Am very disappointed. Installed MATE. Was in the middle of configuring it when I found this bug. Look at the Inhibit Applet. Why have this show up around the icon when I click on any of the other icons within the "About Indicator Applet Complete" applet? I tried to ignore it. But I cannot. It is very distracting and does not blend in with the other icons (when it has a boundary drawn around it). This behavior was not present before. Why now? This is frustrating. The installer seems to work now. (Great!) Some other bugs I reported seem to be gone now ... ? (Great!) But this? Why'd this crop up now? Is this a bona fide bug? Or is this something I can configure within the settings somehow? Please advise either way. Thanks.
( Usual disclaimer: please note that I'm just another Forum user here, I'm NOT an "Ubuntu" Developer and/or "Ubuntu MATE" Developer and/or "MATE" Developer ).
I've just installed an Ubuntu MATE 24.04.1 LTS ("Noble Numbat") Virtual Machine (VM) - "fresh install" from the recently released Ubuntu MATE 24.04.1 ISO - running in VirtualBox 7.0.20 in an Ubuntu MATE 22.04.4 LTS ("Jammy Jellyfish") laptop host.
In that "Ubuntu MATE 24.04.1" VM of mine, when I add the "Inhibit Applet" (which I must say I didn't know before this discussion topic that you've opened) to the panel, the icon on the panel looks very different from yours. My icon is a clock with a "Z" letter on top of it, while your icon looks like a box with two "Z" icons on top of it. The "Inhibit Applet" icon in my case only looks like yours when viewing the list of Applets to add to the panel. Also, I do NOT get that blue "rounded square border" that you get when I click on other icons of the panel, although sometimes a thin and light gray square border appears when I click on other icons of the panel.
SCREENSHOTS:
1 - Right clicking on the panel to bring the context menu and then clicking on "Add to Panel..." :
2 - Searching for the "Inhibit Applet" in the "Add to Panel" window:
3 - Appearance of the "Inhibit Applet" icon on the panel, after having added it (leftmost icon on the panel, looking like a round traditional / analog clock with a blue "Z" on top of it):
4 - Effect after having left clicked on the "Accessibility" man icon (the "Inhibit Applet" icon stays the same):
I've also noticed that my icons look different from yours. For instance, the "Accessibility" icon in my case looks like a white man figure in a blue square, where in your case it looks like a white man figure in a blue circle. Did you do anything to change the look of the icons in your case?
I'm also gonna take the ... I don't know; "extraordinary" step of tagging @Wimpy here, too. Sir, I sincerely hope you don't mind me tagging you here, but you're the lead developer, and I feel like this needs to be brought to your direct attention. Thanks very much.
I also sincerely apologize if tagging you is somehow unacceptable on these forums, but I mean, I really wanted to use Ubuntu MATE, but now can't because of this glaring bug. The pictures speak for themselves. I don't know. I sincerely hope a hotfix is released ASAP and that an updated installation ISO is released soon. Thank you again, sir.
EDIT: FYI - I've also submitted a bug report on Launchpad. Just FYI ...
About that first issue that you've mentioned in your first screenshot ("firefox icon brightens up when clicking on [ the "Inhibit Applet" ] applet icon" ; "note -am using default set of icons in this pic") => I am not seeing that increased brightness effect on the Firefox icon in the panel, in my Ubuntu MATE 24.04.1 VM (maybe my eyes are not good enough to notice the difference).
Now, back again to the issue of the rounded square border around the "Inhibit Applet"icon on the panel (that you say "happens when using MATE set of icons") => I tried to reproduce it, and it's only happening to me if I move that "Inhibit Applet" icon on the panel. So, a workaround is to remove the "Inhibit Applet" icon from the panel, then add it back again and do NOT move it. Please, try to do that and then test again by clicking on the "Accessibility" icon to see if you get the rounded square border around the "Inhibit Applet" icon (in my case, by doing that, I do NOT get the squared border).
After doing that, please reply again in this discussion topic to say if this workaround also worked for you.
Hi, @ricmarques - thanks for replying, and trying to help. I did follow your suggestion. It did work at first, but then when I locked down the icon, the boundary around the icon showed up when clicking on other applets within the "complete" applet set. That shouldn't be happening. And recall that I also posted a picture of a boundary line still appearing around the same (blank) space where an applet would be. All this is buggy behavior, and shouldn't be happening. I'm resigned to not using Ubuntu MATE until a hotfix is released and incorporated into the installation ISO. Very disappointed that this glaring bug made its way into the "stable" and public release. I don't get how it happened. Does the Ubuntu MATE team not have anyone or a process in place where everything from "A" to "Z" is checked out before approving an updated OS for release? I don't get it; I really don't. In any case, I sincerely hope a hotfix is released soon.
Everyone else - are you not seeing this behavior, too? Please report it.
I noticed that @Wimpy was last active on these forums back on 4/18 of this year. I took it upon myself to check his profile after no response for a while following my having tagged him in my post above. Is there someone else who's part of the Ubuntu MATE team who's more active, and can be of help in making a hotfix happen? EDIT: I found his e-mail address, and e-mailed him.
Out of curiosity, I downloaded 22.04.4 and was surprised to see the same behavior. I deleted the applet set, and added a different applet set. The same behavior (boundary line) persisted, but the brightening of other icons on the panel stopped. At this point, I don't know what to say. I'm just gonna stick with Linux Mint with my custom GNOME2-esque setup (for now). I would actually prefer to use the real thing (Ubuntu MATE), but ... yeah. Again, I don't know what to say. Amazing how this behavior has persisted for so long without it being fixed. Yeah. Wow.
I don't want to overstate the obvious, but developers need time to review, study, probe, code, build, test, deploy "beta" to restricted group, then deploy to masses.
