GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 100964
Idea for 'couldn't load icon blah' message
Last modified: 2015-03-24 13:00:56 UTC
Having just gone through multiple file relocations with the Sun builds :), I quite often get a bunch of "Couldn't load <icon name>" alerts popping up when I restart my panel. It would be kind of neat if these popped up as tooltip-type things beside the affected launcher, rather than as in-yer-face alerts-- they could disappear after some timeout, or when you clicked on them, like the status tray tooltips you get on Windows XP. (Actually, if they had close buttons like the XP ones, you could click the close button to dismiss them, or click the main part of the tip window to open the icon selection dialog and pick a new icon). This would be a nightmare for accessibility of course :)
It would be nice if GTK could provide this kind of tooltip. They may be used elsewhere... Just a useless thought.
*** Bug 312699 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Nate Nielsen: A missing icon for a panel launcher produces a loud error message. A question mark icon is also displayed on the launcher. IMO this should be enough. This is especially noticeable when several icons are missing. The user is barraged with error dialogs on startup. I'll attach a screenshot so the dialog can be identified. (see bug 312699)
Created attachment 50363 [details] [review] Patch to remove 'loud' error message
I think the 'missing' icon is not enough since the user will not recognize the launcher and will wonder where it has gone... Calum's proposition is still the best option, AFAICS. We just need a good notification framework ;-)
this is easy to do with libnotify. gnome-applets already uses it, gnome-panel could probably do the same
I'm not sure I totally agree, but I understand your point. Until such a time as that notify message is in place (ie: it probably won't be for 2.12) could we just disable these terribly irritating dialogs? The time when they occur most is right after an upgrade, which many users will experience after the 2.12 is released. In any case, the dialog box is not associated with the launcher in any way shape or form. The user just gets a strange message (or strange pile of dialogs) and has no idea where it came from.
why should that happen after an update?
Well this is just from experience with Fedora Core. Obviously in the perfect world, we would never see this message. But for each upgrade at least one of the apps behind my custom launchers has decided to change it's icon name, or move it, or the application was removed, or some such ... My main point is that the dialog isn't helpful in the least. Yes, a good solution should be found involving little notifications and helping the user solve the problem, but the dialog just makes a bad thing worse.
Can we make this go away? It is really annoying. (Happened to me and many others when our site changed from Mandrake to Ubuntu. I get many error messages and I get them every time I log in until I give everything a new icon.) It would be really great if someone could apply the patch (if it still works) and then we can worry about other improvements later. When windows shortcuts lose their icons no warning is provided and I think most users will realise they need to try and set a new icon without being told about every time they log in until they eventually give in and change it.
What about having only one dialog? "Icons for some launchers could not be found. A default icon will be used for them."
Vincent, is the dialog useful for something? I think that's quite annoy to have to click to validate a such window after every login because a package got temporaly removed for whatever reason and you don't want to change your config.
See comment #5 :-) We can remove the dialog, but I'm not sure it's the perfect solution either...
Right, but what about the libnotify idea?
Well, if libnotify enters desktop/platform, it's okay.
Ubuntu bug about that: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/45525
I don't think there is really a need for any notification. It should be obvious enough from the fact that the launcher is using the gtk+ "missing image" stock icon that the icon is missing from the theme. After all, we don't pop up any message every time an icon is missing that nautilus is displaying. I propose getting rid of any notification and using the stock gtk+ "missing image" icon, rather than the ugly pixmap that is currently used.
Created attachment 75085 [details] [review] Thomas' Patch This is my patch to resolve the issue :-)
I agree with Thomas. His patch looks good to me, too.
Thomas' patch looks fine and should be all that's needed for this problem. Any sort of dialog or notification for this issue just seems very excessive, intrusive, and annoying. I'll be very glad to see this issue resolved and to see the stock missing icon rather than the pixmap foot for some of my often temporarily broken panel launchers.
Patch looks good and it's a good solution for this issue.
Very good! No more dialogs and more dialogs... :)
"Me too". :)
16:10 <@vuntz> thos: did you see my comment about your patch? :-) 16:13 <@thos> vuntz, no? 16:13 <@vuntz> 11:36 < vuntz> thos: with your patch, is the call to get_missing() still needed? 16:14 <@thos> vuntz, yes, I replied :-P 16:14 <@vuntz> ah 16:14 * vuntz goes back to see what thos replied 16:14 -!- kmaraas [~kmaraas@228.84-48-67.nextgentel.com] has quit [Ex-Chat] 16:14 <@thos> 11:09 < thos> vuntz, probably not. I think gtk garantees gtk_widget_render_icon() will return a pixbuf 16:14 <@vuntz> I blame irssi for not highlighting! 16:14 <@thos> haha! I replied before you asked :-P 16:15 <@vuntz> if it's not needed, then it's better to remove it :-) 16:15 <@vuntz> dead code! 16:20 <@vuntz> thos: you can also kill get_missing() and replace the "if (button->pixbuf == NULL)" part with an assertion Also, can you open two bugs: + one to monitor the icon file if it's not a themed icon so we can update it when the file changes + one to get rid of gnome-unknown (we use it in panel.c too)
Created attachment 77574 [details] [review] Updated patch
Thanks