MintMenu and Whole Panel (Bar) Disappear Sometimes

[kmrdeva]

Hi guys,

I've searched the forum but could not find any post referring to my issue.

I'm not sure if any of you had encountered this before, but the whole MintMenu and the horizontal panel bar (at the bottom of the screen) sometimes totally disappear on me, leaving an empty space showing my desktop wallpaper.

Whenever this happens, the system doesn't hang and I find that I can still switch between running apps with ALT+TAB and I can even activate MintMenu or buttons (e.g. running apps, tray icons) on the panel by clicking to the supposed locations of the said items (I can't see what I'm clicking on, though)..

A reboot normally resolves this quirky behaviour temporarily, but I've not been able to find the reason for it till date. Can anyone advise?

[DrHu]

I'm not sure if any of you had encountered this before, but the whole MintMenu and the horizontal panel bar (at the bottom of the screen) sometimes totally disappear on me, leaving an empty space showing my desktop wallpaper

Maybe you have the panel (menubar) set to autohide, right-click panel>Properties>General TAB
And you accidentally hit one of Gnome shortcut keys which shut down (minimized) the windows or switched the workplace

I found that so annoying (I was always popping the middle mouse wheel, which shut down or switched all the windows) , that I had to use right-click panel >Add Applet>Window Selector, so that I can see which workplace has which application running
--I prefer kde's workplace grouping, and I didn't find any Gnome equivalent that let me enter the icon and open the running application in that workplace windows..

I eventually turned off all Compiz effects
--that helped speed up window actions

[kmrdeva]

Very odd issue. I've never seen that happen before. My first thought is compiz. Are you running desktop effects?

It's an odd issue, yes. I had disabled compiz for some time now as gcompris (the educational games package) causes weird screen draw issues with desktop effects enabled.

Maybe you have the panel (menubar) set to autohide, right-click panel>Properties>General TAB
And you accidentally hit one of Gnome shortcut keys which shut down (minimized) the windows or switched the workplace.

Thanks for the suggestions, but no, autohide is off and I'm pretty sure I did not press any Gnome shortcut keys or switched to another workspace. Anyway, I did a bit of testing and the behaviour seemed to be related to Audacious (the music player) somehow. The problem is an intermittent one but I found that I can duplicate the issue with Audacious runnning (3 out of 10 launches).

Also, I've discovered a workaround to the issue, sort of. Whenever the panel disappears leaving the wallpaper in the bottom, I can right click, choose Properties and change the panel's location to 'top' and voila! - the panel is back. Then all I need to do is to set it back to the bottom again.

[n0body_special]

I have a relatively similar issue with both my computers. I'm running Mint Gloria. When i right - click an item and choose properties, all windows "disappear" leaving behind the desktop. When the screen disappears, i can still work the PC, though there are no icons on the desktop. Nothing appears when i right - click on the desktop either. The real problem is that i just cant access the properties of any item, because the issue happens very often, and i dont wont to risk having to reboot the computer.

I'll try to lower graphics effects and see what happens. I'll post here my findings, please do the same if you happen to know something.
Thanks


EDIT: I mistakenly stated that I have this issue "often". The truth is, i have it always with certain kinds of files.

Right clicking and choosing Properties on Mp3s, as well as any audio and video files will cause the desktop to disappear and be unable to right - click. It happens without exception.
All other items' properties can be viewed normally without causing any problems.

[kindofabuzz]

I'm haveing the same problem in Mint 8. Panels just disappear. metacity --replace brings them back. what is causing this? Happens to me 4-5 times a day.