mate-panel: custom colors not restored

Question

mate-panel: custom colors not restored

spvkgn opened this issue 8 years ago · 26 comments

User-defined colors not restored on logout MATE session or with mate-panel --replace, as follows:

Set custom background colors:
After logout or restart mate-panel background displays in default color:

Answer 1 · 2016-10-20T19:23:09.000Z

Same with xfce4-panel. Problem exists for current version of xfce4-mjultiload-ng-plugin in the ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 repository, and prior two versions.

(It's annoying enough that I'm going to invest about 30-40 minutes finding a previous version (the one with the previous style settings dialog did preserve color settings), or just give up on this magnificent and promising project for a while and check back later :-(

Answer 2 · 2016-10-20T19:39:29.000Z

No need to give up, I am already working at this for about an hour ;)

Some additional information could be useful:

does it happen only with background colors or with all colors?
does setting a color scheme (without editing it) work?

Answer 3 · 2016-10-20T19:59:05.000Z

Awesome!

All colors are affected, even border and background. The most recent version (from ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8) does actually remember colors set from a pre-defined color theme, just not custom colors. (Whatever version I had before however did not even remember that - so, progress!)

It appears that an issue I filed a few weeks ago on this has disappeared. In it I provided a million thanks for this project. So I'll reiterate that this little applet has single-handedly allowed me to migrate away from Gnome2/MATE, which I've been wanting to do for at least a decade but couldn't give up the CPU/memory graphs! So, thank you.

One more edit: I'm on v1.4.0

Answer 4 · 2016-10-20T21:40:49.000Z

@doublemeat: it's not disappeared! I answered you, made some changes and marked it as closed.
If you missed it, click on #22 😄

Answer 5 · 2016-10-20T22:23:48.000Z

Little update

I was not able to reproduce the problem in my machine.
After a few failed color changes (like you described) everything is working regularly now. Also, only MATE plugin shows this problem.

However, I am using Multiload-ng on the main development machine (where I frequently mix different versions, test new settings, and so on), so my experience may not reflect the one of final users.

So, I confirm that there is a problem, but it's so much harder to debug and fix something that I can't see. I hope you understand that.

Little help

Could you test it again, and provide every piece of information you find relevant? In particular, please try following these steps:

change color(s)
close preferences dialog (this triggers settings save)
restart only the panel (via killall mate-panel && mate-panel and xfce4-panel -r) and check colors
change again colors(s) and close preferences dialog
this time logout and log back in, and check again

I need to find the situation that causes the issue. Any little difference is useful.

Answer 6 · 2016-10-21T05:17:27.000Z

change color(s)

Set custom color scheme based on 'Multiload-ng' scheme and change background color.

close preferences dialog (this triggers settings save)
restart only the panel (via killall mate-panel && mate-panel and xfce4-panel -r) and check colors

The changed background color resets to default. In custom color scheme prefs the colors resets too. However, in gsettings org/mate/panel/objects/object_9/prefs/ the changed color codes preserves.

change again colors(s) and close preferences dialog
this time logout and log back in, and check again

The same results here as well I see. v1.4.2, MATE 1.8.2

Answer 7 · 2016-10-21T14:17:35.000Z

Other settings working?

Answer 8 · 2016-10-21T15:44:15.000Z

Setting color scheme without edition works - it preserves. I don't fully understand what else I could check.

Answer 9 · 2016-10-21T15:51:57.000Z

Sorry, I meant other settings like size, interval, command line, tooltips, etc...
I now suppose that they do work properly.

I am coming back to this issue in a couple of hours. If I don't get to the source of the problem, I will inject some debug code.

Answer 10 · 2016-10-21T16:10:57.000Z

There seems no issue with other settings as far as I can see.

Answer 11 · 2016-10-25T21:13:13.000Z

I have another little request: can you try removing Multiload-ng applet and adding a new one? Does the issue still persist?

Answer 12 · 2016-10-27T12:43:31.000Z

Yes, It's still persist. Also, I've tried with xfce4-panel and the same issue occurs.

Answer 13 · 2016-10-27T20:31:33.000Z

Ok Maybe I fixed it. Just tested in Arch and Ubuntu and it works well.

I need you to test lastest version in order to confirm the fix and close the issue. This version has not yet been packaged by WebUpd8, so if you want to help, you have two options:

Build multiload-ng from git source (preferred method, if you are able to)
If you are using Ubuntu/Mint (just tell me the version) I can try to provide you a .deb to install with dpkg

EDIT: @spvkgn I do remember that you are on Ubuntu 12.04, but I meant to include @doublemeat too in this request. I can provide simple instructions for building from source, if needed.

