MX 24.5 xfce - Onboard tray icon is gone after YT video in fullscreen mode, and BT in sleep mode

[madmax25]

I still got this annoyingly disappearing onboard tray icon, when I watch longer Youtube videos in fullscreen mode.
While watching, my BT mouse is entering sleep mode and I have to push some mouse buttons and move the mouse around a bit, to wake it up.
Then I close the video, and see the onboard tray icon is gone, but onboard is still in the task manager.

After booting into MX 23.4 xfce, the task manager entry of onboard looks like this:

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/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/onboard --not-show-in=GNOME,GNOME-Classic:GNOME --startup-delay=3.0

I made this little script (as a workaround), to restart onboard after its tray icon is gone.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

killall onboard
sleep 4
onboard &
exit

Then the task manager entry looks like this:

Code: Select all

onboard

But it doesn't change anything regarding the disappearing icon in the above mentioned scenario, because it disappears again, after having watched a Youtube video in fullscreen again or another one.

Starting onboard in the terminal doesn't help either.
The only message I get ist this:

Code: Select all

onboard

(onboard:42019): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 14:21:43.678: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed

And if I start onboard like this:

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/usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/onboard --not-show-in=GNOME,GNOME-Classic:GNOME --startup-delay=3.0

I don't get any output at all.

I tried to uninstall onboard, but then, both Synaptic and MXPI want me to uninstall lightdm-gtk-greeter-mx23 as well.
So I thought, let's uninstall onboard and reinstall lightdm-gtk-greeter-mx23 afterwards (because I need the latter one for the login screen), but that didn't work either, because the installation and also the uninstallation of one is not possible without the other one.

I also tried to compare the current onboard installation with the one from MX 19.4 xfce which is still on my SSD just for comparisons like the current one but I couldn't find any differences.

How can I fix this to make the onboard tray icon stopp from disappearing, please?


My QSI:

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-31-amd64 [6.1.128-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-31-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.5_x64 Libretto Jan 12  2025 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: Z170A GAMING M5 (MS-7977) v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.I0 date: 06/26/2018
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-6700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S gen: core 6 level: v3
    note: check built: 2015 process: Intel 14nm family: 6 model-id: 0x5E (94) stepping: 3
    microcode: 0xF0
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4200 scaling: driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave
    cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 bogomips: 63999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Vulnerable: No microcode
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: IBRS
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: IBRS; IBPB: conditional; STIBP: conditional; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: TSX disabled
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] driver: nvidia v: 535.216.01 non-free: 530.xx+
    status: current (as of 2023-03) arch: Maxwell code: GMxxx process: TSMC 28nm built: 2014-19 pcie:
    gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1401 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Creative Live! Cam Chat HD [VF0700/VF0790] type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-4.1:4 chip-ID: 041e:4097
    class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: TerraTec GmbH Video Grabber type: USB driver: cx231xx bus-ID: 1-4.2:6
    chip-ID: 0ccd:00a6 class-ID: ef00 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: nvidia
    gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1017x286mm (40.04x11.26")
    s-diag: 1056mm (41.59")
  Monitor-1: DP-0 pos: primary,right res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 82 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23")
    diag: 686mm (27.01") modes: N/A
  Monitor-2: HDMI-0 pos: left res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 93 size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65")
    diag: 604mm (23.8") modes: N/A
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 535.216.01 renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960/PCIe/SSE2
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 1-4.1:4 bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 041e:4097
    chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0300 serial: <filter> class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM206 High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fba class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Creative Live! Cam Chat HD [VF0700/VF0790] type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid,uvcvideo
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-31-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82574L Gigabit Network driver: e1000e v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:10d3 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: TP-Link Archer T4U v2 [Realtek RTL8812AU] type: USB driver: rtl8812au bus-ID: 1-4.4:8
    chip-ID: 2357:010d class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-9:3 chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
    sub-v: 22bb hci-v: 4.0 rev: 22bb
  Info: acl-mtu: 310:10 sco-mtu: 64:8 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio,
    telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 4.09 TiB used: 2.6 TiB (63.6%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM000-1F2168 size: 3.64 TiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5900 serial: <filter>
    rev: CC54 scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q
    scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 48.86 GiB size: 47.79 GiB (97.81%) used: 19.68 GiB (41.2%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdb9 maj-min: 8:25
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 100 MiB size: 99.2 MiB (99.20%) used: 32.8 MiB (33.0%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 64.66 GiB size: 63.1 GiB (97.58%) used: 24.3 GiB (38.5%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdb10 maj-min: 8:26
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 6 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C pch: 40.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 45 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 21%
Repos:
  Packages: 2644 pm: dpkg pkgs: 2634 libs: 1447 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 10
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
Info:
  Processes: 286 Uptime: 4h 3m wakeups: 1 Memory: 31.3 GiB used: 4.5 GiB (14.4%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

[atomick]

Perhaps an erroneous mouse click " Might-Be " clicking your Onboard-X icon as same time your clicking to end your VLC or Video app (web-browser) After Awakening moving around on your DT mouse pad etc. Maybe an unnoticeable click of a close by in focus icon "Might be this culprit of your Onboard icon" so it gets closed out. Tossing darts at Murphy here.

