Unusual issue opening new tab on taskbar

[Jeff L]

20.2 Cinnamon 5.0.4

My default browser is Pale Moon. I have a shortcut icon on the panel so that when I click on it PM opens. If there's already one PM window open it creates a new tab on the taskbar and opens another window for that tab. I have never had a problem with it working.

This morning with one PM window open, I clicked on the icon to open a new one. A new tab appeared, but immediately started flashing pale red three times Instead of staying grey (inactive tab colour) and then becoming pale green as the active tab; it then stayed pale red, although it temporarily became white while the mouse cursor rolled over it. Clicking on the tab closed it, but the new PM window appeared anyway! Clicking on the other PM tab opened that original window, and clicking on it again opened the new window (ie toggled the new and old windows). Interestingly, keying Alt-Tab showed there were many new Pale Moon windows open, even though there were only two tabs on the taskbar. It was possible to open any these windows by selecting them, although even when selected and open there was no tab for the window on the taskbar.

I decided to reboot to see if that cleared the condition, and when I clicked on the "x" to close the only open PM window, it informed me there were nine PM tabs open, and did I want to close them! I confirmed I wanted to close them all and rebooted, and on clicking on the PM icon in the panel, all nine tabs appeared and the windows opened. I closed eight of them and clicked on the PM panel icon again. The same issue occurred as previously, with the red flashing on the tab.

There was nothing obvious in the logs about what might have happened.

At this stage I hadn't yet run usrmerge as suggested after upgrading yesterday from 20.1 to 20.2. After running it, the problem seemed to disappear, but unfortunately reappeared again after another reboot.

As a test, I then clicked on the xed text editor icon in the panel, which opened a tab and xed window. I then right-clicked on the icon and requested it opened a new window. A new tab and new window opened without problem, in contrast to what happened with PM, so is this a PM issue only?

Any idea what is going on?

[Jeff L]

An update.

The issue does not occur with Firefox. A second tab/window opens without problem. However, it occurs in a somewhat different way with Thunderbird. Two TB windows are not possible, but if I have an alarm set in TB's calendar, when it goes off the flashing red tab appears in the taskbar, but the alarm message does not appear until I click on the tab. The tab then disappears but the alarm message appears. This only happens when the active window is not TB itself; in TB the alarm tab and pop-up work correctly. It happens if it's any other active window such as Pale Moon, Xed, FF, etc.

Finally, I've just discovered that there is no right-click menu available for a "faulty" taskbar tab.

I think I'll Timeshift back to 20.1 and try the upgrade to 20.2 again later this week. Perhaps something went wrong the first time.

[mikeflan]

Hi Jeff. Welcome to the forum.

To summarize your first post, Pale Moon (PM), and only PM, has 9 tabs that you didn't see originally, but you do see after a restart. So then can you just close those 9 tabs and then they are gone for good? Problem solved??

In your second post you have other issues like:

Code: Select all

1) No right-click menu for a taskbar (panel) tab.
2) A TB alarm does not open a window, but does show up on the panel.

I have seen #2 very rarely on my LM19.3 system. Normally the window does pop up.

I have a suggestion for you. Keep focused on one issue at a time and don't pollute a single post with a general, vague reporting of LM 20.2 issues. LM 20.2 does have issues and we want to hear about them. But keep them focused in particular topics. Don't be afraid to open 6 different topics if needed. And have patience. You will probably get some thoughtful responses eventually if your questions are good.

[Jeff L]

Hi Mikeflan,

Sorry about the length, but your summary is only partial, and does not really address the issue I have. Firstly, I've been using Mint for several years (from 17.3) and haven't had an issue like this upgrading.

Basically, if I have open windows in a browser they are now frequently not represented by a tab on the task bar. When I first try to open a new window, the tab might appear as a flashing red tab which after three flashes stays red, and no new window appears. If I left click on the red "faulty" tab, the tab disappears from the taskbar, but the new window then opens correctly. Normally, when trying to open a new window in the browser a "normal" tab appears at the same time as the new window. If I right-click on a "normal" tab, I get an options menu with 8 choices appearing (from "Visible on all workspaces" to "Close"). If I right-click on a "faulty" tab nothing happens - no menu appears. I can open many windows with "faulty" tabs, when I left-click on those tabs, and the faulty tabs then disappear. All the windows I've opened by clicking on the faulty tabs are accessible via the Alt-tab keys.

