[SOLVED]character palette unreadable

[joez]

Added the character palette to the panel on Mint 18.3 sylvia Mate.
When I click on it to display the characters, they are shown on a black background making them unreadable. The characters remain displayed on a black bar until I reboot.
How can I change the background color?

[joez]

Perhaps someone might add the character palette to a panel and confirm what we're experiencing to be a bug?
It's easy to just remove it from the panel afterwards.

[lsemmens]

Tell us exactly what you did to enable it. Post the results of <inxi -Fxz> may also assist one of our resident ex-spurts.

[catweazel]

our resident ex-spurts.

Cut it out. I resemble that remark.

[joez]

What we did (4 different computers)
Right clicked and selected 'add to panel', clicked on 'Character Palette', then 'Add' button.
A down arrow appeared on the panel.
Clicking on the down arrow produced a list of character choices, selected one at random.
The panel then displayed the characters selected..
Clicked on one of the characters and the background changes to black behind all the characters and remains black until rebooting.

inxi -Fxz
System: Host: HP Kernel: 4.13.0-36-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: MATE 1.18.0 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: Hewlett-Packard (portable) product: HP Notebook v: Type1 - ProductConfigId
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 810F v: 02.06
Bios: Insyde v: F.01 date: 02/11/2015
CPU: Dual core Intel Celeron N2840 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 8663
clock speeds: max: 2582 MHz 1: 2165 MHz 2: 2165 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1360x768@59.80hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-36-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom BCM43142 802.11b/g/n driver: wl bus-ID: 01:00.0
IF: wlp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 1000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (45.2% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABF0 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 24G used: 7.6G (35%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: /home size: 428G used: 196G (49%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.39GB used: 0.39GB (5%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 194 Uptime: 2 days Memory: 1252.2/1885.1MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35

[joez]

I'm still curious to know if this problem is common to all Mint Mate 18.3 users.
Could someone else add the character palette to their panel temporarily and see if it produces the same results?

[lsemmens]

I'm running Cinnamon here and do not appear to have a "Character Palette" to add, I DO have a "Character Map" which works flawlessly. even after adding to the panel.

[joez]

Yes, 'Character Map' works properly in Mate also.
I believe 'Character Palette' is a component of 'Mate-Applets', and we're not using 'Cinnamon Desktop" on any of our computers.
Perhaps there's another site we should be asking this question? We've tried Ubuntu and GitHub and were told to report it to the 'Mate' maintainers, but don't seem to find a bug report site for 'Mate'.
At this point we'd be satisfied to know if this happens to every Mint Mate 18.3 user who tries to use the 'Character Palette' applet.

[BenTrabetere]

I am running LM-MATE 18.3. I added the Character Palette and I get the same behavior you described. I do not see any way to change the background.

[joez]

Thank you for confirming this to be a problem not of our own making.
We've tried for several weeks now, with no success, to find where this problem should be reported.
As best we can determine, 'character palette' is contained in 'mate-applets' and on another computer still running Mint 17.3 Rosa with Mate Desktop there is no problem. It uses 'mate-applets' ver 1.12.0.1-1+rosa while the systems running Mint 18.3 sylvia with Mate Desktop are using 'mate-applets' ver 1.18.2-1+sonya NOT sylvia. And we have searched but are unable to find a version for sylvia.

I guess we'll just have to try and find another way to accomplish what 'character palette' used to do for us.

Thanks again

[BenTrabetere]

I guess we'll just have to try and find another way to accomplish what 'character palette' used to do for us.

I use AutoKey. It is desktop automation utility that can be used to insert text. An older version can be installed with Software Manager, and it works fine. This will give you an idea of what it is and how it can be used.
https://saravananthirumuruganathan.word ... utomation/

The project is under new management, and the new version adds some things I think are worthwhile.
https://github.com/autokey-py3/autokey

[joez]

Thanks, but that looks much more elaborate than what we need.

[smurphos]

https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-applets

Report the bug as a Github issue having checked there isn't an existing report. Be clear on the version you are using. Mate-applets are already upto 1.20.1 so it might have been fixed already.

[joez]

Thanks, but I gave up on github trying to find how to report a bug.
We'll wait to see if Mint19 fixes the problem.

We did file a bug report on launchpad:
[Bug 1765265] [NEW] mate-applets - character palette black background makes characters unreadable
Public bug reported:

Added the character palette to the panel on Mint 18.3 sylvia Mate.
When I click on it to display the characters, they are shown on a black background making them unreadable. The characters remain displayed on a black bar until I reboot.
How can I change the background color?

** Affects: ubuntu-mate
Importance: Undecided
Status: New

but were told:
Please report this problem to then Linux Mint team. This is only for
Ubuntu Mate.

** Changed in: ubuntu-mate
Status: New => Invalid

We're satisfied to learn it is not an issue of our own making.

[joez]

https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-applets/issues/317

[roblm]

joez,

This method worked for me as a solution to your problem, but not for every theme. I tested it using the Mint-X theme. Open the File Manager and go to /usr/share/themes. Right click on the Mint-X folder and select Open as administrator. If you’re using one of the other themes, such as Mint-X-Blue, then open that folder instead. Click on gtk-3.0 and then apps. Before editing the mate-applications.css file, make a backup by right clicking on it and selecting Copy. Then right click in the empty space and select Paste.

Open the original file and go down to the section #PanelApplet .button {.
Change the line background-color: transparent; to background-color: #bdbdbd;

Then go down to the section #PanelApplet WnckTasklist .button.flat:checked:hover, and change the same background-color: transparent; line.

This will give a light gray color to the Character Palette buttons on the panel. Or you can use background-color: white;

Save the file and then logout and back in.

[joez]

Looking at /usr/share/themes/Mint-X/ there are folders for gtk-2.0, gtk-3.0, and metacity-1.
As gtk2, gtk3, and metacity are installed, how do we confirm which is being used by the Mint-X theme?

By the way, we found the Raleigh theme to display the characters without changing the background to black, although we do not like that theme for various other reasons. It appears to be the default theme if no other theme is selected.

[smurphos]

I can't be sure how it works for Mate, but in Cinnamon all three are used but for different things,

Metacity1 - Titlebar and windows borders.
GTK2 - A few older apps not using GTK3 yet (e.g. GIMP, Geany, some QT4 apps (e.g VLC) that get there theming from GTK2)
GTK3 - The majority of app theming.

It appears from robim's post that the versions of Mate in Mint 18.x is using GTK3 for panel/menu elements.

If it is a theme issue a good place to report it is https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-themes.

I've just had a quick look at the current source - https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-theme ... ations.css and the code that robim suggests changing is still in place.