GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations

Thanks for your bug. Could you make a screenshot before and after to show the difference? No need to take the whole desktop, the same panel should be fine

I can confirm this if you have a non-extended with non-locked applets.

Sometimes, those applets move strangely. I solved this by locking all the applets.

I reproduce this by disabling the lock, making the panel "extend" itself, adding a new applet, disable the extend the reboot.

Is that specific to non-extended panels as pointed by Lionel?

As you can see, all panels are fully extended.

Also, the icons are "locked" according to the context menu, but not in practise.

This is what I'd like my panels to stay like.

I'm using dapper 20060521 and gnome-panel 2.14.1-0ubuntu13.
I experience the same problem, sometimes after starting gnome the date and time appears misaligned to the left of the mixer icon in the top panel (see screenshot in attachment). Normally it should be located between the mixer icon and the logout icon. Ocassionaly the date and time doesn't appear at all, only the gray space between the mixer and logout icon is visible then.
This is probably caused by a recent update because I did not experience this problem on dapper a month ago.

Screenshot of "date and time" being misaligned on the panel.

Screenshot of "date and time" being aligned as it should be.

I forgot to mention that all the applets and launchers on my top panel are Locked.

this happens to me too but only if the gdm resolution is different to the resolution of my desktop
it also happens to me sometimes when changing resolution normally. if gdm is the same res as ur desktop it might fix it.

My "gdm res is the same as [my] desktop".
On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 17:36 +0000, Hairy_Palms wrote:
> this happens to me too but only if the gdm resolution is different to the resolution of my desktop
> it also happens to me sometimes when changing resolution normally. if gdm is the same res as ur desktop it might fix it.
>

Locked or unlocked, applets move around randomly on the right side. On the left, applets move around randomly unless you manually move them. Manually moving applets on the right does *not* fix them.

I have the same problem with Feisty. When logging in shutdown button and volume icon can appear in random places in the panel. So at shut down, it could be that you have volume, clock then shutdown button, but upon logging in you might have shutdown button, volume, clock. All the icons are locked aand must be unlocked to be put back in their proper places. Also, the network manager icon may disappear at random times during the session. However when this happens, the connection is not lost, only the icon disappears.

On my system, I have the Notification Area, the Volume Applet, the System Monitor, the Clock, and the Workspace Switcher on the right side of my panel going left to right. The Notification Area and the Clock change width from time to time, so perhaps that's what is causing this trouble.

As a workaround, I'm going to try keeping all these applets a small distance apart from each other rather than flush up against themselves and see if that fixes this issue.

Items on the right side of the panel move themselves back to flush up against each other if you change the Orientation. Is this another bug?

I confirm this bug. It has been extremely annoying. Locked or not, the icons to the right sometimes randomly reorders themselves when I log in. I switch between internal and external display very often, so I always adjust the resolution. Don't know whether this has something to do with it. I'm using Ubuntu Edgy.

As one can see from the attached screenshot of my panel, I've got a particularly nasty case of this bug. As others have noted, it looks to be tied into changing screen resolutions. I'm using Feisty.

I play an old video game that needs 640x480. My display is 1680x1050. To play the game I wrote a script that calls xrandr before and after the game to make the necessary adjustments. That's what started the icons moving.

Just calling xrandr and playing with different sizes doesn't make the icons move when I switch back to normal resolution. It's not at all clear what needs to happen in addition to changing resolution for the icons to move.

I would like to confirm this bug.

My normal desktop resolution is 1280x1024. When I use my TV-Out I switch to 1024x768. Changing the resolution does not affect the order of the items on my panels immediately. But, if I changed the resolution at least once, then after a reboot the order of items on the right side of my panels have changed. This does not happen if I reboot after a session during which I did not change the resolution.

Also, it happens both when I use xrandr and when I use the gnome-display-properties GUI to change the resolution.

I'm using an up to date Ubuntu 7.04.

The bug is already marked confirmed and known upstream; no need to add new comment to say it happen to you as well, the changes to fix it are just not trivial to do

I think I see the same bug, but on the left side, juggling the launcher icons. yesterday I had
amule, firefox, thunderbird, help and today it is
thunderbird, firefox, help, amule

I can confirm im getting the same problem. All my applets are locked, and anything on the right hand side of top or bottom panels appears in a random order on login, no matter how much i reset their positions etc.

This is on a dual screen setup with two 1680x1050 monitors, primary on right, secondary on left.

I can confirm this. Especially it happens after resolution changes like through external monitor or a wine game.

I notice it happens when I reboot, and no resolution changes, nor have I added anything new to the panel. Two Icons on the far left simply appeared in interchanged positions. For example, the icons were in position 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 before reboot, and after reboot they are in position 1-2-3-4-5-7-6. Again all icons are locked. This happens on kernel 2.6.22-14 generic, gnome 2.20.1. Please advise if more information required.

Do you mean posision as the posision specified in gconf? Because that would be interesting. There is a configuration option for panel applets, called panel_right_stick. It seems that all of thiese problems are related to applets on the far right of the screen. Has anyone tried to move the panels a couple of pixels away from the edge and other applets and made sure panel_right_stick isn't enabled? It's just a wild guess, but could be worth a try.

Is it always the clock that's being pushed to the left? It's the applet that takes the longest time to load here.. Might that have anything to do with it?

Yes, if you move things a few pixels apart they keep their position, it gets
broken again if one of them (normally the clock) gets big enough to go over
the space, as this happens with day/month changes. It also seems to only
happen when on a screen which doesnt have a position of +0+0 i.e a monitor
on the right, doesnt matter whether primary or secondary.

Its not always the clock that changes position, its often the volume/systray
for me.

Tom

On Feb 6, 2008 3:26 PM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad <email address hidden>
wrote:

> Do you mean posision as the posision specified in gconf? Because that
> would be interesting. There is a configuration option for panel applets,
> called panel_right_stick. It seems that all of thiese problems are
> related to applets on the far right of the screen. Has anyone tried to
> move the panels a couple of pixels away from the edge and other applets
> and made sure panel_right_stick isn't enabled? It's just a wild guess,
> but could be worth a try.
>
> Is it always the clock that's being pushed to the left? It's the applet
> that takes the longest time to load here.. Might that have anything to
> do with it?
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session
> start in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

When I reported this problem, I was using rel 5.xx, and I had upgraded
from earlier releases. All the icons moved including the ones that had:
'Lock to Panel' option. Also I had made many changes to my system on my
own. So, to make this story short, in my case I resolved this problem by
installing Ubuntu in a clean and empty hard disk. All those problems
went away.

I am using Ubuntu 7.10 now, and I see the icons changing places only
sometimes when I change screen resolutions or when I enable or disable
Compiz.

I will pay attention to the suggestions below next time it happens.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jo-Erlend Schinstad <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 44082 <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move
apparently randomly on session start in some situations
Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:26:52 -0000

Do you mean posision as the posision specified in gconf? Because that
would be interesting. There is a configuration option for panel applets,
called panel_right_stick. It seems that all of thiese problems are
related to applets on the far right of the screen. Has anyone tried to
move the panels a couple of pixels away from the edge and other applets
and made sure panel_right_stick isn't enabled? It's just a wild guess,
but could be worth a try.

Is it always the clock that's being pushed to the left? It's the applet
that takes the longest time to load here.. Might that have anything to
do with it?

Actually it's stopped doing this. I don't believe I've done anything
differently. It's gone from a problem happening every reboot to
happening every month etc. The next time it does happen I will move
the icons a few pixels away and test this

On Feb 6, 2008 10:26 AM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Do you mean posision as the posision specified in gconf? Because that
> would be interesting. There is a configuration option for panel applets,
> called panel_right_stick. It seems that all of thiese problems are
> related to applets on the far right of the screen. Has anyone tried to
> move the panels a couple of pixels away from the edge and other applets
> and made sure panel_right_stick isn't enabled? It's just a wild guess,
> but could be worth a try.
>
> Is it always the clock that's being pushed to the left? It's the applet
> that takes the longest time to load here.. Might that have anything to
> do with it?
>
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Patience yields far greater results than brute force or rage ever
could so relax......it's just life !!!

For me the problem did always seem to come and ago, i could often do many
reboots/relogs with no problems, then it would move stuff around every time
etc.

On Feb 6, 2008 5:41 PM, John Toliver <email address hidden> wrote:

> Actually it's stopped doing this. I don't believe I've done anything
> differently. It's gone from a problem happening every reboot to
> happening every month etc. The next time it does happen I will move
> the icons a few pixels away and test this
>
> On Feb 6, 2008 10:26 AM, Jo-Erlend Schinstad
> <email address hidden> wrote:
> > Do you mean posision as the posision specified in gconf? Because that
> > would be interesting. There is a configuration option for panel applets,
> > called panel_right_stick. It seems that all of thiese problems are
> > related to applets on the far right of the screen. Has anyone tried to
> > move the panels a couple of pixels away from the edge and other applets
> > and made sure panel_right_stick isn't enabled? It's just a wild guess,
> > but could be worth a try.
> >
> > Is it always the clock that's being pushed to the left? It's the applet
> > that takes the longest time to load here.. Might that have anything to
> > do with it?
> >
> >
> > --
> > GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session
> start in some situations
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > of the bug.
> >
>
>
> --
> Patience yields far greater results than brute force or rage ever
> could so relax......it's just life !!!
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session
> start in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Same problem me too

Totally agree with Tom Badran

Confirm this!

Same problem. Frecuently panel interchange order. Notification area puts himself at right.
I attach screenshot, normal and changed composite:

My right justified panel applets are always in the wrong place whenever I reboot with a different screen resolution. Was happening with Gutsy, still happening with Hardy. Will try leaving a little space in between them, but I doubt it will help.