I've since found that Thunderbird's Calendar alarm also results in a "faulty" tab if TB is not the active window I am working in. When the alarm is triggered, the normal response is a tab appearing in the taskbar and at the same time a pop-up message with details of the alarm, no matter what window and app I am working in. Now it only works correctly if I am reading or composing within TB itself when the alarm is triggered. It happens incorrectly when I am using something as simple as Xed text editor, when the faulty tab appears without a pop-up.

It was suggested to me that unchecking Pale Moon's option to "Open new windows in a new tab instead" might help. It did solve the faulty tab issue on trying to open a new window from PM's icon in the panel, but I get the faulty tab when clicking on a hyperlink in an email in TB (I have PM set as the default browser). The hyperlink would normally open in the last open window I used in the browser, but now it tries to open a new window which seems to invoke the faulty tab behaviour. I changed the same setting in Firefox, and made it the default browser instead of PM. Clicking on the same email link link led to the "faulty" tab appearing with Firefox in the same way it had in PM.

I don't think I am raising separate issues. This seems to be a simple(?) matter of some tabs on the taskbar and their respective windows not working incorrectly, and not in the same way as they did with 20.1.

[mikeflan]

OK. You have explained it well and I understand.
If you are still on LM 20.2 and want to pursue this issue you should probably type this in a terminal:

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inxi -Fxxxrz

Post the output in "Code" tags. The button that inserts these tags is marked </>
Perhaps somebody will have a suggestion.

[Jeff L]

Thanks for the feedback. I have done as you suggested with inxi -Fxxxrz in a terminal:

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jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-77-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.4 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: CLEVO product: P15xEMx v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: CLEVO model: P15xEMx serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends 
  v: 4.6.5 date: 01/24/2013 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 51.7 Wh condition: 51.7/77.0 Wh (67%) volts: 14.8/14.8 
  model: Clevo CO. X51 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3230M bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20754 
  Speed: 1198 MHz min/max: 1200/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1197 2: 1197 
  3: 1197 4: 1198 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK 
  driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0166 
  Device-2: AMD Wimbledon XT [Radeon HD 7970M] vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK 
  driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:6800 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: ati,modesetting,radeon 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa tty: N/A 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) 
  v: 4.2 Mesa 20.2.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio 
  vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  chip ID: 8086:1e20 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-77-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: CLEVO/KAPOK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d000 bus ID: 03:00.2 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp3s0f2 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel 
  port: d000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 8086:0887 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 99.87 GiB (10.7%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM014-1EJ164 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: SM15 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.89 GiB used: 99.87 GiB (10.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 37 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 197 Uptime: 22m Memory: 7.67 GiB used: 2.35 GiB (30.6%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 7/9 
  Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
jeff@jeff-P15xEMx:~$ 

[mikeflan]

How about it Pale Moon users. Have you ever seen a flashing red tab on PM?

[Jeff L]

It's not a Pale Moon tab. It's a taskbar tab for a Pale Moon window.

I've also noted that when restarting Pale Moon after a reboot it doesn't behave normally. Previously, if there were several PM windows open, and I closed each one individually before shutting down, when I restarted PM after reboot only the last window I closed would reappear. This is correct behaviour. Now, even though the "faulty" taskbar tab windows were closed individually, all those windows reappear when I restart PM after the reboot. Strangely, they are now all "normal" taskbar tabs, i.e. not flashing red.

Tomorrow I will Timeshift back to 21.1 and see if the problem resolves.

[Jeff L]

This morning I backed up my home folder, installed the updates from the Update Manager (in case they solved the problem) and rebooted. The tab issue was still present, so I Timeshifted back to 21.1. After reboot, the Tab issue was no longer present, so I assume this is a minor bug with 21.2 for my setup.

Does this need to be reported elsewhere separately or as it has been posted here is that sufficient?

[Moem]

I' ve only skimmed this thread (sorry) but I have two questions:
- when you say 'taskbar', do you mean the same thing as when you say 'panel'?
- what is 21.2?

[Jeff L]

Panel indeed. Sorry - taskbar is a Windows hangover. I always think of the panel as having a "shortcut icon" area on the left, a "notification icon" area on the right, and the bit in the middle is the taskbar.

And as for for 21.2...sigh. I of course meant 20.2, and Timeshifting back to 20.1.

[quartus4]

I am having a similar problem as described here.

Prior to LM 20.2, a Thunderbird alarm would pop up a window over the top of all other windows so I would see it. I achieved this behavior by allowing focus stealing in the windows settings application, but this option is not available in LM 20.2.

