Version of xfce4-notifyd: xfce4-notifyd-0.2.2-1.fc15.x86_64 With xfce4-notifyd installed and running, Skype notifications do not appear on screen. The sounds produced are there, but nothing visible appears. This is a problem when an incoming call is received. One cannot see the box with the answer/reject buttons. One can blindly click in the area where it should appear and sometimes hit the correct area. Otherwise, the person calling gives up and then one can call back. The notifications appear properly when mumbles is installed instead of xfce4-notifyd. I verified this, but have not had mumbles installed long enough to see if other notifications will still appear properly. Testing--- Okay. Mumbles will handle the Skype notification. It seems to coexist with xfce4-notifyd, which seems to handle the other notifications. This seems to be a good workaround until this issue with xfce4-notifyd and Skype is resolved. Fedora 15 x86_64 with XFCE4 as the DE. Gnome is not installed with the exception of a few parts that Fedora seems to require. This is on two systems: Desktop System with AMD Phenom 9860 X4 processor and Netbook with AMD C50 dual-core processor. Both running Fedora 15 as specified above.
This problem continues with XFCE4 4.8 on Fedora 16. Since Fedora 16 does not have mumbles available as a package, it is now more important to figure out why xfce4-notifyd will not display Skype notification messages, and to either fix it if it can be fixed or come up with some way to see the notifications. I mention that there is no Fedora 16 package. After much searching, I located the F15 rpm file and installed it. It does not seem to break anything, and does provide a temporary solution. However, that is not optimal. Getting xfce4-notifyd to work would be much better.
Skype does not use native (read libnotify powered) notifications by default. How do you configure it to use such notifications? Here I get Skype-specific notifications which do not match my theme in any way.
I do not know how to configure it to use one notification system over another. I just know that on every other system I have tried it on, whether Gnome, LXDE, or Enlightenment E17, on-screen pop-up notifications work. It is only Xfce 4.08 and 4.10, which I am now using on Fedora 17 where it is unreliable. Sometimes when I first boot the computer I will see notifications a few times. However, it is not long before they stop appearing properly. The first symptom is that I will see a pop-up box, but it will be blank. Later, I won't even see that. I have tried all sorts of combinations. I have tried not having notification-daemon installed and Xfce4-notifyd installed, notification-daemon installed but not Xfce4-notifyd, and both notification-daemon and Xfce4-notifyd installed. I have yet to find a combination where I can get the on-screen pop-up notifications for Skype to appear reliably. Current system information: Fedora 17 x86_64, kernel 3.6.9-2.fc17.x86_64 Skype 4.1.0.20 xfce4-notifyd-0.2.2-6.fc17.1.x86_64 notification-daemon-0.7.4-1.fc17.x86_64 notify-sharp-0.4.0-0.18.20100411svn.fc17.x86_64 libnotify-0.7.5-1.fc17.x86_64 Unfortunately, I can describe the symptoms, but I have not idea of how it can be fixed.
Ok, I need more information. Do you use a program like skype-wrapper or skype notify to have skype use native notifications? Here, Skype has its own notification bubbles, screenshot will follow. If yes, could you link to that program so that I can try to reproduce please. In all cases, could you make sure you have xfce4-notifyd running (make sure there is no other notification daemon running and then you can launch the daemon manually, the path should be something like /usr/lib/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd). Then start Skype, get ready to have notifcations and open a terminal where you run "dbus-monitor > log", receive some notifications, kill the monitor command and attach the file to this bug report. I would also appreciate if you could do the same thing with a daemon which works for you so that I can compare. Thank you in advance, Jérôme
No skype-wrapper or skype notify installed. I had not known that such a utility existed. I cannot find them in either the Fedora or the rpmfusion repositories. Currently installed (after removing notification-daemon and notification-daemon-nodoka): rpm -qa |grep notif notify-python-0.1.1-20.fc17.x86_64 libnotify-0.7.5-1.fc17.x86_64 startup-notification-0.12-3.fc17.x86_64 xfce4-notifyd-0.2.2-6.fc17.1.x86_64 I'll post log results later after I have an opportunity to test per your instructions.