Apparently, fixing this issue is on the Gnome 2.24 roadmap. Check it out:

http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap

I respectfully disagree. That roadmap only states "when Panel size changes," and that has nothing to do with this bug. This bug (probably) has more to do with the fact that applets have variable widths and are configured to specific locations that cause massive confusion in the panel rendering if you happen to do things like log out and log back in a little later (which changes the size of the clock applet). There doesn't appear to be anything that gives priority to the order of the applet as opposed to its exact position.

i also get this problem.
it happens on boot and i think sometimes when i switch between metcity and compiz. and then sometimes not. I wish i could give them an order starting from the right instead of giving them a position...

I can confirm this bug as well, but I don't think it is an Ubuntu issue. I have experienced the same things described by Tom on both Ubuntu 8.04 (upgraded from 7.10) and on Gentoo running GNOME 2.22.3. I have numerous applets and launchers on the top right of my screen that switch places, as well as a few on the bottom right. The thing on the top and bottom left never move. The things that switch places only do so about half the time, and once after I logged on and off about ten times, they went back to where they belonged.

My setup is a 17in laptop screen running at 1680x1050 at 96dpi using the 'nvidia' driver. On both Ubuntu and Gentoo all the items on the panel were locked, and panels were expanded.

i confirm this annoying bug:

if resolution gets changed (i.e. fullscreen apps) the icons on the panel get scrambled after a reboot, even with "lock on panel activated"

this is VERY annoying

C10uD, you should specifiy which version of Ubuntu/GNOME you are using. But unless it's Ubuntu 8.10/GNOME 2.24 you don't have to bother.

So, has anyone tried GNOME 2.24 yet? This bug was planned to be fixed in that release. I'll try GNOME 2.24 myself in a couple of days when the Ubuntu 8.10 beta comes out.

Slightly off topic but I was trying to install nautilus 2.24 (or whichever
version comes with intrepid). I enabled the repos from intrepid and still
nothing. Any ideas?

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:26, Geert Jan Alsem <email address hidden> wrote:

> C10uD, you should specifiy which version of Ubuntu/GNOME you are using.
> But unless it's Ubuntu 8.10/GNOME 2.24 you don't have to bother.
>
> So, has anyone tried GNOME 2.24 yet? This bug was planned to be fixed in
> that release. I'll try GNOME 2.24 myself in a couple of days when the
> Ubuntu 8.10 beta comes out.
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start
> in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either learn
the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win situation!

Find the right repository if anyone is interested:

deb http://*fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu* intrepid main

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:57, John Toliver <email address hidden> wrote:

> Slightly off topic but I was trying to install nautilus 2.24 (or whichever
> version comes with intrepid). I enabled the repos from intrepid and still
> nothing. Any ideas?
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:26, Geert Jan Alsem <email address hidden> wrote:
>
>> C10uD, you should specifiy which version of Ubuntu/GNOME you are using.
>> But unless it's Ubuntu 8.10/GNOME 2.24 you don't have to bother.
>>
>> So, has anyone tried GNOME 2.24 yet? This bug was planned to be fixed in
>> that release. I'll try GNOME 2.24 myself in a couple of days when the
>> Ubuntu 8.10 beta comes out.
>>
>> --
>> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session
>> start in some situations
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either learn
> the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win situation!
>

--
I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either learn
the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win situation!

Is there any chance that the fix from Gnome 2.24 is backported to Hardy?

The moving icons on panel is the only reason why I instsall beginners Kubuntu at the moment... In my point of view this is a major bug because the panel is the most visible thing on a beginner desktop and if that doesn't work they ask themselves if the system is broken...

Is this problem really fixed in Gnome-2.24 / Intrepid?

the bug is not closed why do you think it's fixed in intrepid?

the upstream bug didn't get a lot of activity this cycle either

I confirm with new intrepid installation, icon move randomly on session open.

This does, in fact, still occur on Intrepid running Gnome 2.24.1 on session startup, and is very annoying. Especially so if not extended. If you reboot with your panel not extended, you're lucky if you have ANY icons in their original places. It still happens when extended, but not as many icons are shuffled.

In Intrepid (fresh install), each time I extend/reduce the bar (in "Properties"), the icons are all mixed up !

Let's have a look at the Configuration Editor, Apps>Panel>Applets : for each applet you have an item called "Panel_Right_Stick". If true (ticked), the position should be calculated from the bottom or right of the bar, according to the "long description". I tried to play with that, thinking the menu should be "3" from the Not("Panel_Right_Stick") (i.e. the left), and that would help fixing the issue.

But each time I extend/reduce the panel, every "Panel_Right_Stick" value of each applet comes back to "True" even when they were set to "False".

I hope this helps finding the bug, I don't think it is the right behaviour to set back some of the values of the applets when the bar is reduced or extended.

I've the same problem when I change resolution for a game -- one game I play runs best at 1024x768, when I normally run 1280x1024. It looks fine after I exit the game, but upon reboot my panel applets and items are all shuffled about, as some have said above.

I would think locking them to the panel would do just that, which is why I did it, but they've moved all around nonetheless and it's quite frustrating.

I have a similar problem to greyor. I have a laptop with a screen resolution of 1280x768, and sometimes use an external monitor with a resolution of 1280x1024. Recently I had to rebuild the top gnome panel (using the laptop resolution) and then locked most off the icons to the panel. I then shutdown the laptop connected the external monitor and booted up again. By default both screens are in use, but the external monitor is not being used at its optimum resolution, so I tend to change it to 1280x1024 and this causes the laptop display to switch off. ( I am ok with this). However I then find that the gnome display get a bit muddled, in particular the icons on the top panel (RHS) ie logout, screen lock, volume control, calender, cpu speed, system monitor, network monitor, randomly change position, when they have been locked to the panel. I have also notice this behaviour on the lower panel as well.

Strangely it only seems to affect icons / applets on the right had side of the panel.

This happens to me, actually pretty much every time I log in. For me, the situation is that my laptop's screen runs at 1280x800 and my external monitor runs at 1920x1200, and I switch between the two all the time mid-session. I never use twinview; I just disable one monitor and enable the other.

This is with The Default Panel Configuration in Jaunty. I usually just delete those launcher applets and leave it be. I kept an eye on the panel configuration with gconf-editor.

Initially, applets are placed correctly as copied from default_setup...
/apps/panel/default_setup/applets/notification_area:
locked:1
panel_right_stick:1
position:5

Note that each applet is placed from right to left, with "position" incrementing from 0 where 0 is rightmost.

I checked later (sorry, STILL hunting for the pattern) and found this...
/apps/panel/applets/notification_area_screen_0:
locked:1
panel_right_stick:0 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
position:1279

The bottom panel also falls apart in the same way. They both do so at the same time.

I tried starting the positions on the right side from 1 instead of 0, but it made no difference. I also tried positioning only the clock and the Hamster applet on the right, which did no good.
( Although it looked cleaner with the notifications beside the menu :) )

Notice that the posititons end up relative to the positions on my laptop's screen, but also a little bit off.

I experience the exact same behaviour as Dylan on Intrepid (8.10)...have since Gutsy.

This bug is coming up on its 3 year anniversary -- with no less than 17 duplicates and over 100 subscribers.

Should the priority should be bumped up from "Low"?

For me this bug is biggest problem of all Gnome desktop.
I decided to not to use panels when all content messing and jumping all the time:
I had to move my launchers to desktop from panel.
I had to switch from gnome-sensors-applet and such stuff to obscure gkrellm.

It would be really great if this problem does get more attention from developers.

The best is always to use the upstream bug report. Btw. there is a patch posted so you can check if it works.

This is occuring for me in Jaunty Beta. The notification area moved to the right of everything else after my second restart. This did not occur in Intrepid.

give us the ppa and we will test

For me it happens without ever touching the resolution settings. I have a notebook with an external display attached (permanently!). The resolution is already set correctly at the GDM login. But after login, the applets are mixed up (panels are at their correct locations most of the time). This even occurs if I "lock" them to their positions.

As already found out, if I use "expanded" panels, there are minor mixups such as two applets which switched locations. But I recently changed to "non-expanded" panels and I got a nice puzzle game after the last reboot... all applets where mixed wildly.

Same situation here. I use notebook with external display too (with different resolutions). I don't change resolution myself but I think it's done automatically when gnome sets resolution of laptop display and then changes it in TwinView mode for bigger external display's resolution. And on every startup panel icons change their position in some strange way.

Confirming for Jaunty + Gnome 2.26.1

Confirmed on Jaunty. I am running on T61 laptop. At work with dual monitor and at home with the laptop screen.
Switching between the two modes make the icons reoder in strange ways.

I had this ever since I started using ubuntu on 7.04.

A really visible bug. I hope it gets some attention.

I too can confirm for Jaunty release.

Only seems to be right hand aligned applets on top & bottom panels, even if all applets are locked.

I too have this problem.
It happen on laptop after games like supertux, extremetuxracer and others situations.
I have Jaunty Jackalope.
The problem is often the icons remain blocked near the network manager icon and the compiz fusion icon, making a frustante.
I hope a solution to more quickly :-)
Bye
Francesco bat

I've the same problem IF i move or I add 1 time one program/function on the panels.
I hate this, please fix it.

Confirmed in Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 , GNOME version 2.26.1

It's really annoying, and happens when I change the resolution of the screen after a fullscreen game, or even after a restart. Example: My notifications applets keep switching places from the extreme right to the middle of the top gnome panel.

I can confirm this to with Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04, gnome 2.26.1.

After restart, what mostly happens it that the top panel right side applets (notification area, volume control, etc.) switch places even the shutdown button and separator.

It happens whether the applets are locked or unlocked, and whether i change resolution before restarting or not.