Answer 14 · 2016-10-28T13:58:31.000Z

I have some error when building git snapshot, please see http://pastebin.com/i9fWzZsQ

Answer 15 · 2016-10-28T17:46:10.000Z

Seems easily solvable. Could you please post your config.log?

Edit: forget it, I already spotted the problem. Try again with lastest code.

Answer 16 · 2016-10-28T18:16:17.000Z

With latest git some other error appears: http://pastebin.com/5YYJFep7
config.log http://pastebin.com/uGcMDinr

Answer 17 · 2016-10-28T18:21:10.000Z

I'm sorry, this kind of things just happens with development code...

I fixed this one too, please try again with lastest code

Answer 18 · 2016-10-29T09:04:09.000Z

I tested it and it seems it works like a charm now. Thank you so much!

Answer 19 · 2016-10-29T09:40:37.000Z

Very happy to know that 😄

Answer 20 · 2016-10-29T20:36:43.000Z

I'm on Xubuntu 16.04. I just got a new laptop so dev environment not set up yet - if you happen to have a .deb laying around, I'll install and test it!

Answer 21 · 2016-10-30T12:26:33.000Z

I'm rather new to Debian packaging, but I'm trying to make a deb for you in a few hours 😎

Anyway, the problem seems to be solved (albeit I'm waiting for your confirmation too), but this will give you a taste of the newer features!

Answer 22 · 2016-10-30T15:48:57.000Z

Here are two deb files I created with Multiload-ng builtin package generator. I have no means of testing them, but other people previously reported that packages generated this way do work well.

the first was created within Ubuntu 16.04 (32 bit)
the second was created within Gentoo (64 bit), but should be installable in 64 bit *Ubuntu without any problem

Choose the one that suits your architecture. I hope these work! I can't test them since I am not using Ubuntu.

multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_i386.deb
multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_amd64.deb

Note: these packages are not redistributable! These were created to test a development version, these are simply not ready for release, just for testing purposes.
Before installing, you might need to uninstall any other release package of Multiload-ng (including WebUpd8 ones), and then when you are reinstalling WebUpd8 official packages, remove the one you installed from here. (preferences are not removed with the package)

Answer 23 · 2016-11-15T02:27:08.000Z

FYI - I couldn't get your multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_amd64.deb above to install. So I deconstructed it and rebuilt it, it seems to work. (Link below.)

Some background on the problems I had with your version:

My version info: Xubuntu 16.04.1, x86_64, kernel 4.4.0-47-generic.

The Ubuntu "Software" manager, upon trying to open it, would give the error: "Sorry, this did not work", "no file_to_app results to show".

It loaded without complaint in gdebi (graphical deb installer), and when you click "Install", it seems to - but doesn't. (And normally the "Install" button goes away upon success, replaced by "Reinstall" and "Uninstall", but doesn't.) If you click on the Lintian output tab, you see this:

dpkg-deb: error: file '/home/user/Downloads/multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_amd64.deb' is not a debian binary archive (try dpkg-split?)
/bin/tar: This does not look like a tar archive
/bin/tar: *control: Not found in archive
/bin/tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
Skipping /home/user/Downloads/multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_amd64.deb: could not read control data in /home/user/Downloads/multiload-ng_1.4.2.20161030-1_amd64.deb: at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/ProcessablePool.pm line 91.

Lintian finished with exit status 2

So I rebuilt the deb. Steps:

Extracted the "usr" folder from the deb archive.
Changed owner:group to root
Made sure stuff was marked executable (e.g. the .desktop files weren't).
Copied "usr/share/locale/es" to "en", just in case that was causing any problems.
Rebuilt using dpkg-deb, following the basic steps here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=910717&s=ff9d4a3b6daf2999e2dcd53285aba3d2&p=5728953#post5728953

The gdebi Lintian output wasn't flawless, but seemed like minor problems, and it seems to have installed fine.

(And yes, it's now Spanish, while I'm a native EN-US speaker. I can get along OK in Spanish so that's fine, and I already know what everything is supposed to do and say anyway ;-)

Here's the new deb file - specifically for XFCE4 x86_64 (english users will see spanish text):

multiloadng_1.4.2.20161030_doublemeat.deb

Thanks again for the good work!

Answer 24 · 2016-11-15T03:07:32.000Z

I should also add that this version does seem to fix this specific logged issue. Custom colors are restored. Yea!

Answer 25 · 2016-11-15T06:55:50.000Z

That .deb file was simply badly generated I told you that I am not good with Debian packaging...

You can just ignore that file, there is a new release and I'm sure that Andrew @ WebUpd8 is already at work to add to its PPA.

The important thing is that it solved the issue for you!

Answer 26 · 2016-11-15T19:18:52.000Z

Well done on the Doom Guy! ;-)