Workspaces switcher does not unexpose

[monkeybrain20122]

I am using Ubuntu with Unity and workspaces activated. In Ubuntu 14.04 if I click the workspaces switcher icon on the unity launcher bar it exposes all the workspaces, if click again (when the workspaces are already exposed), the workspaces are unexposed. But in Ubuntu 14.10 nothing happens if workspaces are alrealy exposed (i.e. second click doesn't unexpose)

Actually this happens with 14.04 as well after Unity upgraded a few months ago, but since I have pinned the package I am still able to click to unexpose. I thought that this was a temporary bug and hopefully would be fixed in further upgrades, but it persists in 14.10 so I am now not sure whether it is a bug or a change in design.

Any idea?

[grahammechanical]

I am on vivid Vervet and after some experimentation it is left click to expose and right click to unexpose. It works consistently.

Regards.

[monkeybrain20122]

I am not on Vivid obviously, which is not even pre alpha. I can attest that doesn't work for Unity > 7.20. Tried on two different machines so has nothing to with hardware.

[monkeybrain20122]

No one experiences this problem?

[Doug S]

I am using Ubuntu with Unity and workspaces activated. In Ubuntu 14.04 if I click the workspaces switcher icon on the unity launcher bar it exposes all the workspaces, if click again (when the workspaces are already exposed), the workspaces are unexposed. But in Ubuntu 14.10 nothing happens if workspaces are alrealy exposed (i.e. second click doesn't unexpose)It seems to be working fine for me. I am running an up to date Ubuntu14.10 as a guest VM on an Ubuntu 14.04 server host.

[mc4man]

Have you tried in a guest session on an affected install?
(- no issue here, has never stopped working

[monkeybrain20122]

Not work in guest session either, it works in 14.04 (any session) if I pin Unity to 7.20, it stops working if I let it upgrade. Never works in 14.10.

For 14.10 it does work in live usb. But not after install to hard drive.

[monkeybrain20122]

No idea?

[mc4man]

No idea?
Seems to be a rare & quite localized issue, can't reproduce whatsoever. (just re-installed 14.04 last night.
Can't see any connect between 14.10 (live, 7.3.1+) works, 14.10 (install, same 7.3.1+) doesn't & 14.04 (release 7.2.0) works & 14.04 (7.2.2 or .3) doesn't.
That makes it seem hardware related if nothing was changed in 14.10 & only updates/upgrades in 14.04
(- if you install 14.10 with internet enabled does same occur if you disable before the install?

small curiosity - can you scroll on the ws icon when expo is active to switch ws's?
does super+ tapping s activate & terminate expo?

[monkeybrain20122]

Seems to be a rare & quite localized issue, can't reproduce whatsoever. (just re-installed 14.04 last night.
Can't see any connect between 14.10 (live, 7.3.1+) works, 14.10 (install, same 7.3.1+) doesn't & 14.04 (release 7.2.0) works & 14.04 (7.2.2 or .3) doesn't.
That makes it seem hardware related if nothing was changed in 14.10 & only updates/upgrades in 14.04
(- if you install 14.10 with internet enabled does same occur if you disable before the install?

small curiosity - can you scroll on the ws icon when expo is active to switch ws's?
does super+ tapping s activate & terminate expo?

Not sure if having intenet on has any impact on this, but I don't have the time to reinstall without internet at the moment.

It happens in two different laptops of completely different specs so I don't know if hardware has anything to do with it (one dell with intel video card, the other hp with AMD video card)

Scrolling on the launcher doesn't work (press alt + scroll) whether expo is activated or not (works in 14.04 with unity 7.20) If expo is activated scrolling (not pressing alt) just select workspace

Suoer + tab (when expose is activated) select launcher on the icon but does not terminate expos (this is also true with 14.04 with unity 7.20)

[monkeybrain20122]

Any thought?

[monkeybrain20122]

It seems that the culprits is some settings in my home. Did a fresh install of 14.04 on a test partition to test something else and expose works with up to date Unity. In the other installations I always keep the same /home partition. I wonder which config file may be responsible. Can mc4man help? Thanks.

