Window list applet cannot be set to "never group windows"

[frankzen]

Expected behaviour

Set applet to never group

Actual behaviour

Applet continues to group windows

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

Change applet to never group. Applet continues to group

MATE general version

1.26

Package version

mate-applets-1.26.0-1.fc35.x86_64

Linux Distribution

Fedora Rawhide

Link to bugreport of your Distribution (requirement)

Working on it. As soonas I figure out how!

[mbkma]

This issue should be already fixed in version 1.26.1 (see #1250). Please test it with the newer version.

[mbkma]

What is your version of mate-panel?

[frankzen]

I replied via email but apparently it never made it here.

Name : mate-panel
Version : 1.26.1
Release : 1.fc35
Architecture : x86_64
Size : 13 M
Source : mate-panel-1.26.1-1.fc35.src.rpm
Repository : @System
From repo : fedora
Summary : MATE Desktop panel and app

[raveit65]

Fedora-34/35 is using mate-panel-1.26.1 with #1252
Setting applets to never group and always group are working in my f34, but it seems that group if there is no space is broken. This setting does not group when eg. many terminals windows are open.

[frankzen]

Certainly doesn't work on my machine . what do you mean by "it seems that group if there is no place is broken" ???

[raveit65]

There is a third option, which calls group if there is no space on the panel

[frankzen]

Still not working on Fedora 35. Mate is v 1.26-0-1. Works fine on Debian Mate there is v 1.26-0-2. I guess it's Fedora's problem for not updating?

[raveit65]

There is no official mate-desktop tarball with 1.26-0-2 https://pub.mate-desktop.org/releases/1.26/
And fedora use latest mate-panel version which is 1.26.1

[mbkma]

Setting applets to never group and always group are working in my f34, but it seems that group if there is no space is broken. This setting does not group when eg. many terminals windows are open.

@raveit65 the option group windows when space is limited works here on debian testing, mate-panel master branch:

The grouping only takes effect when there is very limited space. So maybe try to open a lot more terminal windows.

[frankzen]

There is no official mate-desktop tarball with 1.26-0-2 https://pub.mate-desktop.org/releases/1.26/ And fedora use latest mate-panel version which is 1.26.1

frank@franklin:~$ apt show mate-panel
Package: mate-panel Version: 1.26.1-2
Priority: optional Section: x11
Maintainer: Debian+Ubuntu MATE Packaging Team [email protected]
Installed-Size: 1,738 kB

[mbkma]

@frankzen that is from debian. @raveit65 was referring to upstream MATE.
On my debian testing machine the always group and never group option also work fine (I have the same package version as you).

[raveit65]

@mbkma
I have no idea which patches debian added to their builds.
Fedora use vanila 1.26.1, https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/mate-panel/commits/f35

@frankzen
In 3 posts you posted 3 different versions. This is not helpful.

[mbkma]

@raveit65 I use mate-panel from master branch, self-compiled, without any patches and all options work fine.

[raveit65]

Good, but i can't push master to fedora stable :)
Is there a commit in master which has fixed the issue?
Can someone point me to debian git repos or what ever they use, to see what they did ?
Sorry, i am fedora maintainer and i have no clue about debian infrastructure :P

[mbkma]

https://salsa.debian.org/debian-mate-team/mate-panel/-/tree/master/debian/patches

It seems that they just apply rda-support patches.

[raveit65]

RDA support need to be reviewed #824
Beside from this fact rda support has no influence for windows-list applet.
As it is a wnck-applet, which libwnck version is used by debian?

[mbkma]

on debian testing:

$ apt info libwnck-3-dev 
Package: libwnck-3-dev
Version: 40.0-2

[raveit65]

My ideas are running out, but at least i could never reproduce the issue with fedora, see my comment #1271 (comment)

[frankzen]

I was looking at comparisons in dconf-editor and I noticed this in Fedora. I don't know whether it is significant. In Debian there is no "prefs' sub-section like in fedora.

