GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 166967
Switching from horizontal to vertical makes panel unusable
Last modified: 2005-02-11 14:57:06 UTC
AS: If interesting about my general Linux info - see bug #166953 Gnome is 2.9. 91 This is my current Gnome look: http://arioch.nm.ru/gnome_beta_panel_normal.png By an easy gesture with notebook's touchpad i made it into http://arioch.nm.ru/ gnome_beta_panel.png - absolutely unusable! I can't move it back, since menu and buttons covers 100% of a panel ! I can't call panel's conttext menu, since... I can't just restart Gnome (it is already a SOS, that i dream about restarting! ), since not-saving-session is only about applications, not desktop environment itself. I fixed it after browsing through GConf (it was not comfort on such a tiny destop that was left :) ) - but does Average Joe know about registry? So i wish that panels acted more like panels of MS Windows XP. Let the mbe by default 'locked' so i could not drag them anywhere Let context menu allows me to unlock them allowing me to 1) drag the panel to another screen's border 2) drag the edge of the panel, customising pane's height Let also there be some modifier (Shift+click, Ctrl+click, click with both LLEft and Right buttons?) so even it will be done over soem button or applet, it would be panel who will interceptt the click. Then it will analyze - if i quickly (say, <0.5 secs) release it - let it be ignored as an accient If i am holding button down long (say, > 2 secs) - wan't to drag the whole pannel If i'm clicked, lingered and released buttons within, say. 0.5 - 2 secs - then show context menu for the panel itself, rather that applet's one' allowing me to [un]lock the panel or open dialog with it's properties. PS: i'd stated the severity to be 'occasional blocker' User may never do a foolish thing, i happened to do. but if he will by chance - what is he supposed to do ?
You're right that this is pretty bad. I just tried it and I confirm - you cannot move the panel back to its original location. Users will rightfully panic.
Created attachment 37310 [details] shot of unusable panel Here is the shot of the unusable panel mentioned by the reporter. There's no way to fix the orientation.
Actually the way to fix this is quite easy - just remove the menu bar applet from the panel, and the panel will get to a more reasonable size. Unfortunately, this will not be obvious to any user. Would it make sense for the panel to refuse to switch to a vertical orientation if the width would be too large ?
I got this today with current CVS as well. It not only made the panel huge like in the screenshot above, but I got a stuck keyboard grab or something so I couldn't log out either. The menus wouldn't open...Maybe this should be put on the 2.10.0 milestone?
This is already on the 2.10.0 milestone ;-) Kjartan: I'm not sure about the keyboard grab. If you can reproduce, could you open a new bug? Thanks *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 141702 ***
I made my suggestions. Removing and re-adding buttons/applets it possible, but will not be easy to user. After all he spent much time on choosing,adding and positioning elements - and now he must drop it and spend again ? BTW, when i managed to restore panel to top position (via GConf), all my arrangements were ogne, since whhile place on the left, panel tried to find the place for all the elements - and moved them together removing all spacers. I think, the Gnome as in whole should make decision upon some common way to call extra, advanced features. More extra, that just context menu. So here, by an extra-features action one could reach panel, ignoring all the applets lying over it. KM> I couldn't log out either Ctrl+Alt+BackSpace ? Or usual user is not supposed this hotkey ? BTW, is it possible to make logout absolutely 'not saving' so it will revert panels customisations made in current session ?
Well if on logout you don't select the "save session" checkbox, your session settings will not be saved, so on next login you'll revert to the last settings you saved. Also, this bug is now closed, please add comments in bug 141702 :)