This is really annoying and i reall wish it will be fixed.

This has happened to me too on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04, gnome 2.26.1. Like the poster above me the wastebasket, battery, wifi signal, gwibber and pidgin icons moved to the far right of the screen. Prior to this I had unchecked the Expand button but then checked it again, and then restarted the computer.

the bug there doesn't quality as an hundredpapercut issue, those should be quick to fix issue which is not the case of this one

Not a paper cut, as Sebastian points out.

This bug is open since 2006? Are you kidding me, it is *most* annoying when you have to rearrange your panel every login in, for me it only happens to a non extended panel in the upper right corner, or better said it wont happen when i put the panel in the upper middle.
3 Years and no closer to a solution, come on thats ridiculous.

I agree.
from more than 200 bugs I wish to see solved for my desktop,
this one is definitely the most annoying one.

Using KDE should fix this issue I guess or maybe it will be fixed in Gnome 3.

this bug should be a papercut

Yeah, it should.

Am I the only one which finds the statement "the bug there doesn't quality as an hundredpapercut issue, those should be quick to fix issue which is not the case of this one" quite ironical?
I mean we are not talking about the heavy lagging of Linux under IO or cpu load just about a panel bar. But marketing seems to be more important.

This is not a paper cut because it is not simple to fix. It involves writing a significant amount of new code in gnome-panel. A paper cut is something that one person could easily fix in an afternoon. GNOME Panel has exhibit this funky behavior for years and years. I would be extremely surprised if the fix is trivial.

Leo, unggnu, if you really think this could be easily fixed, prove me wrong. Ask the people who work on gnome-panel. If they say they can fix this issue easily, we will accept it as a paper cut.

I have this on 9.04.

There is a patch published under http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314235 but I haven't tested it right now.

this patch http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=51170&action=view
changes only two lines, so it sounds pretty trivial for me.
Can anybody check if it would fix the problem and if it is correct?
Btw. this patch is 4 years old...

If this dosne't qualify as a papercut, I don't know what else is qualifying. This is an anoying bug, that hurts a lot of the gnome/ubuntu credibility. This is also a visual glitch that affect the overall usability. And this is the first bug I had in mind when reading about the papercuts.

David Siegel, I've been annoyed with this bug for three years. I am going to investigate the fixes proposed in the extensive history of this item in the gnome-panel bugzilla. If it's easy I'll work the upstream folks. For now, I'm marking it In Progress while I research the issue and test the proposed fixes which no one seems to have properly tested (or at least reported their findings.) If it's truly insurmountable in a short timeframe then I'll switch it back to Invalid.

This just affected me as well. I did nothing more than reboot on my desktop. Curious tho, before the startup there was a disktest that happened before Ubuntu started up , then I noticed my programs, some not all, were on the right hand side of the panel. Volume and notifier stayed put. 2 programs I can quit, the networking status icon stays put tho. My display is at 1680x1050.

@Ryan Maki: Glad that someone is finally looking into this *seriously* ... This is a totally annoying behavior.
I think the main problem is that it is not consistently reproducible!

Papercut or not , Pls dont stop until you are out of options :(

If you have made any progress, Where do you want us to look for logs/debug info, once this behavior happens again.

Looks like this bug just hit the 25 duplicates mark...and just in time for it's four year anniversary!

@mac_v: Thanks for the offer, I don't think I need any extra debugging information or logs, I can easily reproduce this problem on my laptop by plugging in an external display with a different resolution. Actually anything that resizes the desktop (Fn+F7 on my laptop) will trigger the problem. (Sometimes it requires logging out, but often it's immediate) I believe a patch in gnome-bugs #341441 point in the right direction, this is a problem of the GConf position data for the panel items getting changed when they shouldn't, and the items move. I'm looking at updating the patch attached to the upstream bug to the latest code. I've just moved, so my development machine is packed in a box this week, I'll get back to this bug over the weekend.

For all of the fans of this bug, here's my summary of problem:
It seems the "panel_right_stick" applet setting is getting cleared. For example, in GConf "/apps/panel/applets/trashapplet_screen0/panel_right_stick" is "true" before switching desktops (with Fn+F7, or plugging in a screen, etc), and "false" afterwards. The applet "position" is measured from the left panel edge, but "panel_right_stick" switches this to the right/bottom edge. However, "position" still measures the distance to the left edge *of the applet*. The default Ubuntu Trash applet, in the bottom right corner, position is 26 for instance, instead of 0. Once this setting goes awry you will even see negative values and the like. For example, my FastUserSwitchApplet (in the top right corner) currently indicates a position of "-152" instead of 0 (or however many pixels wide it is to the left edge of the applet). And to top that all off, sometimes applets (like Clock) don't seem to set the "panel_right_stick" to true when they should.

I have seen a total scramble after adding/removing a (second) monitor.
see attached screen shot

This problem remains in ubuntu 9.04.

Confirmed in current Jaunty. Change in screen orientation, layout or resolution; or just plain logging in messes the layout of gnome-panel up.

There was some work going on in this duplicate: #36189

Related upstream bug (from bug 36189): http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137473

Title of this bug is not complete: The problem occurs not only on session start
but also in (most) screen resolution changes..

I have just verified that the patch attached to http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=314235 does solve the problem. To fix my exisiting configuration, I had to use 'gconf-editor' to set the relative order of the right-stuck applets, setting the fast-user-switch to 0, the clock to 1, and so forth. After log-out and log-in, they are in the correct order, and do not move around like they did before when I switch my Thinkpad X61 Tablet from laptop to tablet mode. They also remain where they belong when I log out and back in.

Please apply that patch!

I've ported the patch from Gnome Bug 314235 forward to the latest jaunty version 2.26.0-ubuntu7 of gnome-panel. Attached is the patch file already in quilt format. I've also applied this patch and built gnome-panel to my PPA for testing. Brave souls can try the patched version of the panel and report back to me their experiences.

https://edge.launchpad.net/~ryan.maki/+archive/ppa

This is the first patch I've distributed, please be nice. I have been testing it on my work and home laptops and neither of them have caught fire. It also seems to help prevent the (right-side) icons moving around on screen changes.

If you are going to test it, keep in mind, this keeps gnome-panel from changing the icon positions when the screen changes, but you may already have out-of-place positions for your panel applets in GConf. As Karl Hegbloom suggested, *if you know what you are doing* you can update the GConf settings manually to set the correct order.

If this tests well I'll start the process of getting this moved upstream (and into Ubuntu of course).

Your patch works perfectly. No more rearranging of panel icons! Thanks so much for fixing this.

I am working on getting sponsored so that I can get this patch moved into Ubuntu karmic and then upstream. If you are a Dev with advice on the process please drop me an email, thanks.

My testing shows that this fixes the resolution switch re-arranging of icons. Once the icons are arranged for a particular screen resolution they stay in the same location when the desktop returns to the given resolution. On my laptop, which has been running for a while and had corrupted GConf settings from this bug, I needed to fix the icon positions the first time that I switched to a given resolution. Subsequent changes back to that resolution kept my arrangement.

Give that man a medal!

Would be better to get the change reviewed by upstream first since they know the code better

Great work, Ryan -- you've just made many users very happy :)

Please submit your patch for review upstream: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341441

_Gigantic_ kudos to you for working on this, I can't enumerate all the times this bug put me in a bad mood. Thanks thanks thanks thanks.

Great work, Ryan.
Many thanks!

The patch works on my computer. Thanks!

Nice!

Thanks for the patch, so far so good.

I'm guessing that this patch is not in 2.6.28 version of gnome-panel. This NEEDS to be included, There is nothing more annoying that having your icons show up differently each time you login.

those comments are not constructive, it's not up to you to tell other people what they have to do and it's not using caps which will somebody want to listed to you, the patch needs to be carrefully reviewed and the issue is far to happen at every login

I'm sure that he meant no harm.

Will this be uploaded for karmic testers to try out?

FYI, the bug still exists in Karmic 9.10 Gnome panel 2.28.0. It happens when I have the panel non-maximized, in the upper middle part of the screen. The application & Notification Area will move around at boot up or when waking up from hibernation. The handle on the Notification Area doesn't allow me to move it at all, and it's not locked. In order to move it, I have to expand the panel, move the Notification Area and unexpand it.

David, thanks for working on the patch.

I noticed it still existed, too.
The solution might be enhanced to offer the feature for a panel element
to "stick to right side" or "stick to left side" so they are always
aligned to the left or right side without any sort of manual movement
whenever people resize the display.

Kriston

--
Kriston Rehberg
http://kriston.net/

TraceyC wrote:
> FYI, the bug still exists in Karmic 9.10 Gnome panel 2.28.0. It happens
> when I have the panel non-maximized, in the upper middle part of the
> screen. The application & Notification Area will move around at boot up
> or when waking up from hibernation. The handle on the Notification Area
> doesn't allow me to move it at all, and it's not locked. In order to
> move it, I have to expand the panel, move the Notification Area and
> unexpand it.
>
> David, thanks for working on the patch.
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session
> start in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Confirmed
> Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: In Progress
> Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon
> occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing
> is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the
> problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.
>
>
>
>

I also suffer from this problem on karmic. I'm using Ubuntu Netbook Remix, where this bug results in some other usability problems. The panel on netbooks is very small, and contains the title bar of the active window. When applets from the right side move around and move to the left, they shorten the title bar for the active window, making it less readable, and wasting precious panel space.

This is still occurring because the patch was not committed to either Gnome or Karmic.

This will continue to happen until someone with commit privileges makes a decision to include the patch either in Ubuntu or upstream in Gnome. I haven't had time to create a Karmic package for my PPA to fix this problem. Hopefully I will have some time during this weekend to work on it.

