Bug 238699 - Desktop activity settings (background, mouse actions) are not saved across logins
Summary: Desktop activity settings (background, mouse actions) are not saved across lo...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasma4
Classification: Unmaintained
Component: desktop (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Compiled Sources Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
: 241274 241342 241407 241473 241498 241535 241764 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-05-24 17:18 UTC by Christoph Feck
Modified: 2010-07-30 18:47 UTC (History)
16 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Christoph Feck 2010-05-24 17:18:54 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using Devel) 
OS:                Linux



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
* Start with a clean .kde
* Change desktop background to solid color
* Logout
* Login again

Actual Results:  
The background is reset to default wallpaper

Expected Results:  
The background should be the selected solid color
Comment 1 Aaron J. Seigo 2010-05-26 03:44:43 UTC
SVN commit 1130686 by aseigo:

don't create a new containment on every load; use what's there
BUG:238699


 M  +22 -5     activity.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1130686
Comment 2 Raphael Kubo da Costa 2010-05-26 15:43:41 UTC
Even after having just svn up'ed (kdelibs and kdebase on r1130810), the issue persists here.

The wallpaper is always reset to the default one, and all widgets on my desktop are lost.
Comment 3 Christoph Feck 2010-05-26 15:47:11 UTC
Reopening, using kdebase r1130790 here, and the issue is not fixed.
Comment 4 Chani 2010-05-26 21:25:55 UTC
yeah, that commit won't do anything; by the time the code tries to rescue orphans there *are* no orphans. the real wtf is, how are blank containments getting created on login? a few times now I've seen them show up even though I already have several activities... they seem to be accompanied by a new unnamed activity, so something is creating  them *before* checkActivities runs.. 

raphael, christoph: please open the activity manager and tell me what you see there. I *expect* you'll see two activities, and one of them will hold your widgets n'stuff.

howerver, I've also spotted a separate bug - activities in the activities service aren't getting saved properly; it's like the config just isn't synced until an activity is *removed* or something. :/
Comment 5 Raphael Kubo da Costa 2010-05-26 21:32:28 UTC
(In reply to comment #4) 
> raphael, christoph: please open the activity manager and tell me what you see
> there. I *expect* you'll see two activities, and one of them will hold your
> widgets n'stuff.

Indeed, I can see several activities (depending on the number of times I tried to set things up again ;). I was finally able to find out where some icons I had put on my desktop a few months ago have been for some weeks to...

I don't see an activity for the current, default session, though.
Comment 6 Chani 2010-05-26 21:43:45 UTC
ah, aaron made another commit that should fix your problem. try again :)
Comment 7 Raphael Kubo da Costa 2010-05-26 22:48:11 UTC
Indeed, things remained fine after logging in. If it works for Christoph as well, the bug could be closed.
Comment 8 Christoph Feck 2010-05-26 23:58:34 UTC
Which commit is supposed to fix it? Retrying the steps in comment #0, I still see the same bug, even with kdebase r1130898.
Comment 9 Chani 2010-05-27 01:01:39 UTC
r1130692 :/

are you really really sure you compiled that and installed it and restarted plasma-desktop? :)

what do you see in the activity manager?

also, a related bug was fixed in kdebase/runtime only about an hour ago, and I added some more sanity-checking elsewhere; please upgrade again, and .. hmm, I think it's kded that'll need restarting to remove that other bug, so maybe just log out and back in if that's easier :) (but that bug occurs *on* logout, so you may trigger it one more time)
Comment 10 Christoph Feck 2010-05-27 11:09:16 UTC
kdelibs r1131003, kdebase r1131056: Still the same problem. In fact, on first boot, the wallpaper ends up completely black, on subsequent boots (without erasing .kde) it shows default wallpaper.

Part of the problem could be the fact that process "plasma-desktop" still runs when I log out. Why it refuses to quit I don't know.
Comment 11 Chani 2010-05-27 18:01:47 UTC
well, that's certainly not good.

um... this is the third time I'm asking - what do you see in the activity manager?
Comment 12 Stephen Dunn 2010-06-04 01:55:23 UTC
I have the below system and have this problem.

OS:  Linux 2.6.34-8-desktop x86_64
System:  openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 7 (x86_64)
KDE:  4.4.82 (KDE 4.4.82 (KDE 4.5 >= 20100601)) "release 1"

Tell me what you mean by 'activity manager' and I will give you feedback.

Thanks
Steve
Comment 13 Stephen Dunn 2010-06-04 02:01:33 UTC
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=240061 says this was fixed in svn but it is still present for me in 1133690.