[raveit65]

The grouping only takes effect when there is very limited space. So maybe try to open a lot more terminal windows.

Confirmed, it is working when i open about 18-19 terminal windows. That's a lot.
Edit:
Maybe it counts the place of all workspace ?
Though show only windows from current workspace is selected.

[raveit65]

@frankzen
Can you please test it with a new fresh user account?

[raveit65]

I was looking at comparisons in dconf-editor and I noticed this in Fedora. I don't know whether it is significant. In Debian there is no "prefs' sub-section like in fedora.

I think this folder will only created when you change something

[mbkma]

The grouping only takes effect when there is very limited space. So maybe try to open a lot more terminal windows.

Confirmed, it is working when i open about 18-19 terminal windows. That's a lot. Edit: Maybe it counts the place of all workspace ? Though show only windows from current workspace is selected.

As you can see in my gif, the grouping happens earlier if the window-list applet has very little space, i.e. if it is near to another applet.

[raveit65]

Yes of course i did understand your gif before. But with normal Fedora panel layout i have enough space to open 8-9 terminal windows, so i would expect that it starts grouping with the tenth window and not after 19 windows.
Any way, not a problem for me as i don't use the feature. No need to open so much terminals or other applications for one workspace ;)

[frankzen]

@frankzen Can you please test it with a new fresh user account?

Yes you are right. A newly created user does not have that problem. However the always group windows does not work with the new user. Is there a way to fix without a total re-install ?

[raveit65]

@frankzen
I think you need fresh new dconf settings.
First you can try to reset the panel with mate-panel --reset --replace

Whole dconf settings are saved in /run/user/1000/dconf/user.
You can try to delete this file in non graphic mode and not logged in as user from your root account.
But than you loose all settings.
Or check dconf manual for reset.

[rave@mother ~]$ dconf help

Usage:
  dconf COMMAND [ARGS...]

Commands:
  help              Show this information
  read              Read the value of a key
  list              List the contents of a dir
  write             Change the value of a key
  reset             Reset the value of a key or dir
  compile           Compile a binary database from keyfiles
  update            Update the system databases
  watch             Watch a path for changes
  dump              Dump an entire subpath to stdout
  load              Populate a subpath from stdin

Use 'dconf help COMMAND' to get detailed help.

But panel is using dynamically dconf path, so it isn't trivial to use this tool.

[raveit65]

Or try gsettings

[rave@mother ~]$ gsettings help   
Usage:
  gsettings --version
  gsettings [--schemadir SCHEMADIR] COMMAND [ARGS?]

Commands:
  help                      Show this information
  list-schemas              List installed schemas
  list-relocatable-schemas  List relocatable schemas
  list-keys                 List keys in a schema
  list-children             List children of a schema
  list-recursively          List keys and values, recursively
  range                     Queries the range of a key
  describe                  Queries the description of a key
  get                       Get the value of a key
  set                       Set the value of a key
  reset                     Reset the value of a key
  reset-recursively         Reset all values in a given schema
  writable                  Check if a key is writable
  monitor                   Watch for changes

Use ?gsettings help COMMAND? to get detailed help.

[lukefromdc]

It is possible to reset everything in a user account by moving all hidden (.something) files and directories to a backup directory, logging out, and back in. You can then restore items one by one looking for the problem to recur to save things like browser customization. In other works, you can nuke the settings while keeping both the install and the data.

[frankzen]

It is possible to reset everything in a user account by moving all hidden (.something) files and directories to a backup directory, logging out, and back in. You can then restore items one by one looking for the problem to recur to save things like browser customization. In other works, you can nuke the settings while keeping both the install and the data.

This is the method I picked - took some time to sort it all out but I am largely back to normal now. I am curious as to how the whole thing happened.
Thanks to all for the advice.

[raveit65]

I am so happy that we could help you.