 CET
What will happen in my case is that at first (after changes to the panel, moving an item for example) xfce4-panel will not incorporate the update anymore. Just happened again, after moving a separator from bottom to top panel I set it to "Expand" but the display would not be updated. Issuing a xfce4-panel --restart will fix that though. However, after a *lot* of changes, I had the problem of the disappearing panels as well, couldn't launch the Panel Manager anymore either. I had a look into the ~/.config/xfce4/panel directory, and here's what I found:

XfceTimer.rc               pager-2.rc
actions-12322610628.rc     panels.xml
clipman.rc                 places-123226158815.rc
cpugraph-12322598712.rc    separator-12322571371.rc
eyes-12322604756.rc        separator-12322601023.rc
iconbox-123226166016.rc    separator-123226177417.rc
launcher-10.rc             separator-6.rc
launcher-7.rc              systray-4.rc
launcher-8.rc              tasklist-3.rc
launcher-9.rc              xfce4-menu-5.rc
orageclock-12322605827.rc  xfce4-notes-plugin-12322561730.rc

I *think* there might be an integer overflow (well, underflow I guess) at some point that causes all these huge numbers to appear. Given this directory, the panels won't start. Here's the panel.xml for the failing config as well:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE config SYSTEM "config.dtd">
<panels>
	<panel>
		<properties>
			<property name="size" value="24"/>
			<property name="monitor" value="0"/>
			<property name="screen-position" value="11"/>
			<property name="fullwidth" value="1"/>
			<property name="xoffset" value="0"/>
			<property name="yoffset" value="874"/>
			<property name="handlestyle" value="0"/>
			<property name="autohide" value="0"/>
			<property name="transparency" value="20"/>
			<property name="activetrans" value="0"/>
		</properties>
		<items>
			<item name="showdesktop" id="1"/>
			<item name="separator" id="6"/>
			<item name="iconbox" id="123226166016"/>
			<item name="tasklist" id="3"/>
			<item name="pager" id="2"/>
			<item name="systray" id="4"/>
		</items>
	</panel>
	<panel>
		<properties>
			<property name="size" value="24"/>
			<property name="monitor" value="0"/>
			<property name="screen-position" value="2"/>
			<property name="fullwidth" value="1"/>
			<property name="xoffset" value="0"/>
			<property name="yoffset" value="0"/>
			<property name="handlestyle" value="0"/>
			<property name="autohide" value="0"/>
			<property name="transparency" value="20"/>
			<property name="activetrans" value="0"/>
		</properties>
		<items>
			<item name="xfce4-menu" id="5"/>
			<item name="places" id="123226158815"/>
			<item name="separator" id="12322571371"/>
			<item name="launcher" id="10"/>
			<item name="launcher" id="7"/>
			<item name="launcher" id="8"/>
			<item name="launcher" id="9"/>
			<item name="xfce4-notes-plugin" id="12322561730"/>
			<item name="separator" id="123226177417"/>
			<item name="eyes" id="12322604756"/>
			<item name="cpugraph" id="12322598712"/>
			<item name="separator" id="12322601023"/>
			<item name="orageclock" id="12322605827"/>
			<item name="actions" id="12322610628"/>
		</items>
	</panel>
</panels>

I am not *totally* sure of course that the large numbers are the problem, but they seem fishy anyway. The problem could also be that the panels.xml is inconsistent with the remaining files in the directory. Have fun debugging some more! :-)
Comment 6 Peter Froehlich 2009-01-18 22:07:01 CET
Sorry, forgot to include the version. It's

  Xfce Panel 4.4.3

and I am running Gentoo. I just did another emerge to make sure, and I can't see any patches being applied, so I guess it's the original xfce.org source. Here's the md5sum from /usr/portage/distfiles:

  06ef9294062f9bdee4106772e62802f5  xfce4-panel-4.4.3.tar.bz2

Maybe this helps.
Comment 7 Nick Schermer editbugs 2010-06-12 09:30:43 CEST
The panel behavior regarding this will be improved in future versions of the panel.

Bug #2130

Reported by:
Massimiliano Zattera
Reported on: 2006-08-07
Last modified on: 2010-06-12

People

Assignee:
Nick Schermer
CC List:
2 users

Version

Version:
Unspecified

Attachments

Additional information