Will I have to start with as a new user?

Thanks
Comment 14 Chani 2010-06-04 04:06:33 UTC
stephen: you can open the activity manager by pressing meta-q, or by opening the desktop toolbox (that cashew-like thing ;) and clicking "Activities".

it'll show you all your activities; at least one of them should have the widgets you set up. if there were extras created by the bug, you can delete them from there too.

christoph: again, I need that information...
Comment 15 Stephen Dunn 2010-06-04 04:25:42 UTC
Thank you. I stopped all these activities, there were about fifteen of them. They were called eithe r 'unnamed' or 'The name org.kde.ActivityManager was not provided by any .service files'.

After doing this I added widgets and background image and now they stay after reboot.   

Thanks
Comment 16 Marc Schiffbauer 2010-06-04 10:43:23 UTC
Hello,

I had the same issue. I opened that new Activities dialog and had tons of entries there (>30).

There are few issues with that new bug/feature:

  * I tried to remove them and on many of them plasma crashed.
  * After re-login I always have 4-5 new "Unnamed" activities although my activity and background image will be remembered now.
  * The config dialog (through right-click on desktop) does not always show the same Activity-name as that list (cashew -> activities). It seems that it will not always get updated when needed.

Why the hell should I have more than one activity? Why this new buggy, plasma-crashing list? What is this good for?

I thought the aim of this release was stabilizing and completing existing KDE features and not adding new questionable buggy stuff :-(
Comment 17 Chani 2010-06-04 17:53:44 UTC
it's a BETA. this is what betas are *for* - catching bugs.

I spent most of what was supposed to be my month of vacation trying to get this code working, and now I have to work, so if you can't contribute code or pay my bills then don't make whiny comments that demotivate me.
Comment 18 Marc Schiffbauer 2010-06-04 18:13:08 UTC
(In reply to comment #17)

Chani, I did not want to offend you or something. If I did: I am sorry.

But again ma question: Why add new stuff, when the focus of a release is stabilizing and bugfixing of existing stuff?
Comment 19 Chani 2010-06-04 22:33:32 UTC
because we removed the ZUI in february (we'd originally wanted to remove it in 4.4 but ran out of time), and needed something to replace it; I ended up busier than I expected and everyone else was busy too so the activity manager is not as stable as I'd like it to be. :/
Comment 20 Marc Schiffbauer 2010-06-05 01:20:12 UTC
I see. Thanks for the explanation!
Comment 21 Stephen Dunn 2010-06-05 01:30:38 UTC
So now I've looked at all those activities I had (comment 15). It seems that on each logout where I had set up an activity (e.g. changed background) it saved my activity and then at next login it started a new default activity. My previously set up activity was there but 'inactive'.

Since deleting all these activities and leaving the one active one everything works as expected.

Thanks
Steve
Comment 22 Marc Schiffbauer 2010-06-09 12:02:13 UTC
As it seems almost all issues reported here seem to be fixed in Beta2. Great!
Only the "Search and Execute" Activity still seems to cause crashes and duplication of unnamed activities.

Thanks Chani and sorry again for my "whiny comment" ;-)


IMO at least these usability issues remain:

There is no "connection" between the Cashew-Activities dialog where you can select and add new activities and the dialog where you can configure the current activity (Right-Click on Activity).

Suggestion: Right-click on an Activity-Icon should show the same submenu as if you right-click the activity background itself or at least a menu with two entries: "Rename" and "Properties"

The property dialog of an activity should come up with the activity tab opened by default, not the background tab if applicable.

The "Newspaper" activity does not have a cashew, so no chance to switch activity from here.

The Cashew-Menu of the "Search and Execute" activity lacks the "Activities" item.

Icons: Where do these icons in the activity switcher com from? They look a bit strange and IMO the icons that are used for the items when you click on "New Activity..." would be much better.
Comment 23 Christoph Feck 2010-06-09 13:17:20 UTC
kdebase r1136228, kdelibs r1136205: The issue is still present. Here is what I just saw:

- Start with a clean home dir: black background (as mentioned in comment #10, but clicking desktop settings shows that default wallpaper is selected)

- Changing desktop to solid red color, and logout

- On relogin (without erasing home), the system starts with default wallpaper [this is the error reported in comment #0]

- Opening activity manager, I see two "unnamed" activities. Unable to see which is the current, I clicked them both. Appearently, it created a new or selected an old activity, as one of them has the default wallpaper, the other has the red solid background.

- Clicking on the activity with the default wallpaper, it created a folder view applet in this activity, which was not visible before.

- Delete the activity with the default wallpaper, only leaving the one with the red background, and logout.