I'm glad to hear that a patch has been prepared, thank you for taking the time to fix this. It's been a nuisance for as long as I can remember. In fact, I've given up locking the panel icons because it's quicker to move them back where I left them if I don't have to unlock them each time. Mostly in Karmic it's the date/time that moves about.

I hope someone is able to commit the fix though, it must affect many users.

Jonathon

oh well the bug drives me crazy when switching to external monitor.... how can I test the patch on karmic?

maybe this is kinda OT but...what about a "(Un)Lock all applets on this panel" option? it should be easy to do, and very useful if someone wants to move his/her applets around (not that you do this everyday but..)

If I had them always locked I could throw myself off the window just not to do all the unlock-move-lock thing on all applets.
I have them unlocked already, just ready to be moved to the right place every time.

And oh yes.... I do this every day, in fact... several times a day sometimes.....

Temporary solution:
Backup the state of your panel:
gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml

and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns)

Argh still in Karmic NBR, thought this was fixed already, why aren't these 100PC patches not getting into the release

This is a very stupid bug the highly affects the user experience, especially those moving from Windows to Linux. If - for any reason - a developer thinks this bug - that has been here for more than 3 years - is minor or not worth investigation, then he/she is stupid as well, else if he/she can't solve it, I guess someone has to help that developer or it has to be solved by another one.

@Ahmad - yeah very annoying bug that affects laptop users every day they use Ubuntu; But Gnome is I think mostly unfunded community development, so if we don't like we should fix it ourselves, sponsor someone to fix it, or be patient. Canonical should have an interest in fixing this as it detracts from the daily user experience of their product. With so many duplicate bugs of this being posted all the time, many subscribers, many people cursing this same Ubuntu/Gnome bug for years, it would certainly seem to be a bit more that a paper cut for users.

2009/12/3 Ahmad Amr <email address hidden>:
> This is a very stupid bug the highly affects the user experience,
> especially those moving from Windows to Linux. If - for any reason - a
> developer thinks this bug - that has been here for more than 3 years -
> is minor or not worth investigation, then he/she is stupid as well, else
> if he/she can't solve it, I guess someone has to help that developer or
> it has to be solved by another one.

The Gnome devs are currently focused on upcoming Gnome 3.0, where
Gnome Shell will replace Gnome Panel, so it is likely that this bug is
not urgent for them.

--
## Przemysław Kulczycki >><< Azrael Nightwalker ##
# jabber: azrael[na]jabster.pl | tlen: azrael29a #
### www: http://reksio.ftj.agh.edu.pl/~azrael/ ###

@Przemyslaw: I don't think they have been thinking in Gnome 3.0 from more than 3 years!! I'm really searching for an excuse but can't find any, at least for Canonical!

I applied the two lines patch mentioned in comment 77. it apparently solved the problem and didn't cause any new one. I have written some instructions on how to build your own package using the gnome-panel_2.28.0-0ubuntu7.diff.gz
 that I prepared: http://jalvesaq.googlepages.com/gnome-panel.html

A PPA with the patch that seems to fix this long-standing issue for everyone was created at

https://launchpad.net/~gnome-panel-noshuffle/+archive/ppa

Only Karmic, Jaunty and Hardy packages are available at the moment. Just drop me a line if you would like another release to be added.

It's the same patch that has been discussed here and upstream since the very beginning (submitted by Marc McLoughlin nearly four and a half years ago).

David, I'm not hit with this bug terribly hard, and I won't use the ppa, but I think you deserve a thank you from me. I'm sure I won't be the last :)

Hi,

I've tested the PPA version, by changing the display resolution (adding and removing an external display with a different screen width), and it seems to work fine now.

If I'll have more problems with the order of the applets I'll report here.

Thanks!

AMAZING an opearating system with the best feature ever:
PANEL SHUFFLE!

It is guaranteed to shuffle your panel icons so you can have a messed up panel every time you change your screen!
This feature was inspired by the shuffle feature in most media players, so why should you only be able to shuffle you music when you can shuffle your panel!

Download any version of Linux with Gnome and you can to enjoy the amazing feature that is GNOME PANEL SHUFFLE!!!

Be a part of the solution not the problem. Download the patch, apply the
diff, and quit the crying.

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:27, Someone <email address hidden> wrote:

> AMAZING an opearating system with the best feature ever:
> PANEL SHUFFLE!
>
> It is guaranteed to shuffle your panel icons so you can have a messed up
> panel every time you change your screen!
> This feature was inspired by the shuffle feature in most media players, so
> why should you only be able to shuffle you music when you can shuffle your
> panel!
>
> Download any version of Linux with Gnome and you can to enjoy the
> amazing feature that is GNOME PANEL SHUFFLE!!!
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start
> in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Confirmed
> Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: In Progress
> Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs
> when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing is that it
> only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the problem is, so
> I can't, unfortunately, post more information.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/+subscribe
>

--
I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either learn
the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win situation!

I dunno, this seems like the only solution that'll get things done.

>> Bug #44082 reported by Toby Smithe on 2006-05-10

Ahh, this is an old haunt! Must say, I feel it's my duty, after all you scragglers with your unconfirmable confirmations, to say..

this bug still affects me.

But, as the system is much more stable than it was three and a half years ago, this bug affects me less.

Hi,

I'm sorry I was too quick with my comment. Today I noticed that my applets have changed their positions again after rebooting, when the screen was previously larger. I guess this bug still exists in the ppa version.

Haggai

Thank you, Toby and Haggai. As far as I know, you're the first to falsify this patch—so far it's been getting only positive feedback. Could one of you please submit your observations to the upstream bug ticket?

2009/12/7 David Jurenka <email address hidden>:
> Thank you, Toby and Haggai. As far as I know, you're the first to
> falsify this patch—so far it's been getting only positive feedback.
> Could one of you please submit your observations to the upstream bug
> ticket?

Apologies for the confusion; I was not refuting the patch, but merely
responding to the mention of the time passed since my initial report.
The patch works for me, but as I said earlier, I cannot ascribe that
solely to the patch, as the situations in which the applets would
rearrange arise far less often these days.

Regards, and thanks for the continued effort,

--
Toby Smithe :: http://fulltinreality.com

Thanks for the patch/ppa. I tested the ppa version and it works well as long as all the icons are unlocked. It's still broken after restarting with locked icons.

Resolution change (e.g by a full screen program)...
* ... with some/all icons are locked: Ok
* ... with all icons unlocked: Ok

After restarting Ubuntu...
*... with some/all icons are locked: Broken
*... with all icons are unlocked: Ok

Lets get this party started!

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:39 PM, rCX <email address hidden> wrote:

> Thanks for the patch/ppa. I tested the ppa version and it works well as
> long as all the icons are unlocked. It's still broken after restarting
> with locked icons.
>
> Resolution change (e.g by a full screen program)...
> * ... with some/all icons are locked: Ok
> * ... with all icons unlocked: Ok
>
> After restarting Ubuntu...
> *... with some/all icons are locked: Broken
> *... with all icons are unlocked: Ok
>
> --
> GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start
> in some situations
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

unsubscribing the sponsors, upstream has some concern about the change and it doesn't work for all users

Initially this seemed to work but I have had one instance of the applets re-arranging since installing the PPA version so this is still occurring (although possibly less frequently).

Guys, any updates about when this problem is getting solved? If the assigned developer is stupid, doesn't have the required skills to solve it or is lazy enough not to solve it, I guess this needs to be escalated to canonical so that a smarter, more skilled or more active developer can work on it to get it solved as soon as possible as it highly affects user experience especially to new users moving from Windows.

... or is working very hard to solve other problems...

please, behave.

Dear Ahmad Amr,
If you are fully-skilled Linux developer you can fix this bug yourself and we will appreciate your help. If you've paid some money for GNOME you can write a letter to people who've taken your money. If you don't like the situation at all you can use some other DE (KDE or XFCE, for example) or change your OS. I think Microsoft will be happy to hear your cries. Of course, after you pay them your money. Or you can simply shut up, sit down and wait for people doing this work. May be you forgot but both GNOME and Ubuntu are free for you.

Dear developers,
Is there any way to raise the priority of this bug? Because it's really annoying for lots of us.

@David: I'm well-behaved David, thanks for your advice, but I said that he is EITHER stupid OR doesn't have the skill OR lazy, you choose, not me, and seems you chose number 1 or 3.

@Dmitry: I never claimed that I'm a skilled Linux developer, you don't have the right to tell me to "Shut up", I'm sure even Microsoft - although I'm a Linux user - listens to people higher than your level and that's what made them gain the highest profits, what I'm doing is called Marketing - if you know what that means - and I'm doing my best to promote Ubuntu and gather as much supporters as I can because I believe it's a much better product than MS Windows, but just lacks proper marketing.

I think this link is useful to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing.

Anyway, let's just try to get this bug fixed as soon as possible, hopefully before the next LTS release.

Ahmad: calling someone stupid or without skill or lazy is a disrespectful ad hominem (personal) attack <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem> that violates the Ubuntu Community Code of Conduct <http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct> and is thus inappropriate for this forum. Refrain from doing so here.

Can we please stop the off-topic heated discussion? You both mean well, but you're cluttering up inboxes.

Work is being done on the bug. Please just post any useful information.

