Bug 271155

Summary: Some plasma panels on autohide keep wandering all over the place
Product: [Unmaintained] plasma4 Reporter: Guido Winkelmann <guido-kdebugs>
Component: panelAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: normal CC: andrej, bloodse3ker, heri+kde, myriam, stefan.schwarzer, thijs22nospam
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Gentoo Packages   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Guido Winkelmann 2011-04-17 14:46:49 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using KDE 4.6.2) 
OS:                Linux

Since upgrading to KDE 4.6.2 (from 4.6.0), I have a weird new issue with panels set to autohide. Sometimes, usually after switching virtual desktops or after switching windows by clicking on an entry in a task manager applet, one of my configured panels and/or its activation area (the area where you have to point the mouse to have the panel unhide) will no longer be where it's supposed to be. 

Sometimes it's still at the right screen edge, but right-aligned instead of left-aligned, sometimes it's in the middle of the screen somewhere, not adjacent to a screen edge at all. Sometimes the panel and its activation area will be in different places, i.e. when I move the mouse to some place in the middle of the screen, the panel will appear at the screen edge, or the other way around.

I have seen this happen on two separate machines, my dual-screen desktop machine and my notebook; it happens much more often on the notebook, though.

It always happens to the same panel, even though I have more than one configured. (All on autohide)

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Change virtual desktop
2. Try to activate one of the auto-hide panels by moving the mouse to its screen edge.

Actual Results:  
The panel won't appear or will appear somewhere else, or it will appear when the mouse touches some random, invisible part of the screen.

Expected Results:  
The panel should immediately appear exactly where it was configured.
Comment 1 Andrej 2011-06-12 22:09:39 UTC
I too am having this problem on KDE 4.6.3, except that this also affects a panel which is set to "always visible". It sometimes becomes "autohide" after logging out and back in, and changes alignment (but never its screen edge).

Another panel I have set on southern edge, right-aligned, set to autohide, and quite small, almost always gets center-aligned, always visible, and stretched to approx. 80% of screen width.

I tried making backup copies of ~/.kde/share/config/plasma-desktop-appletsrc file after each login and each logout, and I could see that the "immutability", "geometry", "minimumSize" and "maximumSize" lines change in various stanzas. I am not that familiar with the format and meaning of these, and I couldn't make any sense of the changes in the file in relation to how panels layout changed.

Last thing, perhaps it helps - I have a third panel on the west edge of the screen, always visible, top-aligned and maximized to full height. It doesn't seem to change at all.
Comment 2 Stefan Schwarzer 2011-08-22 10:16:39 UTC
I am joining the choir here. 
Running kde 4.6.5 on debian testing in a single screen notebook environment, nouveau driver.
I have a single panel on the left, set to autohide, full screen height. If the desktop is initially empty and I open a new application/window, the panel tends to move to the right-hand side of the new window, unless there is not enough space left to the right screen edge. Then, there is no way to get to the panel other then moving that window around. Otherwise, the panel can be accessed by hovering over the area just right to the new window, showing the glow effects and such. To restore expected behavior, I then typically click cashew/screen edge which moves the panel to the expected location.
Comment 3 Dennis Schridde 2011-09-25 10:25:34 UTC
Confirming on Ubuntu 11.04 with KDE 4.6.2.

I have a auto-hide panel at the top of the screen and sometimes it's activation area moves to the lower third of the screen, making you search for it by moving the mouse cursor very slowly over the screen. After I have found it, I have to go to edit mode and move it back to the top screen edge.

In older Ubuntu versions this was not present, so it definitely is a regression. For a while it seemed to be almost-gone: The panel would appear once at a wrong location, but reset itself to the top of the screen when I unhid it by moving my mouse over it.

The effect seems to correlate with opening and closing the Yakuake window - if the panel has moved, it is often (but not only) after I unhid the Yakuake console.
Comment 4 Dennis Schridde 2011-09-25 10:28:17 UTC
P.S: This issue appears since quite a while. Iirc (!) since upgrading to Ubuntu Natty / 11.04 from Maverick / 10.10.
Comment 5 Aaron J. Seigo 2011-12-02 14:56:39 UTC
sounds like perhaps it is getting incorrect screen geometry information? for those having this issue, if you open krandr, does it show just one screen, or are there multiple (even if overlapped) screens?
Comment 6 Dennis Schridde 2011-12-02 19:45:00 UTC
It recently happened when plasma-desktop crashed and I then restarted it from Yakuake: The usually panel usually displayed on the top edge of the screen appeared at the bottom edge of Yakuake. I then had to unlock it and move it back to the top screen edge. Note that this panel is not set to auto-hide (another machine than my last post). KDE is 4.7.3 with Qt 4.7.4.
Comment 7 Boris Yonchev 2012-01-06 14:42:30 UTC
It's OK on my KDE 4.7.4
Comment 8 Thijs 2012-01-19 11:52:00 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 272663 ***