[mc4man]

(- I knew your orig. description made no sense, so keeping an old /home is culprit..
Maybe try dconf dump to compare similar non-working & working installs. I believe it will only dump actual changes to default settings so may not be illuminating.
Ex.

dconf dump / >> dconf_old.txt
ect.
Then compare or diff the files

[monkeybrain20122]

I think I have figured it out. For unity > 7.20 workspace switcher does not unexpose if the unity launcher is set to autohide. I think this is a bug and can be easily reproduced by others. Can anyone please confirm or unconfirm it?

[Doug S]

I think I have figured it out. For unity > 7.20 workspace switcher does not unexpose if the unity launcher is set to autohide. I think this is a bug and can be easily reproduced by others. Can anyone please confirm or unconfirm it?Hmmm... I can not seem to make autohide work properly. When I enable it, I can never get it to come out from being hidden. I tried different sensitivities and different reveal locations. Oddly, I can sometimes see only the software updater icon trying to reveal. I am a server guy and only run dekstop as a VM guest on my server and my display is via VNC. I thought your request would be easy to confirm or deny, but it is turning into a saga.

[mc4man]

I'm on the road till late Tuesday but I'll check out when I return (only take tablets with me.
Haven't been using autohide much lately so can't say I've noticed.
(- also have been backporting all compiz & unity 14.10/15.04 changes to 14.04 so not using the trusty version per se.

[monkeybrain20122]

Haven't been using autohide much lately so can't say I've noticed.
(- also have been backporting all compiz & unity 14.10/15.04 changes to 14.04 so not using the trusty version per se.

Hi, compiz and unity in 14.10 behave the same way, as does Trusty update to unity > 7.2.0 so I think you would be able to see this behaviour too if my guess is correct. On the other hand unity 7.20 on trusty before offiical upgrade a while back did not exhibit this problem (so I have it pinned on my main Trusty install)

[Doug S]

I learned that for my situation, I can use "ALT F1" to force reveal the hidden launcher.

I confirm your findings, but with a slight difference: The first time works, but thereafter it doesn't.

Detail:
1.) Use "ALT F1" to force reveal the launcher.
2.) Position mouse over the workspace switcher icon and click.
3.) The workspace window comes up.
4.) Click again.
5.) The workspace window goes away, leaving the original desktop window.
6.) Click again.
7.) The workspace window comes up.
8.) Click again, and as many times as desired. The workspace window stays.

As a sanity check, do the same with autohide turned off: It works always.

The above tests were repeated several times.

Note: To get out of the locked up state, move the mouse over and select a workspace and click.

Edit 1: Addendum: There seems to be a correlation between the top most icon and this issue.

Greyed:
259053

Normal:
259054

When the launcher is in auto-hide mode but revealed and that topmost icon is greyed out, then things work normally.
When that topmost icon is normal, then the issue of this thread occurs.
When that topmost icon is greyed out, then it doesn't work either (which is normal for greyed out icons, but I don't think normal for this situation).

When the launcher is not in auto-hide mode, then that topmost icon is never greyed out (at least that I have been able to discover) and things work normally.

Edit 2: Actually once the issue from this thread has occurred, I can never get the topmost icon to work properly again. regardless of the auto-hide setting or the workspaces enabled setting. It either doesn't work at all (greyed) or opens but won't let me go it, just disappearing instead. I have to re-boot. (Note: I am not certain of the particular sequence to get into this state, but have ended up there several times now.)

[monkeybrain20122]

Hi, Doug S,

Thanks for the tests. Yes, autohide is somewhat broken in that sometimes the unity launcher doesn't reveal itself. When that happens I change workspace and change back and it works again. Since I have edges (for desktop wall) and hot corners (scale and expose) enabled I just move the mouse to the edge or the corner to achieve that. Pressing the super key also reveals the launcher.

[mc4man]

Here it's pretty straightforward -
auto-hide enabled
left click on icon goes to expo
while in expo a left click on icon does nothing, but a right click works & terminates expo.

auto-hide disabled
A left click opens expo, either a left or right click on icon terminates.

