Firefox and taskbar/taskmanager bug

**funkypigeon** · 01-Dec-2011, 16:55

Hi,

I have a small and rather annoying bug since I installed openSUSE 12.1, with the way that Firefox behaves after being closed. The problem is as follows...

After installing 12.1, down on the taskbar/taskmanager there are two liitle icons (filemanager and firefox) which appear to be attached to the taskmanager instead of being attached on the normal place of the taskbar which is just to the right of the Kickoff application.

* In previous beta releases of 12.1 these icons I would remove as there were duplicates (and bigger) icons to the left of them, which after a reboot would magically reappear back on the taskmanager. Very odd.

Anyway, when I open firefox by clicking on the icon, firefox opens normally but the icon that was, has now merged with the new windows and has a description with it and no longer performs the function of opening a new firefox window. So to open a new instance of firefox I have to open the Kickoff application and open firefox from there.

After closing the firefox window, the window description remains on the taskbar and effective does nothing and doesn't revert back to a clickable icon for a good period of time. Very peculiar behaviour if you ask me and I surprised nobody has fixed this oddity as everybody must experience it.

This behaviour doesn't appear to happen with the filemanager icon however.

One way I tried to get around this was to remove the icons from the taskmanager and instead drag icons from the Kickoff menu just to the right of it, which produced some slightly bigger icons which remain fixed in place and perform their function of opening new instances of firefox and filemanager. But there is still the problem of the last instance of firefox being left on the taskbar when it's window is closed. I would expect for it to disappear and free up space on the taskbar.

Wondering what others experiences are with this and if anybody has found a solution.

Thanks

**nrickert** · 01-Dec-2011, 19:24

Originally Posted by funkypigeon

Wondering what others experiences are with this and if anybody has found a solution.

Personally, I start firefox at a command line. That's mostly because I run a script to do some other stuff as part of the startup.

I had not noticed the disappearing icon. But, now that you mention it, I do see that it has gone. So I'll experiment with it to see if I can find out anything.

For the benefit of others reading this thread, I am using KDE and I'm pretty sure that the OP is also using KDE.

**Sagemta** · 01-Dec-2011, 20:05

Check this out WFM!
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/g...heres-fix.html

**funkypigeon** · 01-Dec-2011, 20:17

Forgot to mention I am using Opensuse 12.1 KDE 4.7.2

Sagemta, yes thanks for that link. More ways to remove the icons. However, the problem of a closed program leaving an entry on the taskbar remains. Perhaps it is expected behaviour.

**DenverD** · 02-Dec-2011, 07:15

On 12/02/2011 04:26 AM, funkypigeon wrote:
> Perhaps it is expected behaviour.

no. my _guess_ is you installed onto a hard drive with a pre-existing
/home which you elected to save and use with your new openSUSE 12.1, and
the strange behavior you see now are because of oddities within the
hidden configuration files in your /home..

to check out my guess, just use YaST > Security and Users > User and
Group Management to add a _new_ user, something like (say) funktest,
give funktest a good password, then log out and back in as funktest and
see of the icons are where they should be and act as you expect..

*if* the test user works good, then you ask what might be done to solve
the problem (or search the forum, there are many instances of how to
either morph to the new user (and abandon the old) or try to repair the
old user)..

--
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
openSUSE®, the "German Engineered Automobiles" of operating systems!

**funkypigeon** · 20-Dec-2011, 07:56

DenverD, no my install was a clean install and I did a format of all partitions. I have also done the install process a couple of times and the problem is always present. I think it's a peculiarity with the taskmanager widget. It is also new to SUSE 12.1 as I never experienced it back with 11.4.

**DenverD** · 20-Dec-2011, 08:19

> It is also new to SUSE 12.1 as I never experienced
> it back with 11.4.

did you try a new test user?

--
DD
openSUSE®, the "German Engineered Automobiles" of operating systems!

**nrickert** · 20-Dec-2011, 08:52

In an earlier post, I said I would do some checking.

Yes, the firefox icon disappears when firefox is running. It reappears when I shutdown firefox. The dolphin icon behaves in a similar way.

When you shutdown firefox, but the icon is still missing, you might want to check whether it is really shutdown. Use

Code:

ps -ef | grep firefox

to see what is running, and ignore the "grep firefox" line that will be in the output. If there is some part of firefox still running, that might explain why you are seeing this problem.