(Solved) Plank Icons

[richdell-mint]

I am using Plank version 0.11.4 on 2 computers, both running Mint Cinnamon 19.3. I lock the icons, which works until I restart, then they are unlocked again.(The problem is, it's easy to remove apps from the dock and my wife does't remember how to get them back) Both computers behave the same.

[smurphos]

Hi,

Do you and your wife have separate user accounts on both machines? Plank's settings are user account specific so locking the dock in your user account won't apply to your wife's account and vice-versa.

Otherwise it sounds like an ownership problem. Does the command below return any output? Again if multiple user accounts run the command whilst logged in as each user.

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find $HOME ! -user $USER

[richdell-mint]

Mine is the only account. I only mentioned my wife to justify searching for a fix!

Here is the result of the code you supplied:

rich@rich-desktop:~$ find $HOME ! -user $USER
/home/rich/.cache/dconf/user
/home/rich/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/thunar.xml
/home/rich/.aptitude
find: ‘/home/rich/.aptitude’: Permission denied
rich@rich-desktop:~$

[smurphos]

Cheers,

Running the command below will return those files and folders to your ownership and should fix plank's settings not sticking.

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sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

The change in ownership normally is a result of running GUI apps with sudo, which is generally not a good idea.

[richdell-mint]

So sad, it made no difference.

[smurphos]

How are you launching plank preferences?

[richdell-mint]

Curser in Plank, Ctrl-Right click, choose "Preferences"

BTW, I tried your command on both computers, same results

[richdell-mint]

Another BTW, I have a third computer which is a Chromebook 2 with Gallliumos. (works great!) It also has Plank, which behaves the same including your code I tried.

[smurphos]

Interesting - I can confirm it's working fine my end - all settings survive a reboot - I'm using 0.11.4.34-96bbb from https://launchpad.net/~ricotz/+archive/ubuntu/docky

Can you try a couple of things?

Quit plank then open a terminal and run plank - leaving the terminal window open, then open plank preferences and toggle lock on and off (and other settings). Is there any terminal output associated with toggling the settings?

Also try these commands - do any of them return errors?

Check the current setting from the command line

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dconf read /net/launchpad/plank/docks/dock1/lock-items

Change the setting from the command line

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dconf write /net/launchpad/plank/docks/dock1/lock-items true

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dconf write /net/launchpad/plank/docks/dock1/lock-items false

[richdell-mint]

I quit plank, started from the terminal and got the following message.

rich@rich-desktop:~$ plank
[WARN 14:07:56.378872] [Environment:161] XDG_SESSION_CLASS not set in this environment!
[WARN 14:07:56.440733] [Preferences:192] '/usr/share/plank/themes/Default/dock.theme' is read-only!

Toggling settings showed no output at command line.
I ran the rest of your codes and got no errors.

I did the same thing on Galliumos and got similar response, plus "Creating surface took WAY TOO LONG (102ms), enabled downscaling for this cache!

[smurphos]

OK, none of those relate to the settings window.

I just tested with the default version from the repos (0.11.4) and again that is working fine for me with all settings include the lock setting surviving a reboot.

I'm running out of ideas of what might be causing this.

What's the command you are using to autostart plank at login? To check, open Startup Applications from the menu, highlight plank and click the edit button.



Are you familiar with the application dconf-editor? You can use it to check and amend the backend settings database that plank (and many other applications) use. It might help you work out what is going on.

apt install dconf-editor

This is what's the default docks setting look like.

[richdell-mint]

My autostart command is plank.
I installed deconf editor, but have no idea how to do anything with it. A search showed me that it's way over my head!
As a work around for my wife, I have pined the icons she uses in the panel, where they stay put.
Thank you for trying to help me

[richdell-mint]

Well, I just learned a lesson! I must have installed from Software Center, because when I uninstalled and installed from the PPA, everything's working fine now. So the easy way isn't always best. Thanks

[smurphos]

Glad you sorted it out. I think the trick was pinning icons first

The lock setting is for locking / unlocking pinned icons.