That all takes ... time ... to focus, reflect, and do the work!
... and let's not overlook the issue of prioritizing what they consider "drop-dead" issues, vs other issues.
Within that context, expectation of an immediate response, let alone a fix, seems, to me, a bit misplaced.
Yes, some issues may pop up that, for curiosity's sake, would attract a highly-skilled developer's immediate attention because its novelty "intrigues" them and stirs their creative juices. But that would be a rather infrequent event in the overall scheme of things.
I forgot to mention this. In 22.0.4.4, the non-complete applet I added didn't really fix the problem. Buggy behavior was still seen. So it persisted. Also, I tried Linux Mint MATE, and the same behavior was NOT seen. I downloaded Debian 12.7 and installed the MATE desktop environment. Was bug-free. Nothing like what's seen in Ubuntu MATE. So this type of thing is restricted to Ubuntu MATE, seems like. I hope this feedback is helpful to whoever sees this (and is directly involved with Ubuntu MATE development). Thanks.
I understand. I get it. I wish we were having this conversation in person, because then you'd see my body language and get a feel for my actual tone. It's not malicious or anything like that. It's more like, "bro, come on." Ya know? This has gone on for so long, one can't help but be like, "what?" Ha. Especially since this is a "front-and-center" thing involving the panels, which everyone interacts with all the time. No one saw it? Or didn't think to go, "gee, this should be fixed before release"? Anyway, I've reported all I need to, and now the information is in the hands of the developers. Ball's in their court now. Thanks.
This happens in Ubuntu MATE and Debian (in Debian I have installed the indicators manually). When you click your indicator applet, the recently used launcher or applet gets focus. Clearly not a regression in 24.04. Linux Mint does not use indicators with the MATE desktop, so you don't see this.
I figured as much, except that, not wanting to insult any developers, they are so overtaxed with their workload, resulting by their deep sense of obligation to the community and (some/many/all) their sincere need to not let the community down and consequently feeling the mental anguish/pressure of wanting to get it done as quickly as possible, that those developers may take at face value, and not feel generous enough to give benefit of doubt, when they see the language in their first rushed read, which could lead them to put a problem stated with such language on the back burner, because they have issues brought forward with a more "petitioner" language.
I hope I managed to get that across as more of an explanation, and not as a rebuttal, and certainly not in a way that might offend.
Thank you very much for the effort you put into this response. But I don't understand. I never saw any of these before 24.04.1. I would definitely have remembered if I did. Why is this happening in 24.04.1 after it was not present in 24.04 and other Ubuntu MATE releases?
I'm stumped. Interesting. Wow. Well, OK. But yeah.
I want to be clear. First, your response did come across as an explanation and not a rebuttal. Mission accomplished. (Thanks, by the way.) Second, I totally get it about the developers and all that. That is why I tried to come off as respectful in my earlier posts about this whole situation. Third, please keep in mind that with 24.04, the experience was so horrible; what with an installer that wouldn't finish multiple times, an OS install that wouldn't boot after the installer finally finished, the keyboard failing on me more than once in the OS, the App Center failing to update, and so on and on. I know I'm not the only one who had terrible experiences with the installer before with 24.04, mind you. So, I mean, from an user perspective, seeing this type of UX and UI behavior elicited what I will concede was maybe a strong response initially (especially in the context of having gone through a horrible initial experience with 24.04). I am not sure why I did not see these indicators before. I most certainly would have remembered if I did. Same for the application icons brightening up inexplicably when clicking on one of the applet items. That didn't happen before. But it does in 24.04.1. I don't know what to say, honestly. It's reproducible and observable. It speaks for itself. I'm going to keep using Linux Mint 22 for the time being, and see what, if anything, my feedback does for Ubuntu MATE. Thanks again.
Wanted to come back here and report that I tried Debian 12 again. I tried multiple times to reproduce the issue I reported here for Ubuntu MATE. Not once did a boundary line come up at any single time.
I also thought to try Fedora MATE. Nothing. Perfectly normal.
I want to stop here and just remind everyone of this previous image:
Look at the blank space. This right here tells me this behavior is a bug.
I'm done with this topic (for real). I've given all necessary feedback, etc. I know I did not see this behavior in 24.04. But it's in 24.04.1. Please, Ubuntu MATE team, fix this glaring bug. It's so "in-your-face" it needs to be remedied. You're going to lose users who've been patient waiting for bugfixes only to encounter more unexpected bugs. Thank you very much.
Debian: you are not using the indicator applet there. You are using the old notification area applet. Compare your Debian screenshot with the ones I have posted before (where I had the indicators installed). Your problem is that the indicator applet does not properly intercept mouse clicks, and they propagate to the panel, and other elements get focus as well.
Start with resetting your panel. You have some element there getting the focus. Panel layouts sometimes get corrupted during upgrades.
This is not a security issue. It will not be hotfixed today by the project leader on your demand. This is not how Ubuntu is delivered.
I do not see an "indicator applet." I did a search for "indicator" in the applet list. Only one that came up was for "system monitor" with the word "indicator" in the applet description. I am on Debian Bookworm 12.7, if that helps (in VirtualBox, that is - my main OS is Linux Mint 22).
This was not for an upgrade. This was on a completely new install of Ubuntu MATE 24.04.1. And for what it's worth, I did reset the panel a couple times on the new install. Still the same. FYI ...
I completely understand. I do not expect action right this minute. That would be totally unreasonable. And silly, too. I've indicated why my reply here has been a bit strong, though. It's been bug after bug with Ubuntu MATE (especially with 24.04), and to see another aberrant behavior like this one is frustrating to see. If, however, this is somehow a "new" thing by design (which I'm starting to reluctantly see, but am hoping I'm wrong), I hope it'll be reconsidered.
