Xfce Forum

Roy Hoejgaard

Member

Registered: 2022-09-14

Posts: 2

Tooltip for nm-applet in systray is located 95% outside of the screen.

Dear XFCE Team,

First, I want to congratulate you on your incredible achievement over the last couple of decades. IMHO, XFCE has become one of the most useful Desktop Environments for Linux, with it's very low system requirements and yet excellent ability to be customized.

A few months back I set out to create a new Distro. A Distro that would be exceptionally easy for Windows users to transition to. After a lot of research I settled on using Debian 11 + XFCE. Things are progressing quite well.

However, there is one thing that keeps blocking me. I have been drilling into this issue for 3+ weeks now, but haven't been able to find a solution yet.

Please consider the following scenario:

1. Install Debian 11 with XFCE.
2. Delete Panel 2 and place Panel 1 at the bottom of the screen.
3. Increase the height of the panel to 42px.
4. Hover the mouse over nm-applet in the systray. The tooltip will display below the mouse cursor, with 95% of it being outside of the screen.
4b. This is not true for the Bluetooth applet (also part of the systray) or any other launcher/applet on the panel, i.e. weather, volume, clock etc). They are all good.

I have done tons of trial and error, downloading different versions of XFCE Panel from archive.xfce.org (4.16.0, 4.16.2, 4.16.5), compiling and installing but to no avail.

In fact, when using a self compiled version of the XFCE systray (any version), the Bluetooth applet actually LOSES it's tooltip? The nm-applet's tooltip remains in the wrong location.

Some say that it's a flaw in GTK3 itself, and suggest doing this patch: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/me … 1be2a73829

I tried it, but after successfully compiling and updating GTK3, the graphic environment refused to start on reboot. Lack of knowledge on my part, I guess. So I abandoned it for now.

The most recent XUbuntu does not have this issue. It seems to me they are using a slightly different version of the nm-applet. But the "About" in the applet's menu is missing, so it is hard to say.

My conclusion so far: the nm-applet's "Button" within the systray's "Box" does not get the full height of the panel, if the icon's height is less than the panels height. This can be proven by setting the Status Tray's Fixed icon size to eg. 28px and hovering the mouse close to the upper or lower edges of the nm-applet. I think, because of this, it is fooled to believe there is enough space available.

So, in my mind, the most likely solution is to always give the nm-applets button 100% height. But where exactly to change the code to achieve this? plugins/systray/sn-button.c? plugins/systray/sn-box.c? The nm-applets own code? GTK's code?

I am lost. Please advise. Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post.

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 321

Re: Tooltip for nm-applet in systray is located 95% outside of the screen.

The GTK merge request you quoted does fix the issue. There is a workaround otherwise, see https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-pane … note_49106

Roy Hoejgaard

Member

Registered: 2022-09-14

Posts: 2

Re: Tooltip for nm-applet in systray is located 95% outside of the screen.

The GTK merge request you quoted does fix the issue. There is a workaround otherwise, see https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-pane … note_49106

Thank you for the pointer. Yes, I did come across this workaround in my research, but unfortunately it creates some undesired side effects. And I really want to get to the bottom of this issue, so it will be fixed properly.

So GTK3 is indeed the real problem... Okay, then I think I will drill deeper into how to correctly patch, compile and update it - without seizing up my entire system again.

Any pointers on this are most welcome. Thanks again.

Edit: there is also something to be said about the nm-applet and Bluetooth applet buttons having different heights. I suspect, that if they were the same height, it would also fix the issue...

Last edited by Roy Hoejgaard (2022-09-14 22:32:45)