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colapop

Member

Registered: 2025-12-13

Posts: 5

tooltips timeout too fast

In one of my xfce4 installations, tooltips disappear very quickly, after less than about 1 second.

It is throughout the environment in various applications. Many developers put help or explanatory text in tooltips when you hover cursor over a button or menu item. I can't read all this info without moving the mouse back and forth and having is disappear/reappear.

I did try a websearch but all I could find is people trying to get rid of tooltips. I like them. Must be a betting somewhere? Changing themes has no effect.

Xfce 4.18 on Debian; can provide more details or examples if required.

Any ideas?

eriefisher

Wanderer

From: ON, Canada

Registered: 2008-10-25

Posts: 828

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

When I hover or an item the tool tip stays visible as long as the cursor is above them item. Are you saying the tool tip disappears quickly? I'm not familiar with a graphical setting for this. Is there any css settings maybe that you've set?

Maybe @ToZ has a better suggestion.

---

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ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,383

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Can you post back the results of:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-notifyd -lv
ps -ef | grep -i notif

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colapop

Member

Registered: 2025-12-13

Posts: 5

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

When I hover or an item the tool tip stays visible as long as the cursor is above them item. Are you saying the tool tip disappears quickly?

Yep! I don't think I set anything but maybe I did...

Can you post back the results of:

/applications/known_applications  <<UNSUPPORTED>>
colapop        3333    3057  0 Nov23 ?        00:00:05 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
colapop        3424    3295  0 Nov23 ?        00:00:04 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 9 29360146 systray Status Tray Plugin Provides status notifier items (application indicators) and legacy systray items
colapop     1947446 1940769  0 16:00 pts/1    00:00:00 grep -i -i notif

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,383

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Is that all the first command "xfconf-query -c xfce4-notifyd -lv" returned? There should be more.

Try going to Settings Manager > Notifications, and on the General tab, ensure "Disappear After" is set to a desired timeout (I believe 10 seconds is the default).

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colapop

Member

Registered: 2025-12-13

Posts: 5

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Try going to Settings Manager > Notifications, and on the General tab, ensure "Disappear After" is set to a desired timeout (I believe 10 seconds is the default).

Yes, this is already set to 10s.

Then I reran the commands you asked for and now there is more details:

/applications/known_applications  <<UNSUPPORTED>>
/log-level                        0
/log-level-apps                   0
/notify-location                  2
/primary-monitor                  0

colapop        3333    3057  0 Nov23 ?        00:00:05 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
colapop        3424    3295  0 Nov23 ?        00:00:04 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/wrapper-2.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 9 29360146 systray Status Tray Plugin Provides status notifier items (application indicators) and legacy systray items
colapop     1950280 1950257  3 17:31 ?        00:00:04 xfce4-notifyd-config --socket-id=102773855
colapop     1950445 1940769  0 17:33 pts/1    00:00:00 grep -i -i notif

(But I still have the terminal session open from earlier and I'm sure the results I posted earlier were correct. In case that is relevant.)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,383

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

My bad. I'm confusing tooltips with notifications.

Do you have a ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css or ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini file? If so, can you post its content?

If not, what Gtk (Appearance) theme are you using and if you change the theme, does the problem go away?

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colapop

Member

Registered: 2025-12-13

Posts: 5

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Thank you for the help so far!

Do you have a ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css or ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini file? If so, can you post its content?

~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

@import 'colors.css';

~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

[Settings]
gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme=false
gtk-button-images=true
gtk-cursor-theme-name=breeze_cursors
gtk-cursor-theme-size=24
gtk-decoration-layout=icon:minimize,maximize,close
gtk-enable-animations=true
gtk-font-name=Noto Sans,  10
gtk-icon-theme-name=breeze
gtk-menu-images=true
gtk-modules=window-decorations-gtk-module:colorreload-gtk-module
gtk-primary-button-warps-slider=false
gtk-theme-name=Breeze
gtk-toolbar-style=3
gtk-xft-dpi=98304

but the above doesn't reflects my settings in either xfce4-appearance-settings or xfwm4-settings. For example I have 20pt font (which isn't Noto) set everywhere and cursor size 72. My window buttons start with close,stick... etc

If not, what Gtk (Appearance) theme are you using and if you change the theme, does the problem go away?

I tried a few different ones and there is no change. For testing sake I set to Adwaita.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,383

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Try renaming both of those files (gtk.css.old and settings.ini.old) and log out and back in again to test.

It is throughout the environment in various applications.

Which are the "various applications" that you see this happening?

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colapop

Member

Registered: 2025-12-13

Posts: 5

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

Try renaming both of those files (gtk.css.old and settings.ini.old) and log out and back in again to test.

No effect!

Which are the "various applications" that you see this happening?

For example, if you launch xfce4-appfinder and type "mousepad" then hover mouse over the item, you get a tooltip like this:

Name: Mousepad
Comment: Simple Text Editor
Command: mousepad %U
Categories: Utility; TextEditor; GTK
Filename: /usr/share/applications/org.xfce.mousepad.desktop

Also e.g. in Thunar the toolbar buttons have tooltips, like the ↑ button "Open the parent folder"; ← "Go to the previous visited folder" etc.

Added later 10 min 02 s:
For good measure, I made a totally new user with all default config and when I log into XFCE4 it's exactly the same issue. So I guess can rule out all user config. hmmmm

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 834

Re: tooltips timeout too fast

I made a couple searches and can't find a solution or clear test for what's happening, but I have a question: does that system have an nVidia GPU?

Some of the results pointed in that direction, but nothing clear-cut, it's just a hunch: https://github.com/modrinth/code/issues/1044 and the linked at the end: https://github.com/modrinth/code/issues/3057

edited to add: a look at ~/.xsession-errors could also be useful?

Last edited by alcornoqui (2025-12-14 12:46:05)