The alarm window is being created behind the currently focused application, and a red-outlined icon appears in the window list. There are two choices for "Focus mode for new windows" under System Settings→Windows→Behavior, "Smart" and "Strict". The alarm window is created obscured for both modes.

Perhaps window creation and window focus should be handled separately. Cinnamon and/or Muffin could allow all new windows to appear on top without changing window focus.

[mikeflan]

Thanks for reporting that. My LM 19.3 is set on 'smart' and of course the TB alarms show up fine.

[quartus4]

Thanks for the info mikeflan. In my experience, it is the setting of "Prevent windows which require attention from stealing focus" turned off that worked for me in the versions before LM 20.2. That option is no longer available:

I am afraid I'm am going to miss an appointment due to this, so a solution would be good.

[quartus4]

I see this in the Muffin changelog for 5.0.0. (LM 20.2 currently has Muffin 5.0.1.)

[ Michael Webster ]
* Revert "Remove useless, annoying window activation warning."
* windows: Fix focus-stealing prevention. Cinnamon no longer attempts to deal with this.

Commit here: https://github.com/linuxmint/muffin/com ... 3ec6995ee6

So what doesn't make sense to me is why removing focus stealing, which is the setting I used to get Thunderbird alarms to work right, no longer brings the alarm window to the top. Perhaps some other change broke it.

[mikeflan]

So what doesn't make sense to me is why removing focus stealing, which is the setting I used to get Thunderbird alarms to work right, no longer brings the alarm window to the top. Perhaps some other change broke it.

Yeah, probably. One would expect that if they removed that setting it would still be set to OFF.

[quartus4]

FWIW, I have switched from Cinnamon to MATE desktop with Compiz. This combo does what I need, though I will miss many Cinnamon features.

With the Compiz “Window Rules” settings, I am able to keep the Thunderbird Alarm window above everything else on all workspaces, and with the “Place Windows” settings, it puts all new windows in the center of the current screen. I cannot miss the alarm window now.

[quartus4]

I had to go back to Cinnamon because of too many other issues in other environments. But . . . I have a script workaround for my Thunderbird reminder problem. I put the following script in a file that is run in the Settings→Startup Applications. It does a wmctrl -R Reminder every five seconds. See the man page of wmctrl to see exactly what -R does.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

while true; do
    wmctrl -R Reminder > /dev/null 2>&1;
    sleep 5;
done

[Jeff L]

This problem has - more-or-less - been solved with an upgrade to 20.3. It required a small change to Preferences | Windows | Behaviour to fix it, as the default on first booting 20.3 is still not right. However, the change in how Cinnamon 5.2.7 deals with windows focus has introduced a minor annoyance.

As default, the Windows Focus Mode is "Click". When a new window is required, this appears as a tab on the panel. The tab flashes red three times, then reverts to the standard grey (on the setup for colours that I have), but the new window does not open until I click on the tab. I wanted it to open immediately I created it. So returning to the Windows Focus Mode, I changed this to "Sloppy". Immediately below this a new row appeared - "Automatically raise focused windows". I toggled this to "on". The default is now that any new window created opens immediately, which is fine.

So what's the annoyance? Well, previously using a non-maximised window inside a maximised window of another app was straightforward. Even if the cursor went outside of the non-maximised window, as long as it wasn't clicked the non-maximised window remained present and active. Now, however, once the cursor goes outside the boundaries of the non-maximised window focus is lost and the non-maximised window is minimised! It's easy to get back by clicking its tab on the panel, but it's just another one of those things I'll have to adapt to.

[Jeff L]

As default, the Windows Focus Mode is "Click". When a new window is required, this appears as a tab on the panel. The tab flashes red three times, then reverts to the standard grey (on the setup for colours that I have), but the new window does not open until I click on the tab. I wanted it to open immediately I created it. So returning to the Windows Focus Mode, I changed this to "Sloppy". Immediately below this a new row appeared - "Automatically raise focused windows". I toggled this to "on". The default is now that any new window created opens immediately, which is fine.

Unfortunately, I was a little too quick. This does work, but only as long as the screensaver does not kick in. Until then, a new window and its tab work correctly, but after the screensaver has operated, and I use my password to get back in, it is back to the red-flashing tab and no automatic new window opening. Quite why this happens is beyond me and probably something only the Cinnamon devs could work out.