Those comments are not really useful, if the bug is annoying and open for 3 years it's perhaps because it's not as easy to fix that you think. Now there is nobody in the Ubuntu team knowing the gnome-panel code, everybody is really busy and learning gnome-panel code is a non trivial task you should perhaps consider commenting upstream rather than there.

one of the comments suggested escalading the issue to Canonical, you are free to take a support contract and do that if you want, otherwise there is no formal way to escalade the bug since Canonical employees are pretty much free to decide on what issues they consider important enough to work on. The bug described here might annoy some users but don't conclude that it's an issue for everybody, I'm using GNOME since before Ubuntu and I get some applets position changed maybe once a month, it's a bit annoying but it takes a few seconds to fix and I don't consider that as a showstopper bug, ie I'm not going to spend days on the gnome-panel code to try to fix that bug but other people are free to do the work if they really think it's important to get done for Ubuntu

As for me, placing separators between all applets (those on the right) seems to prevent them from switching positions.

please fix this

Thank you for hint on the usage of gconftool-2. It really makes a difference. For a long time I did not have any problems with icons in the panel, since the end of the Hardy Heron era, until about a couple of weeks ago, all of them went biserck, and either disappeared or shifted in place. Again, thank you!

--- On Mon, 2/8/10, arand <email address hidden> wrote:

From: arand <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Monday, February 8, 2010, 5:49 AM

** Description changed:

+ The items on the gnome panel is disordered in some cases, one of these
+ being changing the screen reolution, possibly other, more random, cases
+ as well.
+
+ -----
+
+ Temporary solution:
+ Backup the state of your panel:
+ gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml
+
+ and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
+ gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
+ killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns, possibly need to run gnome-panel & as well)
+
+ -----
+
  I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon
  occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing
  is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the
  problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.

--
GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of a duplicate bug.

hey guys,
 I would like to confirm this... as though there aren't enough already!! :)
Ubuntu Karmic as well as several versions before karmic.
 this is probably one of the most irritating bugs on gnome
I dont know if this is going to be fixed before gnome3 comes out.
I havent tested this on Lucid yet but suspect it will be the same

coz

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 04:13, Coz <email address hidden> wrote:

> hey guys,
> I would like to confirm this... as though there aren't enough already!! :)
> Ubuntu Karmic as well as several versions before karmic.
> this is probably one of the most irritating bugs on gnome
> I dont know if this is going to be fixed before gnome3 comes out.
> I havent tested this on Lucid yet but suspect it will be the same
>
> coz

I've done the thing where you place dividers in between each element you
have and lock them all down. For the time being it's working fairly
consistently for me, but my screen also doesn't change resolutions that
often either so ymmv.

HTH
--
I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either learn
the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win situation!

This bug was reported four years ago and still hasn't been fixed? Seriously? Just wow. Anyways...
I have this problem too and it's very annoying. No matter what computer I install Ubuntu on (and I've installed it on a lot of computers) after rebooting the icons are always rearranged. Intel video cards, Nvidia video cards, ATI video cards, dual monitor, single monitor, LCD monitor, CRT monitor, laptop, desktop, Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 9.10, 640x480 resolution, 1024x768 resolution, 1280x1024 resolution, it doesn't matter it always happens at least every other reboot. It's very embarrassing to install Ubuntu on my friends computers when they are interested in trying it and having their stuff randomly rearranged every time they reboot. How am I supposed to recommend Ubuntu when it does this? Please change the importance of this bug to something above "Low" because it is much more then that.
Sorry if I seem a bit annoyed by this, I wasn't until I saw how old this bug is.

Wait... is some team a FAILURE AT LIFE or is it just me? I'm sorry, that was rude. Almost as rude as leaving one of the most annoying bugs unfixed for four years, not quite, but close. Don't be a Microsoft! I'm pretty sure even I, yes, I could write the code to fix this in four years time. If I had known this was still an issue I might have done so last summer when I had free time, but I thought "surely they've got someone on this." And I was sooo happy with Lucid Lynx because the applets were behaving themselves until just now. Seriously. I don't want to go back to KDE. Fix This! How hard can it be to fix? If you wanted a lazy fix you could load each applet, individually, in the order they're supposed to appear. I don't care if it adds five seconds to the login time as long as we get this fixed, rearranging applets is a complete waste of time, and a baffling failure in UI design. KDE doesn't have this problem last time I checked. Mac doesn't. Even Windows doesn't. In fact, last time I checked.... EVERY user interface on the planet that has rearrangeable ANYTHING remembers the order you put them in. Am I being overzealous or over-the-top on this issue? I don't mean to be, but it is beyond my comprehension that something like this has been allowed to persist for years on end. Maybe we're suggesting that the "grass is greener on the other side" so let's wait until Gnome Shell. Yeah, that's the way to fix this bug. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please fix this for the Long Term Support version of Ubuntu. Oh wait, that's the next version. Please, please, please fix it for Lucid Lynx. If this was such an insanely difficult bug to fix, why hasn't the community been directly asked to help fix this bug? If that had happened while I wasn't under a mountain of honors classes at school, I would have been willing to give it a go.

(I'm really sorry about the tone and expressions of frustration that may have been unleashed above. Major bugs that get ignored for years on end tend to have a very real effect on my sensibility)

Oh, and about the part where I said "Even Windows doesn't." Think about it. Who on earth would just shrug their shoulders for 4 years when every other time they login... the start menu magically moves. Oh look, the Start button is by the clock? who can guess where it'll end up next? nobody knows! <----- if this situation seems unimaginable, how can the gnome-panel situation be at all imaginable?

wouldn't it have been useful to spend the time you spent writting those comments trying to fix the issue rather?

No, because i'm not familiar with gnome-panel code, it would take me a few hours to get acquainted with how it works. (if i'm correct on how much code there is in the gnome panel) 10/15 minutes of comment writing is a much smaller amount of time. Now if I was familiar with the code, I probably would've worked on that. However, I don't have a few hours to spend just to understand the layout of the code, let alone to fix the problem... I've got too much school work. However, the team of people intimately familiar with the gnome-panel code should either be able to write that code in well under a weekend's worth of work or the gnome-panel should be trashed in favor of a cleaner code base. I know from personal experience that if I am a lazy programmer, code will become unmanageable, making functionality changes nearly impossible. But, if I wrote code in a clean, structured way; development would proceed faster with less bugs, and future revisions to the functionality would be relatively painless.

So unless I spend the whole night writing 5 minute comments, I would not have even been able to come close to fixing this bug. Someone who is familiar with the code base should be able to fix the code in a few hours work tops, assuming the code is complicated. If this is not possible, than I think it must be time to reconsider the value of this panel. Perhaps I'm missing some key fact, but I don't think it should take four years of procrastination to fix such a bug as this. Let me know the next time your firefox bookmarks bar rearranges itself.

you are obviously commenting on the wrong place because nobody in the current ubuntu team is familiar with the gnome-panel codebase, you might want to try on bugzilla rather but adding probably comment complaining about the lack of people working on this code will probably not bring new hackers

Yeah, it's a typical Ubuntu bug, nothing serious, just annoying. So U want to say that the gnome panel was lazily programmed? Well, it's only to hope that the relaease of gnome 3 will fix it.

(If you suggest that this fix cannot be done in a reasonable amount of work, then I would be more than happy to lead the initiative for making a more reliable panel. However, that is not something I want to do. I want the team to just sit down and rewrite the code that either loads the applets or arranges them, but what I want is not always possible it seems.)

Josh, I'm pretty sure the bug is much more complicated to fix it in few hours... I remember someone was already fed up and said he'll work on it. If it was just few hours I'm sure he would already finish. Don't get me wrong, I'm also fed up by this, and it's one of those tiny bugs that aren't critical but annoying as hell, which makes me switch distro as soon as I'll get some time to reinstall the system. (which should be in a week).

Sebastien: I understand your position, that you can't expect much from people who do this in their free time, but please don't label this bug as low importance. It might seem like it is non important bug (especially for desktop users), but add 2 or 3 bugs with same annoyance and watch people switching to alternatives.

After upgrading from Karmic to Jaunty I started booting to my windows partition more often. It's not due some problems, but it's because of all of those tiny bugs and race conditions that Ubuntu is full of. For example my sound worked well after installing Jaunty (I did it from scratch because from past experience upgraded system had random problems - another issue). After installing couple updates, my sound suddenly stopped to work. I didn't install any audio application, in fact I didn't even know that the look of mixer changed since Karmic, so I'm fairly sure it didn't break, I also know it worked in past because I was watching a movie after I installed Jaunty.

Oh, and @zsolt, i'm not saying its lazily programmed... i'm just suggesting that its the most probable cause of a four year failure to fix this bug.

And @Sebastien, point me to the right mailing list and I'll file my complaints over there; but I was under the impression that those places were linked to gnome related bugs in Launchpad somehow or another? I seem to be wrong.

@takeda64, ok. That's unfortunate. Perhaps Gnome Shell will redeem Ubuntu of this troubling bug.

> which makes me switch distro as soon as I'll get some time to reinstall the system.

how will that help there since the bug is a gnome-panel one and will be on any other distribution?

> the right mailing list and I'll file my complaints over there

the bugzilla url is at the start of the launchpad webpage, https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341441

Notice the last comment on gnome bugzilla says :

Vincent Untz [gnome-panel developer] 2010-03-09 03:11:21 UTC

This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be
available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report.

Maybe we will be able to get it into Lucid ?

Yes, the change will be in the 2.30 tarball

I'm glad it's fixed, but still the problem is that this was marked as a low-priority bug that has been there for more than 4 years, who decides the importance of a bug? I guess if we need Ubuntu to be used by everyone, more attention should be brought to bugs directly affecting the end user experience, I guess all people here agree with me on this, don't you?

you really argue about the settings? it doesn't make any practical difference there, the setting mainly reflects if the bug is a security issue or crashing datas or an annoyance, it could have been set to any value it would not have been worked in any different way, the fact that it's set to low doesn't prevent anybody to work on the issue

@Ahmad

From https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance :

Low: Bugs which affect functionality, but to a lesser extent than most bugs, examples are:

    * Ones that can be easily worked around
    * Ones that affect unusual configurations or uncommon hardware
    * A bug that has a moderate impact on a non-core application
    * A cosmetic/usability issue that does not limit the functionality of an application

Cheers.