( And this maybe with the DPI Oscillator in your mouse buffering up key clicks - which one might reference a Focus X click top right corner of the closest in focus icon on your Tray. as another similar expression to definition possibility) " Just to toss a little thought for brainiac doo doo into the mess. "

OSI's in my term don't fix issues they can help on very odd and pressing 'unique' issues. Onboard does appear in 2 places in your ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce4-perchannel-xml/ - 2 files here - I found by a grep cmd. after cd to that directory

cd ; grep -EinlR "onboard" * more too the operation of the icon to use will be defined in the xfce4-panel.xml file as to how you set it. Or there positional left center right on the Tray Bar?
xfce4-panel.xml
xfce4-screensaver.xml

Maybe take a look at how before and after re-setting the Onboard icon might provide a feature for the next future event just to learn to know?

Typing onboard does bring up the app for the Onboard Assistant Keyboard but do find to see the " top right - X " is very responsive and can only think it maybe in a tray location permissive to such result closing out your Previous activity ie: YT view.
There are a number of steps you could take. Smart simple to try is "Move this ICON's Location to another Position on your System Tray" (right click the onboard icon and select move
the icon stikky like follows your cursor to anywhere upon the Tray Bar to position for better click and go access.

Another method would be - use F4 when your closing out your browser or YT video view app.
There are some " onboard icon right click Preference features - see "Dock Reference".
yet this would be positional to where on the screen do you keep this Onboard ScreenBoard or is it for immediate use clicking the icon to bring up the keyboard for use. Anything can help it becomes an adaptation if something like this hinders disappearance. Hope this might help a Byte.
PS: mice do get hungry when sleeping and the 1st X could mean food to snack crackle and pop out by.

[madmax25]

I doubt about an erroneous mouse click, because I always make sure, nothing unwanted gets touched by then. Also for moving around I only use a small and "secure" area.

When watching a YT video, I do a wheel click to open the video in a new tab, then I double click in the video to enable fullscreen mode. After the video I double click there again to get back to window mode. That's when I can see the task bar and notice the onboard icon is gone.

I now checked the two files

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xfce4-panel.xml
xfce4-screensaver.xml

by comparing them in both current MX 23.5 and the old MX 19.4.
The 2nd file seems to be ok (I hope), but in the first one, I found the following section with two onboard entries, one with a capital "O" and the other one with a small "o".
In the according file of MX 19.4, there's only one entry with a small "o".
For testing, I commented out one of them, because I don't see any reason for two of them to exist:

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      <property name="known-legacy-items" type="array">
...
...
...
        <value type="string" value="javaembeddedframe"/>
        <value type="string" value="gxkb"/>
        <value type="string" value="xfce4-power-manager"/>
        <value type="string" value="network-manager-applet"/>
        <value type="string" value="mx-usb-unmounter"/>
        <value type="string" value="apt-notifier.py"/>
        <value type="string" value="autokey-gtk"/>
        <value type="string" value="onboard"/>
      </property>
      <property name="known-items" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="ClipGrab"/>
        <value type="string" value="AutoKey"/>
        <value type="string" value="example-simple-client"/>
        <value type="string" value="autokey-qt"/>
 <! --        <value type="string" value="Onboard"/> -->
        <value type="string" value="birdtray"/>
        <value type="string" value="strawberry"/>
        <value type="string" value="vlc"/>
        <value type="string" value="apt-notifier.py"/>
        <value type="string" value="hp-systray"/>
        <value type="string" value="gaomontablet"/>
        <value type="string" value="mx-usb-unmounter"/>
        <value type="string" value="blueman"/>
      </property>

[fehlix]

.. it disappears after having watched a Youtube video in fullscreen

So you are saying it happens only in fullscreen ?
And also not if you view youtube videos with another "app".
You did not mentioned which video "app" you are using.

Starting onboard in the terminal

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onboard
(onboard:42019): Gdk-CRITICAL **: 14:21:43.678: gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates: assertion 'window->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed

How can I fix this to make the onboard tray icon stopp from disappearing, please?

