Underhood: Panel Launchers

[Bill_MI]

This is pure under-the-hood questions with no urgency. This phenomena has been around since Gnome2 in one form or other so I’m just looking for expertise.

In the top panel, I had set 12 custom launchers, weather applet and a few launchers from main menu. In fact, my setup can be seen here: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30807159-

When playing with Mate-Tweak “Enable Keyboard LED” and other panel features, ZAP! It’s like the panel gets reset back to default, possibly because I also got a clock applet crash. At this point, most would just set it up again but I have a few questions…

Sitting in ~/.config/mate/panel2.d/default/launchers are the 12 .desktop files that used to be my custom launchers. I assume they are no longer linked from somewhere since they no longer exist on the panel.

Should I delete them? I already know from the past if I create 12 new launchers in the panel I’ll have 24 in there.

What happened to the weather and menu icons that used to be in the top panel?

I also have not yet explored “Save Panel Layout” - sounds like that might have saved me some time? Sounds like a good idea, too.

TIA

[lah7]

From what I know, MATE Tweak applies “preset” panels with those combinations of options, rather than dynamically adding it to the panel. So, in these cases, the panels get zapped to the defaults.

You can of course manually add those features by right clicking and clicking Add to Panel, the applets are there.

It should be safe to remove the launchers in ~/.config/mate/panel2.d/default/launchers if they are no longer present on the panel.

“Save Panel Layout” is like a backup option. It saves your panel exactly as it is.

I’m not sure what you mean by the weather and menu icons – I use the weather feature as part of the clock.

[Bill_MI]

Hi lah7, I had seen the post about “Enable keyboard LED” but I don’t see it in the “Add to Panel”. It would be a good addition for this LED-less keyboard.

I’m not sure what you mean by the weather and menu icons – I use the weather feature as part of the clock.

I’ve never seen the clock weather work, and it still doesn’t, trying anything in SE Michigan then New York City, Boston, etc. Showing weather or temperature in clock settings just adds a space in the display here. Are you getting a temperature and what locale?

However, the Add-to-Panel “Weather Report” has been a staple I’ve used complete with a custom animated radar.

About menu icons, actually launchers. I refer to adding panel launchers:

1. Right click a main menu item -> Add this launcher to panel (or desktop).
2. Add-to-Panel -> Application Launcher… select menu item.

These seem to link directly to the main menu .desktop files so do not appear in ~/.config/mate/panel2.d/default/launchers.

Yep, I see how “Save Panel Layout” works… I’ll be sure and use this next time.

And BTW, when rearranging panel launchers… ZAP… not a reset but I’ve had them disappear but remain in ~/.config/mate/panel2.d/default/launchers. Saw this in 16.04 beta and many times going back many revs - not yet in 16.04 (knocking on wood).

I should also add that while I’m aware, new users might get miffed if they setup a panel with launchers only to have them zapped in Mate Tweak. A warning wouldn’t hurt.

[lah7]

Are you getting a temperature and what locale?

Works here for my city in the UK, currently :cloud 14ºC ;). It needs a location set first. The Weather Report applet I believe works too, but I heard there were reliability problems (not updating).

About the keyboard LEDs, sorry, that’s my bad, it’s actually a dconf option, not an applet. It can be turned on/off via the terminal:

dconf write /org/mate/desktop/peripherals/keyboard/general/duplicate-leds true

I should also add that while I’m aware, new users might get miffed if they setup a panel with launchers only to have them zapped in Mate Tweak. A warning wouldn’t hurt.

Agreed. I’ll pass on that suggestion.

[wolfman]

Nothing to do with panels but this might interest you @Bill_MI (My Weather works well in 16.04!):

Clearweather Desktop Screenlet (And other screenlets)

IMPORTANT!, READ THE FOOTNOTE ABOUT EDITING THE SCREENLETS FILE AFTER YOU INSTALL THE SCREENLETS CLEARWEATHER APP!. (EDIT: PLEASE SEE POST NUMBER 11 BEFORE DECIDING WHETHER TO FOLLOW THE TIPS IN THE FOOTNOTE!). Also, another alternative for Screenlets Clearweather is My Weather Indicator: Firstly, install the screenlets collection via the following terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) command (NOT AVAILABLE IN UBUNTU 16.04): sudo apt-get install screenlets-pack-all Or download the all.deb package…

If you change some themes in Ubuntu Mate, some of them can reset the panel to default if I remember rightly?, have you had this problem when changing themes?.

[Bill_MI]

Hi @wolfman. Never saw a theme changing panels - except icon silliness.

I’m fine with the “Weather Report” panel applet built into Mate. I even make sure it displays correct size: Compiz sets Weather Applet Size

[lah7]

I should also add that while I’m aware, new users might get miffed if they setup a panel with launchers only to have them zapped in Mate Tweak. A warning wouldn’t hurt.

This had been implemented for future MATE Tweak versions

Issue: Show a warning in the panels tab.