> how will that help there since the bug is a gnome-panel one and will be on any other distribution?

The panel alone is not the reason enough to switch, I wish it was the only issue I am experiencing. Just look at the bugs I reported, and it's not even all of them, I started feeling like reporting it is just a waste of time.

What's worst about ubuntu is that it constantly lives in state of regressions. Each version N issues get fixed and N new issues appear. For example in Intrepid most annoying thing is that my sound randomly stopped working again (it was working most of the time in Jaunty). Hibernation doesn't work... well it "works" but when laptop comes back my X session is killed and I see login screen. There is (or was, didn't bother to check anymore) issue with dual monitors, I started switching using xrandr as a workaround. Also I mentioned about upgrading. From past experience I noticed that when I upgrade instead of doing clean install I get far more regressions. For example my friend did ubgrade his ubuntu (actually it was xubuntu). He had setup with 3 monitors, it totally messed up his X11 settings to the point he had to use failsafe.

I also don't really understand some decisions made by the team. In one release (Intrepid?) OpenOffice 3.0 was about being relased. The time of the release was few days before official Ubuntu release cycle. At that time also a nasty bug in intel wifi card was reported, that was crashing the whole system. Decision was made to release that version anyway, but not include OOo 3.0, because it wasn't fully tested. WTF? I prefer much more OO crashing than my entire system, besides OO has its own release cycle and it went through its own testing stages.

There's a plenty of race conditions, which causes bugs randomly appear. I think it's due to the fact that ubuntu is a mix of random components that supposed to work together, but they often fail.

I'm wondering why some things aren't done. I'm pretty sure there are much smarter people than me on the team, I'm genuinely interested what are the difficulties behind it:

- why there's no clear line between what's considered system and what's not? e.g. system binaries aren't in packages, and they're not updated except for? I really love how clear in this aspec FreeBSD is. The system binaries are only updated with the system, if someone wants newer version of a tool, tehy can just instal from the ports which will be in /usr/local (the original binaries are still accessible to the rest of the system, so the port won't impact it in any way)
- why fixed release cycles? isn't better to not set up a deadline, polish the product and release it when its ready. Right now all the versions feel like late alpha early beta releases.
- why non-essential updates to system components are commited? (those usually break things, why not give option to install newer version separately, like I mentioned above)
- why new functionality is placed over stability? I'm not trying to make ubuntu another debian-stable, but many features that are added look neat, but they're unstable themselves.

Ubuntu is great when it works...

I just wanted to give you my perspective....

Can people please keep comments focused on the actual bug (which is now fixed upstream anyway), and stop posting general comments unrelated to the issue. The bug tracker isn't an appropriate venue for general comments / discussions about decision making / processes in Ubuntu - you should take those discussions to a forum or mailing list rather than spamming everyone subscribed to this bug

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-panel - 1:2.29.92-0ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-panel (1:2.29.92-0ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * New upstream version:
    Panel
    - Build with latest GSeal'ed GTK+
    - Display GenericName in tooltip if there's no Comment
    - Fix applet right-sticking on screen resolution change (lp: #44082)
    - Make email addresses hyperlinks in about dialog
    - Use special XDG directory icon names
    libpanel-applet
    - Build with latest GSeal'ed GTK+
    All Applets
    - Build with latest GSeal'ed GTK+
    Clock Applet
    - Fix wrong string in documentation
    - Use icon fallbacks if the theme does not include phases of moon
    - Validate input in add location dialog
    Notification Area Applet
    - Make location of standard status icons predictable
  * debian/patches/70_relibtoolize.patch:
    - new version update, downgrade gtk requirement since it builds fine using
      the current version
 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:38:51 +0100

could people who are getting the issue regularly install the new version on lucid, restart once their session and comment on try if that's still an issue or not and keep the bug updated to say how it's working?

Maybe I read wrong, but I thought that Lucid was going to ship with 2.28. Would the gnome-panel therefore not have the fix for Lucid?

Aha, and what about fix for karmic?

i'll try the lucid version if you tell me what exactly i need to install and where from?

I don't know if it is supposed to be fixed in Lucid but if so, it doesn't work for me on two different systems with current Lucid. Panel icons and the clock are still changing position after connecting another monitor.

Well, here's a solution, someone might like. Browsing around the web I happened to come across a very nice panel add-on. It's like the Win7 panel, but does even more. The icons look exactly like as if u just add them to the gnome panel, but obviously they can do more. It's a development version, but anyway far more stable, than the gnome-panel. So u can remove most of your launchers. No problem found by me so far. Worth to a try...

I can confirm this bug in Lucid beta1, updated today.

Can be reproduced by:
- Change res from native (1680x1050) to 1024x768
- Logout
- Login and Change the Res back to 1680x1050

Confirming on lucid with current updates.
Launched vavoom in lesser resolution than my desktop, applets got muddled on next login.

Concept of storing positions of applets in absolute values is fundamentally wrong.
If we have a bunch of objects on panel, all named, i.e. applet1 applet2... Then it would be better to store their position in one gconf string or list key, like that:
"applet1,applet2,applet3,applet4:12%,applet5:16%, applet6, applet7:70%,applet8,applet9,applet10"
That means:
applets 1-3 are stashed on the left. Applets 9-11 are on the right. Between innermost applets of these two blocks there is an area which can be mapped by %. So applet4 is placed on 12% between applet3 (0%) and applet8 (100%). Applet5 and applet6 are grouped around 16% position, applet7 is on 70%. Nothing will switch places.

I thought this bug was fixed. For a long time, it seemed like when I rotate the screen on my Thinkpad X61 Tablet, the icons would stay put where they belong. Recently, I think maybe just in the last day or two, the icons move around like they used to. I wonder if a patch got reverted? It is certainly a regression.

I can reproduce the bug too with the method from
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/comments/171

Seems the bug is still not fixed

Whoa did another fix just get released or is the Updater flaked out? I hit this bug yesterday.

@ Comment #176
No, it's a new fix. :)

Just to add that I have the same problem with a fully updated 10.04. Everything was fine until I attached to a TV with a VGA cable and now every time I reboot the order of panel applets is different.

Stace.

I installed 10.04 a week ago, and I can verify that I still have this problem. It didnt occur to me then, but I connected my laptop to the TV the other day, it could be related.

hit Alt+F2 and run "killall gnome-panel". give me feedback if it helps...

I have same problem and It does not help...

I'm working on HP 8510p notebook with attached external monitor (HDMI).

Ubuntu 10.04, last ATI drivers.
ATI CCC v2.12
$fglrxinfo
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
OpenGL version string: 3.2.9756 Compatibility Profile Context

After switching from NB panel to External LCD and disabling NB LCD was everything ok. And then I resized external LCD from default resolution to preffered (1280x900 > 1920x1080) and order of right top icons is different.. I can not now reset wrong order (even with changing resolution back to 1280x900)

I experienced this bug again yesterday with the kernel upgrade.

In Virtualbox - in Fullscreen mode the whole time:
Start with a fresh install of Lucid
Build Virtualbox Guest Additions
Upgraded to kernel version 2.6.32-22-generic
Reboot
rebuild Virtualbox Guest Additions
Reboot
Icons lose their positions

Perhaps this would be reproducible toggling the screen resolution
between 1280x800 and 800x600 - which is what effectively happened
between reboots...

It must have relationship between resolution and icons position. Some of them hold their position (position is fixed) and some of them are moveable.
look at the screenshot http://www.neph.cz/tmp/screenshot.png (It is realy ugly, isn't it?)

I had this problem after connecting to and then disconnecting from an external monitor (up-to-date 10.4). Mainly, I want the OFF button to stay put in the corner.

For all of you still suffering from this bug, I attached a script called "save-panel" which works around this bug. It reads the icon positions from gconf and generates a second script, "restore-panel", which restores the icon locations to their saved positions. To use it...

1. Copy save-panel to your home folder.

2. Open the terminal. Run "cd ~"
3. Make it executable using "chmod +x ./save-panel"

4. Run "./save-panel", this will generate the restore-panel script in the current directory.

5. To test the restore-script, move a few icons on your panel and then run "./restore-panel".

The panel should restart with the icons in the right place.

If the script worked correctly, it can then be added to the Ubuntu's Startup applications to fix icon reshuffling on startup...

1. System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications.

2. On the "Startup Programs" tab click "Add"

3. Enter "Restore Panel" for name.

4. Browse to your restore-script in your home folder for the command.

5. Press save.

When Ubuntu starts up, the panel will be restarted and the icons locations will be restored.

DIS-confirming the fix, assuming 'released' means it should be in the Lucid repos.

With latest Lucid (10.04LTS) upgraded as of 5/18/2010, icons were scrambled after changing screen resolutions and then rebooting.,

Confirm this, Karmic updated to 25.05.2010. Where is the fix??

Please, do not post comments that just say "it happens to me too". Instead, use the button "this bug affect n persons" at the top of the page.
The goal of this button is to avoid flooding in comments and to make a difference between affected people and comments bringing information to solve the problem.

