Ubuntu 18.04 Cinnamon 4.2.4: Panel Launcher and Task Bar Not Working Properly

[kellyvotrenom]

Something happened to my Cinnamon desktop. I no longer have the task bar or panel launcher functioning properly and now I have a group window where the panel launcher used to be.

If I add a Panel Launcher from 'Add Applets to Panel', I get a small panel next to the system tray with Firefox, terminal and file manager icons. If I select 'add to panel' from the Main menu, no icons get added to that panel but they do seem to get added to group window. However, I can only see them in the group window if I reload Cinnamon.

Programs not in the group window show up on the task bar with title when started but items in the group window sometimes expand with the title when activated, sometimes not. They do highlight when selected and I can see thumbnails when I hover. If I remove the group window and activate it again, it's empty.

I have removed and re-installed Cinnamon, and have reset to default several times but still have the same problems.

I have Cinnamon 4.2.4 on Ubuntu 18.04, seems like the problems started after an update that involved x11 but not sure, previous to that everything was working fine. I have tried various themes but all act the same. Again, everything was working previously, Panel Launcher was next to the Menu button, I could add icons to the Panel Launcher with 'add to launcher' and if a program was active I would see it in the task bar with a title. I made no changes other than updates.

Thanks

[karlchen]

<mod>
Ubuntu 18.04 Cinnamon 4.2.4 is not a Linux Mint Cinnamon edition. Therefore the thread will be moved from (Linux Mint) "Main Edition" to "Chat about Linux".
</mod>

[kellyvotrenom]

No one has any suggestions as to why my Cinnamon Desktop which has been working fine for over 5 years suddenly stopped working properly?

[dorsetUK]

No one has any suggestions as to why my Cinnamon Desktop which has been working fine for over 5 years suddenly stopped working properly?

Hi kellyvotrenom.

Have you right clicked on the task bar and then ‘Troubleshoot’ and then ‘Restore all settings to default’?

If that doesn’t work then please can you let us know how you installed Cinnamon, what changes you’ve made to it, what updates you’ve had and an ‘inxi’.

Another option https://askubuntu.com/

HTH.

[karlchen]

Minor correction on the timespan:

Cinnamon Desktop which has been working fine for over 5 years

Ubuntu 18.04 was released 3 years ago, end of April 2018. So Cinnamon can have worked on it properly for 3 years, but not for more than 5.

Similar timespan for my LM 19.2 Cinnamon 4.2.4:

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Sx3
System:    Host: voyager Kernel: 4.15.0-144-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 
           tk: GTK 3.22.30 wm: muffin 4.2.2 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 

By the way: no issue with taskbar here. Which does not really help solve your issues.

Following dorsetUK's advice, however, might help solve them.

[kellyvotrenom]

Hi

Thanks for your responses. Here is the info you asked about

Ubuntu 18.04 was released 3 years ago, end of April 2018. So Cinnamon can have worked on it properly for 3 years, but not for more than 5.

I just upgraded to 18.04 a few months ago, previous to that CD had been running on 16.04 with no problems (inplace upgrade, not a clean install)

Have you right clicked on the task bar and then ‘Troubleshoot’ and then ‘Restore all settings to default’?

If that doesn’t work then please can you let us know how you installed Cinnamon, what changes you’ve made to it, what updates you’ve had and an ‘inxi’.

Another option https://askubuntu.com/

- I have tried "Restore All Settings" several times,
- I have re-installed CD from another desktop via the command line,
- I have removed/purged and re-installed CD from another desktop via CLI
- I have tried the command "gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon" (as suggested on Reddit Forum)
- I believe that I installed CD from the command line after installing Lubuntu 16.04
- Updates have been all the recommended updates, I do not know if at anytime CD was updated - I believe not since I just added the repo while troubleshooting
- I did post on Ask Ubuntu but have not received any replies

I believe this is what you mean by inxi - (first time I have encountered that term )
CPU~Quad core AMD A10-7860K Radeon R7 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G (-MCP-) speed/max~1396/3600 MHz Kernel~4.15.0-144-generic x86_64 Up~23:49 Mem~2397.9/11003.5MB HDD~1240.3GB(40.4% used) Procs~267 Client~Shell inxi~2.3.56

To restate, I only have a group window, panel (quick) launcher does not work, if add the applet I cannot add programs via the Main Menu "add to panel" and the task bar works for non group window apps but group window apps sometimes expand to show the title, sometimes not. Switching to another desktop things work OK.

The problem arose sometime after I did an update which mentioned X11 but I wasn't paying that much attention since it seemed like a reasonable update. The only other thing that I did before I noticed it was - while using Opera browser I clicked on "show on all workspaces". Sounds far-fetched but I noticed the problem immediately after that; I had been on the computer for a while and did not notice the problem previous. So to be clear, this happened during a session.

Thanks for your help

[kellyvotrenom]

... one other thing. I have been trying a few different themes recently. I was on Thunderbolt from the start, recently I switched to Cinnamox-Rhino with a few other trys and window/contol changes. However, the system had been working for a couple of weeks with these changes in place before the problems started.

[Tolayon]

Now this problem also exceeds my level of competence, but just out of curiosity:

Did the "Show on all Workspaces" entry mean that Opera would be available on all workspaces simultaniously while it is open?
Is this option somehow still on?

Other than that I could only assume some conflicts with two (or even more) DEs installed on the same system. However, Cinnamon apparently worked for you all the years alongside LXDE.
Still, something with the recent X11 update could have triggered some issues that weren't there before on that pretty unique constellation.

[kellyvotrenom]

It appears I am not the only one to experience this problem

viewtopic.php?t=289728