- On next login, the desktop comes in red solid color, but activity manager still has created a second activity called "unnamed" with the default wallpaper. This time clicking on it did not create the folder view applet.
Comment 24 Christoph Feck 2010-06-09 14:09:25 UTC
More information as discussed with annma on #plasma:

- starting with a clean home the "activitymanagerrc" file (rc file) has one "id=unnamed" entry in "activities" section, but no "main" section.

- changing the background does not change this fact

- on next login, an additional "id=unnamed" is created there, with still no "main" section created. So it cannot know which of the two activities is the current. The content is now:

[activities]
baacee48-1409-4000-8fed-0be2ff3add46=unnamed
eb05b4a9-b909-4000-a254-7fd8258c2bfa=unnamed

where eb05... was the initial activity (where I changed the background), while the baac... is the new one with default background, and this one is selected as current.
Comment 25 Chani 2010-06-09 23:44:38 UTC
SVN commit 1136452 by chani:

ensure the current activity is initialized
BUG: 238699


 M  +4 -0      desktopcorona.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1136452
Comment 26 Beat Wolf 2010-06-10 16:35:49 UTC
*** Bug 241274 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 27 Beat Wolf 2010-06-10 16:44:08 UTC
*** Bug 241295 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 28 Mikko C. 2010-06-10 17:34:01 UTC
This is not fixed for me yet.
rev 1136713 shows the same bug. I also removed plasma-desktop-appletsrc but no luck :(
Comment 29 Christoph Feck 2010-06-10 17:59:21 UTC
Mikko, you need to remove activitymanagerrc.

The currentActivity entry is only written if the initial activity is created.
Comment 30 Mikko C. 2010-06-10 20:34:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #29)
> Mikko, you need to remove activitymanagerrc.
> 
> The currentActivity entry is only written if the initial activity is created.


Still the same thing :(
Steps:

- kquitapp plasma-desktop
- rm activitymanagerrc
- rm plasma-desktop-appletsrc
- rm plasma-desktoprc
- plasma-desktop
- Set a background wallpaper
- kquitapp plasma-desktop
- plasma-desktop
- Wallpaper is reset to default
Comment 31 Christoph Feck 2010-06-10 20:45:15 UTC
Quitting plasma-desktop does not quit/restart the activitymanager (which is a kded module). Logout, clear those files, then login.
Comment 32 Mikko C. 2010-06-10 20:50:43 UTC
ok, that fixes it, thanks :)
Comment 33 Chani 2010-06-10 21:45:05 UTC
marc: *hugs* :)

the activity configuration being inside the desktop config is actually a slightly awkward issue; we didn't have time to fix it before string freeze, and at this point it's probably going to stay in that awkward place for 4.5. Not sure if the config could be triggered from the activity manager; for multiscreen or pvd it might be confusing in other ways anyways.

I'll be talking to notmart about netbook-activity things at akademy - hopefully that won't be too late to iron out such bugs.

As for the icons, ivan did that code; they're autogenerated based on the activity's UID. I wanted to use thumbnails, but couldn't get that to work. the icons in the new-activity list wouldn't be so good imho, because those come from the containment type - and most people always want either Desktop or FolderView, so they'd end up with a row of identical icons.
Comment 34 Beat Wolf 2010-06-10 22:55:00 UTC
*** Bug 241341 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 35 Beat Wolf 2010-06-10 22:55:29 UTC
*** Bug 241342 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 36 Christopher Neufeld 2010-06-10 23:01:19 UTC
I don't think bug 241341 is a duplicate of this bug.  I had bug 238699 bothering me until today, but it has been fixed.  I compiled with a new checkout, and I deleted my .kde directory and started over.  After all this, I filed bug 241341, which appears to me to be a separate issue.  I'm getting all my applets, they're just the wrong size.
Comment 37 Chani 2010-06-12 00:15:39 UTC
*** Bug 241407 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 38 Aaron J. Seigo 2010-06-12 00:28:49 UTC
*** Bug 241473 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 39 Christoph Feck 2010-06-12 18:46:22 UTC
*** Bug 241498 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 40 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-12 20:52:02 UTC
still there with 4.4.85
Comment 41 Chani 2010-06-12 20:54:46 UTC
*** Bug 241535 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 42 Chani 2010-06-12 21:16:00 UTC
clemens: yes and no - this bugreport accidentally got used for two different bugs that look very similar; one in beta 1, the other in beta 2. :) it's fixed in trunk, and there's a workaround for beta 2: http://chani.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/a-note-on-activityplasma-bugs/
Comment 43 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-13 10:34:12 UTC
chani: I did what the blog-entry suggested and deleted: 
     plasma-appletsrc, plasma-desktop-appletsrc and activitymanagerrc

however my settings are still not preserved :/
Comment 44 Beat Wolf 2010-06-14 10:22:25 UTC
i don't think this bug is fixed.
i just deleted all my kde config in trunk, started plasma, added a few applets and restarted plamsa (with kquitapp), and i had a clean new desktop.

