When I minimize an application, it disappears

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#1

Hi,

I’m using freely-downloadable “Suse Linux 11.4 (Celadon) linux-2s1w”, according to the System Monitor.

When I minimize an application (like Firefox, Kompozer, or whatever) by hitting the “minimize app” button in the top right-hand corner of the application, the application disappears.

The animation makes it appear like the application has been minimized down in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, but it’s gone.

Apps used to minimize down onto my lower “panel,” the narrow band stretching across the bottom of my screen.

I have resized the screen (monitor) to see if the apps were just out of sight, but this appears not to be the case.

Bottom line, I can’t minimize an app without “losing” it.

If anyone has any ideas, thank you very much for your help.

#2

I bet this is on KDE. You probably removed the task manager from the panel by accident…

Right click in the panel, unlock widgets if necessary, go Panel Settings - Add widgets - then add the task manager. Click Panel settings again, click the task manager area and move it to the place you like it to be.

#3

On Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:36:02 +0000, benali72 wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I’m using freely-downloadable “Suse Linux 11.4 (Celadon) linux-2s1w”,
> according to the System Monitor.
>
> When I minimize an application (like Firefox, Kompozer, or whatever) by
> hitting the “minimize app” button in the top right-hand corner of the
> application, the application disappears.
>
> The animation makes it appear like the application has been minimized
> down in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, but it’s gone.
>
> Apps used to minimize down onto my lower “panel,” the narrow band
> stretching across the bottom of my screen.
>
> I have resized the screen (monitor) to see if the apps were just out of
> sight, but this appears not to be the case.
>
> Bottom line, I can’t minimize an app without “losing” it.
>
> If anyone has any ideas, thank you very much for your help.

If you hit “Alt+Tab” does the application reappear?

It sounds like you’re just missing the applet that shows the minimized
applications.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

#4

Two minds, same thoughts, crossposting. Linux is logic.

#5

Thank you both for your replies. I think you’re both correct… I seem to have removed the task manager from the panel by accident.

If I hit ESC + TAB, the “lost” application comes back.

But I still don’t see how to restore the task manager to the panel.

When I right-click on the panel, I don’t see Panel Settings or Panel Options or Add Widgets.

What I see is the menu with –

Add to Panel
Properties
Delete this Panel
New Panel
Help
About Panels

None of these has any sub-option to add the task manager. (Properties doesn’t have the settings you mentioned).

If I right-click on the desktop, the menu options I see are–

Create Folder
Create Launcher
Create Document…
Open in Terminal
Organize Desktop by name
Keep Aligned
Change Desktop Background

Nothing about unlocking widgets or the task manager.

I’m sorry, I guess I need further information to restore the task manager.

Thank you again!

#6

Maybe you are right-clicking in the wrong place? However, I would say that normally you cannot right-click anywhere on a KDE desktop and not have a ‘(Un)lock Widgets’ in your submenu. :smiley:

But how about trying something else. The keycombination to unlock widgets is ‘Alt+D, L’ which means you press ‘Alt+D’ together and after that just a single ‘L’. When the widgets are unlocked you should see a cashew showing at the right end of your panel. Click this cashew and you should be able to ‘Add widgets’. And the widget to add is of course the ‘Taskmanager’.

#7

Thanks for your reply.

I think I see my problem in following your instructions to get the task manager back… I’m using GNOME rather than KDE.

The System Monitor says:
** linux-2s1w Suse Linux Release 11.4 (Celadon) " Kernel Linux 2.6.37.6-0.11-default GNOME 2.32.1**

I installed SUSE over a year ago, so I don’t recall how I set it up. If the installer offered a choice of user interface, I must have picked GNOME because I’m used to it. I didn’t realize that most SUSE folks use KDE by default.

Prior to logging in I see that I can choose a user interface. The choices are these (no KDE is in the list):

GNOME
iceWM
TWM

I will try to install KDE as per this article, then I should be able to follow your instructions and fix things.

I will post back how it goes (hopefully with a thread marked SOLVED).

Thanks for your patience and help.

#8

If you install KDE, you won’t need to fix it as it will already be set up for you. It already has the basics (inc. a task manager) configured. You can of course delete the task manager & then fix it again :slight_smile: Also, KDE is not like Gnome.

To fix Gnome (and here I’m guessing a little bit), I think the add to panel option is what you want. I think there shoukld then be some sort of list of things you can add, you’re looking for something that resembles a task manager or something similar - add away, you can always delete it again. Don’t worry overmuch about breaking anything!

You could also add another panel to another screen edge & muck about with that one without damaging your “main” panel, then afterwards simply delete it.

#9

Thanks everyone. I installed KDE (a simple one-command process) and everything is fine there. So I’ll use KDE.

As for GNOME, I never did find where to add back the task manager. It’s not anywhere in the standard ADD lists, at least as far as I can tell. I may put a query out on one of the GNOME boards. Usually gconf-editor has an option somewhere for items you can’t add via a right-click. (BTW, in my research if found that GNOME version 3 doesn’t even have minimize/maximize buttons any more, they’ve eliminated them in favor of a workspace switching approach.)

Thanks again everyone for your help.