Also, I have no entry for xfce4 in /usr/lib. I do have a folder for xfce4 under /usr/lib64. I did a quick search and only see the x86_64 version available in the repositories.
Yes, the /usr/lib64/ one is ok.
Created attachment 4799 Skype notification screenshot Forgot to add the screenshot... Do you get notifications like this one or notifications similar to the ones you get when you use notify-send?
Created attachment 4803 Log file for dbus-monitor
When I first rebooted, notifications were working. Now, a day later with nothing happening except the monitor blanking and then resuming after several hours, popups no longer work. At best, I get a blank rectangle which has no buttons for response to an incoming call.
Ok, so your log file shows that it's indeed Skype own notification system, there is no call the Freedesktop notification system. This might actually be a problem with your Skype and your screensaver (see http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-4-0-quot-display-pop-up-notification-quot-for-Incoming/td-p/917338), are you also using xscreensaver in your Xfce session? You might want to try another screensaver or try using skype-wrapper or skype-notify so that Skype does not use its own notifications and uses the system ones.
(In reply to comment #12) > Ok, so your log file shows that it's indeed Skype own notification system, > there is no call the Freedesktop notification system. > > This might actually be a problem with your Skype and your screensaver (see > http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-4-0-quot-display-pop-up- > notification-quot-for-Incoming/td-p/917338), are you also using xscreensaver > in your Xfce session? You might want to try another screensaver or try using > skype-wrapper or skype-notify so that Skype does not use its own > notifications and uses the system ones. Yes, I had xscreensaver installed. It is no longer installed. I still have gnome-screensaver-3.4.1-1.fc17.x86_64, rssrss-glx-0.9.1.p-11.fc17.x86_64, and rss-glx-gnome-screensaver-0.9.1.p-11.fc17.x86_64 installed. I will have to see if those can coxist. Both skype-wrapper and skype-notify look like they are geared to Ubuntu. Neither are available in the Fedora repositories. Hopefully, eliminating xscreensaver will work. I'll report my results after I get an opportunity to test it.
The issue is linked to https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3648 Screensaver/locker can "steal" notifications and only blank window appears. The issue is not related to xfce4-notifyd but to xfwm4. Turning off the compositor FIXES the issue. The issue is present in xubuntu 12.04 with xfce 4.8 (and earlier) and ArchLinux with xfce 4.10. Steps to reproduce: 1. Start Skype 2. Lock the screen with xscreensaver. 3. Wait for the popup notification. It will appear over the locked screen. 4. Unlock the desktop. 5. No new popup will appear. 6. Lock the screen again. You will see popups over the locked screen. Skype thread: http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/I-m-not-able-to-see-the-incoming-call-pop-up-window/td-p/259026
Created attachment 4889 Hidden popup
Created attachment 4890 There is a popup but it is filled by the background
Thanks. I'll try turning off "Display fullscreen overlay windows directly" and see if that fixes the problem. I'll post my results (may take a day or two as a family emergency has come up).
I noticed that the issue can be reproduced with the xfce4-time-out-plugin. The popups appears over the screen locked by the plugin.
This may help: http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#popup-windows
Any updates?
I can confirm that the Skype popup notifications become 100% transparent as soon as the screen is locked via xscreensaver, until Skype is restarted. However, Xscreensaver doesn't seem responsible. It's enough to simply switch off the screen (xset dpms force off) to trigger this bug. Can it be related to Xfce's window manager?
Same issue here: Linux: gentoo Xfce: 4.10 skype: 4.2.0.11 Popup appears to be transparent. If you have enough luck and click green "accept" (invisible) button you will answer the call.
As Jerome pointed out, Skype (still, to this day!) doesn't use libnotify notifications, so all bugs in its notifications are actually bugs in Skype, not xfce4-notifyd. Unfortunately there is nothing for us to fix.