Perhaps do install this

Code: Select all

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mousetweaks

which provides some Gsettings schemes for onboards mouse integration, in case onboard fails on missing schemes.
After installing mousetweaks, perhaps start again in terminal:
Close onboard, open terminal as normal user and run:

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onboard

Any warnings shown? If not, fine. Now let's see how onboard behave through dbus:
Close onboard again, open terminal as normal user and run (copy/paste) this long command to start onboard through dbus:

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dbus-send --session --dest=org.onboard.Onboard --type=method_call /org/onboard/Onboard org.onboard.Onboard.Show

Any warnings shown? Does it open onboard?
Also did you enable Onboard settings "always show on top"?

+++EDIT+++
Adjusted/added some text with commands to test.

[madmax25]

Ladies and Gentlemen!
"We" (absolutely not!) proudly present... The worst idea of the day:

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<! --        <value type="string" value="Onboard"/> -->

After that, the task bar was simply a total mess.
I had to reset and rebuild it.

My hope is now, that maybe this fixed the disappearing icon issue as well,
because the xfce4-panel.xml looks very different than before and there is only one onboard entry in there.

@ fehlix
I usually watch YT videos in Firefox, I didn't notice the disppearing icon outside of fullscreen mode, yet.

I already tried mousetweaks but then I got a message, this package is for wayland only.

Currently, I observing the effect of the new taskbar.
I will report back as soon as I got news.

If the issue still happens I will try your suggestions.

[fehlix]

I usually watch YT videos in Firefox, I didn't notice the disppearing icon outside of fullscreen mode, yet.

Good now we know.

I already tried mousetweaks but then I got a message, this package is for wayland only.

Not sure what you mean I tried it. You a may have meant Gnome instead of wayland.
As explained already it has some schemes, which may hide the warnings for onboard.
Also it is a Gnome related tool, any may not be intergrated into Xfce, but the gsettings schemes are readable by onboard
at least the warnings are gone here.

Code: Select all

mousetweaks:
  Installed: 3.32.0-4
  Candidate: 3.32.0-4
  Version table:
 *** 3.32.0-4 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages

Just installed it and onboard warnings are gone.

[madmax25]

As far as I remember, the message was indeed mentioning wayland. I was able to install it (same version like yours), but I cannot use it in any way, because it seems to me meant for wayland.
And it doesn't fix the icon issue.

Meanwhile, I tried a locally saved mp4 video, played in SMPlayer in both window and fullscreen mode. => The icon was still there.

Then I watched a YT video in window mode in Firefox. => The icon was still there.

After that, I watched it in fullscreen mode in Firefox. => The icon was gone.

So, the new task bar didn't change anything.

What I also don't understand:
Why do lightdm-gtk-greeter-mx23 and onboard insist to be installed together?
I mean, when I installed MX 23.5 xfce the 1st time, lightdm-gtk-greeter-mx23 was already installed and it worked without onboard.
I installed onboard a while later and no lightdm-gtk-greeter-mx23 was mentioned or required there.

However... since this disappearing icon never happened in the old MX 19.4, my idea is now to try that old version of onboard (on MX 19.4, I used to have 1.4.1-4+b1) or at least some older version than the latest one, but the MXPI doesn't offer such a version, nor does Synaptic.

If it is possible, can somebody please tell me how to install such an older version of onboard, please?

EDIT:
The icon disappeared again, but this time, I had only the desktop on the screen and left the computer for a few minutes.
The mouse fell into sleep mode, I came back and during the awakening the icon was gone, again.
I definitely didn't touch anything with the mouse pointer. It moved only within empty sections of the desktop.

[madmax25]

Today, I continued examining this issue.
I found the ConnectionNotifier extension in the bluetooth manager, which I unchecked a few weeks ago.
But I tried that one both checked and unchecked, but again the icon was disappearing.

Then I thought, let's see what's going on in the greeter settings, maybe I'll also find out, why the greeter and onboard have to be installed together.
There, in the miscellaneous tab, I found onboard in the screen keyboard section, so I selected "Turned off at start" and unchecked that section,
because I don't think I need a screen keyboard, since I don't have a touchscreen on my desktop computer, anyway.

Then, I looked into the notifications settings, where I was able to silence notification popups of the bluetooth manager.
Additionally, I changed the position of these popups from the lower right corner to the upper right one.

After a reboot of MX, I tried a YT video in fullscreen mode, one that was long enough to let the mouse enter sleep mode and after awakening the mouse...
WOW...!!!
The onboard icon was...still present!!!

Now, I'm not sure about which step was the crucial one in the end, but it looks like I finally found a working solution.

EDIT:
Damn! That icon is gone again.
This time I didn't even use fullscreen mode.
As soon as I wake up the mouse, the icon disappears.

[madmax25]

Currently, I'm thinking about giving up in order to set up a new MX.