also, i only have one activity, named:
The name org.kde.ActivityManager was not provided by any .service files

and i cannot create new ones. looking at my plasma-desktop-appletsrc i think i have actually more than one activity, but the wrong one is selected (and the one i want is not visible in the activity manager).
Comment 45 Chani 2010-06-14 18:47:45 UTC
ohhh. you didn't mention that message on irc :)
that means the kded service isn't running. that's an installation issue, although I don't know what to do about it (reboot?)

we need to fail in a nicer way when this happens. for one thing, availableActivities() shouldn't return that error message as if it were an activity. :/
Comment 46 Chani 2010-06-14 18:50:03 UTC
thing is... if that service isn't running... then the whole activities thing becomes impossible to co-ordinate. maybe the activity manager UI should display a big giant warning then or something, because it'll break all sorts of stuff.
Comment 47 Chani 2010-06-15 04:59:43 UTC
*** Bug 241764 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 48 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-28 16:33:03 UTC
I still get the empty desktop with 4.5-RC1 (4.4.90), for me this is quite a serious regression :(
Comment 49 Cédric Bellegarde 2010-06-28 17:18:10 UTC
Here, after upgrading from kde 4.4, panel was not visible but present (plasmoids runnning).

With a fresh install on another computer (dualscreen), fresh kde profil:
 - Login
 - Second screen is present
 - Logout
 - Login
 - Second screen is black
Comment 50 Beat Wolf 2010-06-28 17:23:50 UTC
just wondering, what happens if you continue to log in and out? does the second screen get back again or stay black?

Reopening now, seems to have quite a few reports on that one even in rc1
Comment 51 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-28 17:25:18 UTC
I experienced the same - after upgrading from 4.4.85 everything was fine, but after the second log-in I was again stuck with a black&empty desktop.
If I re-login/logout it stays black.
Comment 52 Chani 2010-06-28 18:09:01 UTC
clemens: FUCK. :( I don't know what broke.

Bellegarde: file a separate bugreport for the panel problems, please.
as for your second-screen problem, that sounds like a known issue, except it used to only happen when the screen was plugged in, NEVER when you log in with the screen already connected. your first screen is ok though, right? there were some multiscreen commits recently and I can't remember if they were before or after rc1, so could you please make a separate bug report about this issue? this bug report has already sprawled over two different issues, it's getting messy, I want to start a clean page :)

although... clemens, you're getting a black screen? do you only have the one screen? or is yours dualscreen too?

unfortunately, I won't have access to multi-screen until after akademy, and I guess nobody else will either, unless there's hardware at the conference we can use...
Comment 53 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-28 18:23:01 UTC
no, I experience this on my laptop with only ony (lvds) screen.
(although TV and VGA connectores are present but not used)
Comment 54 Chani 2010-06-28 18:54:29 UTC
aw fuck.
black screen means no view at all. sounds like there's some general view-creation trouble going through rc1. does pressing meta-tab do anything for you?

I'm reclosing this report; please file a separate BR for it (copy&paste what you've told me here) so that we can more easily keep track of what's fixed and what's not :)
Comment 55 Clemens Eisserer 2010-06-28 19:23:31 UTC
Indeed, pressing meta+tab helped, and now my folderview is presevered even when logging in/out :)

Should I still open a new BR?
Comment 56 Chani 2010-06-28 21:24:33 UTC
er... hrm. yeah probably. this sounds similar to a beta2 bug I fixed, but, not quite the same. if you can reproduce it, that'd be helpful.
Comment 57 Chani 2010-07-03 18:14:43 UTC
SVN commit 1145652 by chani:

Proper migration code
also, make extra certain the current activity is initialized (and make a
guess at what to initialize it *to*).

this hasn't been extensively tested, so I'd appreciate it if people
could play with it :) note that upgrading from a beta to this code
(trunk or.. rc2?) may not work as well as upgrading from 4.4. you did a backup
before trying the beta, right? ;) (it won't break anything, it just
won't fix things the beta may have broken)

CCBUG: 243003
CCBUG: 238699
BUG: 242983



 M  +38 -9     desktopcorona.cpp  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1145652