Thanks.

this bug has become worse for me since upgrading to lucid. i had the problem with previous versions of ubuntu but after resetting the positions a few times gnome seemed to "learn". The problem is not related to rebooting or restarting x or anything like that. the problem is that at home i connect a big lcd monitor to my laptop via a vga cable, and when away obviously i just use the laptop screen. on changing from one to the other the applets are all in the wrong order, or floating in space.

im using the proprietary Nvidia driver, although in my opinion the problem is not related to that. i see the fix as being achieved by having the actual order of the applets saved, not just the positions. any space should be saved, as well as noting when applets are touching, or when an applet touches the end of the panel. when applets are touching each other or the edge they will remain stuck together or to the edge, with the space being dynamically altered. floating applets would be a special case, and are detected by noting that nothing is stuck to either side except space.

i realise this is probably far from the logic currently used to determine the locations, but i would point out that what i have suggested is very similar to the way the window controls are positioned on any gnome window. to see the way this is set up open gconf-editor and go to Apps -> Metacity -> General" and choose the key named "button_layout".

by the way, if like me you hate the new lucid window control layout see this link:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Move-Window-Controls-back-to-right-in-Ubuntu-1004

kind regards

I still have this problem in KK 64 bit. Has no fix been released?

I can confirm this bug is still happening in lucid after a resolution change. It seems that the panel changes it's settings after that. I usually fix it with the gconf-editor. There I set he position of all the applets in the right using the option "panel right stick". For example "faster user switch applet" should be in position 0 (in pixels) with panel right stick. That means that this applet would be always in the right, in every resolution. But when I change resolution and the applets move randomly I found that "faster user switch applet" is in position 884 without panel right stick (that means counting from left side). I don't know why it reconfigures itself every time the resolution is changed.

PD. Sorry for my bad English

I started facing this issue yesterday. I'm using a fully updated Lucid. Since I started using Lucid I've had issues with icons in the panels not being rendered properly [See attached screenshot1 and screenshot2]. It happens occasionally on reboot, maybe once every 4 or 5 restarts.
Since yesterday I started experiencing the shuffled icon prob [Screenshot3]. I put them back into order but they get shuffled on restart.

Please re-open this bug, it is not fixed in up-to-date Lucid.
Please increase importance, this is affecting at least 250 people.

The panel shuffle is alive and well in gnome-panel version 1:2.30.2-0ubuntu0.2 It has been around for over a year.

@Zoubidoo
You should write Your concerns on the GNOME bug instance, not here. Nowhere here is this bug marked as "Fix Released".

Given the number of duplicates and people subscribed to this bug, I thought I'd offer a workaround that I recently discovered: Docky. As I currently see it, the gist of docky is to recreate, in open-source fashion, the OS X dock. On OS X I find the dock annoying, but since installing Docky, I rather enjoy it. I believe it only available if you're running Karmic or newer.

For Lucid, it's already part of the repositories:

$ sudo apt-get install docky

If you're running Karmic, I direct you to the docky site, but it's basically 3 command line operations, not one: http://www.go-docky.com/

For myself, I've even gained some vertical space on my screen because I'm now able to remove the bottom panel, after enabling fade away in Docky.

A suggestion.

You now what, I'm finally sick of it. This bug, and the associated saga behind it, is absolutely ridiculous.

Me, personally, I lodged a ticket for this bug back sometime in 2006. I was quite enthusiastic about doing my bit to help improve Ubuntu. It's now been more than four years since I originally put this bug in. It was labelled a duplicate of all these others, so I was put into the mailing list for them as well.

For four years, I have received email notifications as people discussed the bug. Sometimes it was once every few weeks. Sometimes it was a few a day. Most of the time I just deleted them, but I never had the heart to label them as spam (nor could be bothered to remove myself from the mailing lists).

I have no doubt these emails/comments amount in the hundreds. Discussing the complexities of solving why a bunch of icons swap their order when you reboot. That's it. Four years later, I've gone through many desktop computers (though have kept the same laptop).. and through all 11 major releases of Ubuntu in this time, it has never been fixed, and still annoys the shit out of me in the latest version of Mint I installed a few days ago.

But the most incredulous rant inducing thing is not that the bug hasn't been fixed (Windows has plenty of irritating issues that have plagued it since 95 right to 7), but that people can discuss it for four years with hundreds of comments and neither fix the problem or even get any closer to fixing it. It is a damning indictment of the Ubuntu community - something that can, and does do great things, but also wastes a huge fuck-ton of time.

So in essence, you all waste a huge fuck-ton of time. Would love to see this fixed once and for all in Meerkat. But it won't be.

Passa: I understand your frustration. But here are your options:

1) Go upstream and try to help out GNOME with patches or ideas on patches.
2) Unsubscribe from this bug.
3) Try a different desktop environment.

I'm very sorry that you've been badly afflicted by this bug but there is nothing that can be done until there is someone that can do it. The best that we (as in Ubuntu/launchpad) can do is generate ideas and patches (which has been done) until something happens.

This bug is certainly an example of one of the problems that plagues GNOME: five+ year old annoyance bugs. But unless there is something we can do personally to help, I don't think we have a right to swear up a storm (on an indirect bug report, no less).

Also, side note to Kevin. I think you might find with some research that Mac is actually the one that, in closed-source fashion, recreated the Looking-Glass dock :).

Thank you Chancellor, I stand corrected on that front. Apologies to any I might have insulted by my "OS X Dock recreation" description. Regardless, I suggest it's a good concept, or at least a usable workaround to this fairly annoying bug.

If you're looking for an easy workaround, then I'll present you with one: use two floating top panels, one for the menubar, and other stuff you have on the left, and one for clock, session menus, notifiers and other things you have on the right. As your resolution changes back and forth, the panels are moved back and forth, but the icons stay where they are relative to each other.

Problem solved. At least for now.

The source of this problem is really close to the heart of the panel's
design. It allows user-defined positions for applets, and these are
stored with absolute values (in pixels). No amount of fiddling will
change that that is a very poor, inflexible design. A better design
can be seen in XFCE's panel and in some kinds of customizable toolbars
like that in Firefox and some Gnome applications like Epiphany and
Evince.

Even if someone _does_ figure out how to maintain applet layout when
the resolution changes, there will be a hundred more bugs from the
same place. What this really calls for is a true gnome-panel
successor. (Which is a nice opportunity to deal with our last Bonobo
dependency, too).

I get the feeling such a project would actually be quite satisfying to
do. More-so than digging into this bug.

This bug is marked as fixed when using gnome-panel - 1:2.29.92-0ubuntu1, yet I am running maverick with gnome-panel 1:2.30.2 and still have the issue.
Has the fix not been included in the maverick packages or is it not fixed?

Will be fixed in maverick in some update?

Because, as said Keith Allcock, gnome-panel version included is after to the fixed one. Perhaps is it fixed in debian packages and not in ubuntu packages already?

I thought the general understanding was that this bug wasn't going to be fixed as the underlying architecture was going to be redone as gnome 3.0 will be released within the next year or so and will replace 2.26. I could be wrong though.
-----Original Message-----
From: Rafael García <email address hidden>
Sender: <email address hidden>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:44:57
To: <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 44082 <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently
 randomly on session start in some situations

Will be fixed in maverick in some update?

Because, as said Keith Allcock, gnome-panel version included is after to
the fixed one. Perhaps is it fixed in debian packages and not in ubuntu
packages already?

--
GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Fix Released
Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged

Bug description:
The items on the gnome panel is disordered in some cases, one of these being changing the screen reolution, possibly other, more random, cases as well.

-----

Temporary solution:
Backup the state of your panel:
gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml

and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns, possibly need to run gnome-panel & as well)

-----

I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.

To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/+subscribe

I don't have the fortitude necessary to read all 205 comments before mine, but the problem is not just with launcher icons on the top panel, in case that was not yet brought up by someone else. I constantly have to reorder the icons on the right-hand side of the lower panel. It is annoying, to say the least.

I can confirm this bug in Ubuntu 10.04 with GNOME 2.30.2

I have Ubuntu installed on my laptop which I like to connect to a large external monitor when I am working at home. I have tried locking/unlocking all applets and have made sure that the applets I want stuck to the right edge of the screen have the "panel-right-stick" option checked in gconf. No matter what, when I change resolution or reboot, these settings are lost.

I can confirm this bug in Ubuntu 10.10 with GNOME 2.30.2
When I reboot ,settings are lost.

sk8erbender: Thank you for the bug confirmation. However, Dylan McCall put it succinctly in comment #202: "The source of this problem is really close to the heart of the panel's design. It allows user-defined positions for applets, and these are stored with absolute values (in pixels). No amount of fiddling will change that that is a very poor, inflexible design."

Unless a dev corrects me, this bug will not be fixed. It will only go away when a replacement is enacted, or there is a complete redesign of the fundamental panel code architecture and assumptions. In the meantime, there are a number of workarounds in the discussion above, but for now, this paper cut will continue to bleed.

Some workaround suggestions in the comments above:
Comment #110
Comment #197
Comment #201

heh then im gonna change to lxde maybe peppermint ice or something ;)

This bug will not be fixed. In theory, the problem is going to be corrected whenever gnome 3.0 is released, and will have a completely different architecture for panels etc.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Hunter <email address hidden>
Sender: <email address hidden>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:35:01
To: <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 44082 <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently
 randomly on session start in some situations

sk8erbender: Thank you for the bug confirmation. However, Dylan McCall
put it succinctly in comment #202: "The source of this problem is really
close to the heart of the panel's design. It allows user-defined
positions for applets, and these are stored with absolute values (in
pixels). No amount of fiddling will change that that is a very poor,
inflexible design."

Unless a dev corrects me, this bug will not be fixed. It will only go
away when a replacement is enacted, or there is a complete redesign of
the fundamental panel code architecture and assumptions. In the
meantime, there are a number of workarounds in the discussion above, but
for now, this paper cut will continue to bleed.

Some workaround suggestions in the comments above:
Comment #110
Comment #197
Comment #201

--
GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Fix Released
Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged

Bug description:
The items on the gnome panel is disordered in some cases, one of these being changing the screen reolution, possibly other, more random, cases as well.