(14.04 w/ unity - 7.3.1+15.04.20141216, compiz - 0.9.12.0+15.04.20141210.2

[mc4man]

I learned that for my situation, I can use "ALT F1" to force reveal the hidden launcher.

I confirm your findings, but with a slight difference: The first time works, but thereafter it doesn't.

Detail:
1.) Use "ALT F1" to force reveal the launcher.

That is "Launcher navigation mode", the top icon isn't 'greyed out', it's 'selected' (use down & up arrow keys to see...
To force the launcher just hold super key down.

[monkeybrain20122]

Here it's pretty straightforward -
auto-hide enabled
left click on icon goes to expo
while in expo a left click on icon does nothing, but a right click works & terminates expo.

auto-hide disabled
A left click opens expo, either a left or right click on icon terminates.

(14.04 w/ unity - 7.3.1+15.04.20141216, compiz - 0.9.12.0+15.04.20141210.2

Thanks for checking it out. So I gather this is not expected behaviour and a bug should be filed?

Also wonder if you can reproduce these reported on post #10
"scrolling on the launcher doesn't work (press alt + scroll) whether expo is activated or not (works in 14.04 with unity 7.20) If expo is activated scrolling (not pressing alt) just select workspace

Suoer + tab (when expose is activated) select launcher on the icon but does not terminate expos (this is also true with 14.04 with unity 7.20)"

[mc4man]

Thanks for checking it out. So I gather this is not expected behaviour and a bug should be filed?

Well if a left click should work to dismiss expo then yes. (- does a right click not work for you?


Also wonder if you can reproduce these reported on post #10
"scrolling on the launcher doesn't work (press alt + scroll) whether expo is activated or not (works in 14.04 with unity 7.20) If expo is activated scrolling (not pressing alt) just select workspace

Suoer + tab (when expose is activated) select launcher on the icon but does not terminate expos (this is also true with 14.04 with unity 7.20)"
I'm a bit lost here -
What is alt+scroll supposed to accomplish?

Same for super+tab, how does that relate to expo icon or expo mode? Edit: ok, I see - works fine here, will either open or close if already open

[mc4man]

attached short vid, is this what you mean?
(using super+tab, tab, tab, ect to open then close expo

[Doug S]

That is "Launcher navigation mode", the top icon isn't 'greyed out', it's 'selected' (use down & up arrow keys to see...Ah, I see thank you.
To force the launcher just hold super key down.I cann't do that, there is no super key with a VNC desktop to the VM guest, as the super key calls up the start menu on the (dare I mention it) windows 8.1 computer I am physically sitting at.

It must be pretty obvious to you guys that I have no clue when it comes to desktop stuff (as previously mentioned, I am a server guy). I was just trying to help, but think I better leave it to you. As far as I can tell auto-hide mode is pretty broken.

[mc4man]

Ah, I see thank you.I cann't do that, there is no super key with a VNC desktop to the VM guest, as the super key calls up the start menu on the (dare I mention it) windows 8.1 computer I am physically sitting at.

It must be pretty obvious to you guys that I have no clue when it comes to desktop stuff (as previously mentioned, I am a server guy). I was just trying to help, but think I better leave it to you. As far as I can tell auto-hide mode is pretty broken.
Not that I think you need it but the function of 'super' can be changed in ccsm > Ubuntu unity.. > Launcher tab to some other keybinding though then it requires a min of 2 keys from a short list of what's not used. (- like maybe ctrl+l as in hold ctrl, tap l

[monkeybrain20122]

attached short vid, is this what you mean?
(using super+tab, tab, tab, ect to open then close expo

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Haven't logged into utopic for a while. I mean scrolling the unity launcher when expose is activated (place cursor on launchet, press alt and then scroll) scroll works with unity 7.2.0 when expose is activated but not above.

I use a laptop with the touchpad so I don't left click right click, I just tab the touchpad. Since it unexpose with 7.2.0 but not above I would think that it is a bug.