Bug#858096: [mate-panel?] Mate panel unstable, notification area icons disappear without warning

[michael (C0bb3r)]

I have been doing some more on this issue, even though it appears no one 
else is interested, and have found that it happens when the panel 
properties > background is changed from "None (use system theme" to 
"Solid colour" and the style is adjusted to make the panel transparent. 
If the panel is left Opaque the icons stay as they should but any 
transparency causes the icons to disappear. I hope that helps others to, 
maybe, reproduce this bug and maybe do something to fix it.

Cheers.

Michael.


On 19/03/17 09:43, John Paul Adrian Glaubitz wrote:
> Hello!
>
> On 03/18/2017 11:07 PM, michael (C0bb3r) wrote:
>> Thanks for your assistance. The .xsession-errors, syslog, and  dmesg files are attached. Also attached are a couple of screenshots showing what I mean.
> Attaching large files to bug reports should be avoided. It would have been better to upload
> the screenshots to a webspace. And screenshots should also be sent on request only as they
> aren't really necessary in most cases. But, oh well.
>
> Anyway, from your .xsession-errors there seem to be two warnings which could be related to
> your problem:
>
> (mate-panel:1286): Gtk-WARNING **: Negative content width -3 (allocation 15, extents 9x9) while allocating gadget (node button, owner PanelActionButton)
> (mate-panel:1286): Gtk-WARNING **: Allocating size to GtkAlignment 0x55cfb821bdf0 without calling gtk_widget_get_preferred_width/height(). How does the code
> know the size to allocate?
>
> Other than that, there are also lots of theme-related warnings and since you have such a
> fancy theme, I'd try resetting the theme as first attempt. If that doesn't help, we need
> to investigate the two warnings above.
>
> This is unrelated, but:
>
>> I am very well aware that I have an external source on my system. I added it so I could get a package for flash which is, unfortunately, still a requirement on
>> some websites.
> Debian has its own flashplugin-nonfree installer for the Flash package.
>
>> Many Debian Derivatives have external sources, infact one of the Debian pages concerning Derivatives recommends using Debian as the base and
>> adding external sources for other things that are required (1). As it is I have 1 external package on 1 machine (that last message was from my laptop I am
>> currently on my desktop) and the problem is on both and has been since a few minutes after the installation was finished not including the old install.
> The wiki page you linked outlines the guidelines for developers who want to create their
> own derivative of Debian so that their works doesn't interfere with Debian and does not
> violate any trademark/branding issues. This guide is not for end users and it most certainly
> does not encourage the creation of a FrankenDebian. Anyway, this is off-topic, but you
> should be aware that using a FrankenDebian is at your own risk.
>
> Adrian
>