-----

Temporary solution:
Backup the state of your panel:
gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml

and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns, possibly need to run gnome-panel & as well)

-----

I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.

To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/+subscribe

  or just play around with awn ;)

On 10/25/2010 09:02 PM, sk8erbender wrote:
> heh then im gonna change to lxde maybe peppermint ice or something ;)
>

Yeah but awn I noted doesn't always work with some applications. Like I have a windows app installed under wine and the shortcut I place on my desktop won't work in awn. It does that thing where the icon will move telling you the pc is doing something and then everything stops (the pc wants you to forget you clicked on the icon)

Only way it works is either on the desktop, from the menu, or from the panel.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sandro Mani <email address hidden>
Sender: <email address hidden>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:14:29
To: <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 44082 <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently
 randomly on session start in some situations

  or just play around with awn ;)

On 10/25/2010 09:02 PM, sk8erbender wrote:
> heh then im gonna change to lxde maybe peppermint ice or something ;)
>

--
GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Fix Released
Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged

Bug description:
The items on the gnome panel is disordered in some cases, one of these being changing the screen reolution, possibly other, more random, cases as well.

-----

Temporary solution:
Backup the state of your panel:
gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml

and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns, possibly need to run gnome-panel & as well)

-----

I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.

To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/+subscribe

It's more a workaround than a solution for me but this seems to work:
gconftool-2 -s /apps/panel/global/locked_down --type=bool true
if you want to change something you have to set it back to false.

Thank you for bringing this bug to our attention.
 - We missed this for Maverick. Natty will use Unity for the desktop as well, and gnome-panel will not be used.
Also no one knows what is causing the bug.
For further information about papercuts criteria, please read https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut.
Don't worry though, this bug has been marked as "Invalid" only in the papercuts project.

So does the status being a confirmed fix release mean that eventually the fix will get pushed out in an update at some point in the future?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Bug Watch Updater <email address hidden>
Sender: <email address hidden>
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2010 15:27:22
To: <email address hidden>
Reply-To: Bug 44082 <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 44082] Re: GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently
 randomly on session start in some situations

** Changed in: gnome-panel
       Status: Fix Released => Confirmed

--
GNOME Panel icons (on right side) move apparently randomly on session start in some situations
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/44082
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in Desktop panel for GNOME: Confirmed
Status in One Hundred Paper Cuts: Invalid
Status in “gnome-panel” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
Status in “gnome-panel” source package in Hardy: Triaged

Bug description:
The items on the gnome panel is disordered in some cases, one of these being changing the screen reolution, possibly other, more random, cases as well.

-----

Temporary solution:
Backup the state of your panel:
gconftool-2 --dump /apps/panel panel_backup.xml

and then restore it whenever it gets messed up:
gconftool-2 --load panel_backup.xml
killall gnome-panel (kills and auto-respawns, possibly need to run gnome-panel & as well)

-----

I have noticed for a while now that the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs when I, say, return from a shut-down. However, the strange thing is that it only happens on some occations. I don't really know what the problem is, so I can't, unfortunately, post more information.

To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/44082/+subscribe

Let's see... a bug reported in in May 2006.. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

BTW: Fix Released -> Confirmed is a step backwards. I think this bug will still be open in 2016.

I switched to another distro that uses KDE, it doesn't have this bug, though it has some other. Though it seems it's still less than GNOME. I personally think entire graphical user interface in linux should be redone from scratch. It's just a hack on top of another hack and it is full of race conditions which cause tons of heisenbugs.
It's almost like windows 9x.

Linux by itself isn't bad, it's very good when you use it from command line, but GUI is extremely frustrating because of small random bugs like this.

I can confirm this on my ASUS EeePC 1201T with Ubuntu 10.10. I think it happens when I switch back to the internal monitor coming back from an external VGA LCD with a larger resolution than the internal monitor.

I can confirm this on my Debian unstable with gnome-panel 2.30.2-4 for i386. I have this problem sometimes when the screen resolution is too small and the panel can't contain all the applets. For example starting a game with wine and the game changes the resolution, I obtain this bug. The funny thing is that it doesn't delete applets, it just change them position so the problem of containing applets still remains.

@reif: The short answer is that this bug will not be fixed. For more context, please read these comments in this thread:

Comment #110
Comment #188
Comment #197
Comment #201
Comment #202

It seems the problem is gone in Natty Gnome Classic mode:

In Natty the "Indicator Applet Complete" is used. It says "An applet to hold all of the system indicators".

This applet is a container which holds other applets. The good thing is, that the individual applets _cannot_ be moved but only the whole applet container! With this applet container it seems that this applet solves the problem with moving applets apparently around!

This nice "Indicator Applet Complete" is avalaible in Lucid LTS, too. But I haven't tested it there.

felix.rommel, the problem is not "gone" in Natty. The problem is only a bit less bad, because all the indicators are grouped in one applet. But the order of different applets still gets messed up sometimes.

The problem should be gone in Oneiric Ocelot though, because of the upgrade to GNOME 3. I haven't tested it myself, but in the changelogs they say that in gnome-panel 3 all the old annoying bugs of gnome-panel 2 have been fixed.

On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 11:21, Geert Jan Alsem <email address hidden> wrote:
> felix.rommel, the problem is not "gone" in Natty. The problem is only a
> bit less bad, because all the indicators are grouped in one applet. But
> the order of different applets still gets messed up sometimes.

Yep, I have tested on Natty, and still there.

> The problem should be gone in Oneiric Ocelot though, because of the
> upgrade to GNOME 3. I haven't tested it myself, but in the changelogs
> they say that in gnome-panel 3 all the old annoying bugs of gnome-panel
> 2 have been fixed.

From what I have seen until now from Gnome 3 I don't like it - either
prefer Unity. I hope it will all come to a good end until next LTS on
12.04...

--
Martin Wildam

http://www.google.com/profiles/mwildam

I am observing this behaviour in lucid, but didn't see it in karmic 9.10.

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 11:38, avdd <email address hidden> wrote:
> I am observing this behaviour in lucid, but didn't see it in karmic
> 9.10.

I observed that issue in general only after you first moved something
on the right side manually. Or basically, as long as you re-align your
panels (content) on a large screen and then working only <= that size,
everything works.

--
Martin Wildam

http://www.google.com/profiles/mwildam

screenshot of my panel

I confirm that NicoLehmann's work-around in comment #214 works. Setting global/locked_down on the panel prevents the applets from wandering during screen resolution changes.

While it's great that locking down the panel solves this annoying bug, i like to change my panel configuration from time to time and as i am lazy i like to do that from the panel itself. As i didn't found any panel applet for this job i wrote this little shell script, which i trigger through a regular panel launcher.

If you like to do that as well:
- download the script somewhere (at best in your home directory, as it's by default a hidden file)
- make sure it got execute permissions
- create a launcher in the panel and enter the location of the script as command (like /home/USER/.gnome2_panel_lock_down)
- install the "libnotify-bin" package OR disable notifications in the script with your favorite editor (like "NOTIFY=off")

Have fun. To me this solution is rather nice, also because the amount of people still caring about the old panel is quite shrinking and i don't think this will ever get fixed.

Oops, seems like upload tool doesn't like hidden files or at least it failed. Rename to ".gnome2_panel_lock_down" after downloading if you like.

As the upload tool of launchpad doesn't work right now, here is my lazy lock down script:

#!/bin/sh

### Config
NOTIFY=on #(on/off)
LOCK_TITLE="Panel Lock Down"
LOCK_MSG="Locking the GNOME panel"
UNLOCK_TITLE="Panel Lock Down"
UNLOCK_MSG="Unlocking the GNOME panel"
LOCK_ICON="/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gdu-encrypted-lock.png"
UNLOCK_ICON="/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gdu-encrypted-unlock.png"

### Dependency checking
if [ -z "$(which gconftool-2)" ]; then
 if [ -n "$(which gconftool-2)" ]; then
  zenity --warning --text "Error. No binary found for gconftool-2!" --title "Panel Lock Down"
 else
  echo "Panel Lock Down: Error. No binary found for gconftool-2!"
 fi
 exit 1
fi
if [ "$NOTIFY" = "on" ] && [ -z "$(which notify-send)" ]; then
 SCRIPT_LOCATION="$(pwd)/$(basename $0)"
 if [ -n "$(which zenity)" ]; then
  zenity --warning --text "Notifcations failed! Please install the libnotify-bin package or disable notifications in $SCRIPT_LOCATION" --title "Panel Lock Down"
 else
  echo "Panel Lock Down: Notifcations failed! Please install the libnotify-bin package or disable notifications in $SCRIPT_LOCATION"
 fi
 NOTIFY="off"
fi

### Main
if [ "$(gconftool-2 -g /apps/panel/global/locked_down)" = "true" ]; then
 [ "$NOTIFY" = "on" ] && notify-send -i $UNLOCK_ICON "$UNLOCK_TITLE" "$UNLOCK_MSG"
 gconftool-2 -s /apps/panel/global/locked_down --type=bool false
elif [ "$(gconftool-2 -g /apps/panel/global/locked_down)" = "false" ]; then
 [ "$NOTIFY" = "on" ] && notify-send -i $LOCK_ICON "$LOCK_TITLE" "$LOCK_MSG"
 gconftool-2 -s /apps/panel/global/locked_down --type=bool true
else
 if [ -n "$(which zenity)" ]; then
  zenity --warning --text "Error. Undefined state of global panel lock down!" --title "Panel Lock Down"
 else
  echo 'Panel Lock Down: Error. Undefined state of global panel lock down!'
 fi
 exit 1
fi

This was fixed when gnome-panel was ported to GTK 3 last year. gnome-panel works pretty well in Ubuntu 12.04.