Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 October 24

= October 24 =

Window Buttons panel item not working in Xfce
I have earlier installed Xfce on my Fedora 32 Linux system in parallel to Cinnamon. Now when I logged out and logged back in into an Xfce desktop session, I found out that mostly everything is working OK, except the panel at the bottom of the screen. The Windows Button panel item is not showing any windows at all. And I mean no windows at all. Not a single window button appears in the panel.

To switch between windows, I have to either manually drag the windows around or use the Windows Menu panel item, which works but is more difficult to use.

What is going on here and how can I fix it? J I P &#124; Talk 13:14, 24 October 2020 (UTC)


 * First, do you have the Windows Buttons widget attached to the panel? Right click on the Panel, select Panel, then Panel Preferences. Click the Items tab. Is Windows Buttons shown?
 * If it is, I would simply remove it and re-add it. Select it and click the - button
 * To add it, click the + button and select Window Buttons. It will be the last item in the list. Click the up arrow until it is where you want it to be in your panel.
 * You can customize the buttons. Do you want the labels (words) to appear? Do you want it to be flat (no border)? Do you want it to group multiple windows for the same program? Click the Window Buttons item and select preferences.
 * This is how all items on the panel are customized. You can even add more panels. I have one on each screen. They have different items because I use different screens for different purposes. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 19:21, 24 October 2020 (UTC)


 * I did just that, removed and re-added the Window Buttons item. Sure enough, the item was removed from the panel and added back in. But the original problem still remains. I can only see the Window Buttons panel item itself - it does not actually show any window buttons. J I P  &#124; Talk 20:14, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * There was an old bug that caused window buttons to vanish if the panel's height was too small. That was fixed a while ago, so you shouldn't see it. I would personally do a full shut down and reboot to make sure it isn't an issue with trying to initialize XFCE for the first time. Do you have only one workspace and only one viewport? If so, it isn't a problem with windows being in another workspace or another viewport. There is a setting in Window Buttons to show all windows from all workspaces and viewports. Do you only have one monitor? If so, that isn't the problem. But, there is another option in Window Buttons settings to show windows from all monitors. I personally have it show windows only from the current workspace and per monitor. So, a program on one monitor doesn't appear in windows buttons on another monitor. If it is an error, XFCE records errors to ~/.xsession-errors (it should have a lot in it, so reboot and look at the last errors before you do anything). While Linux is great, the "why does it work for everyone but me" problems are usually hell to fix. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 20:36, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I have only one physical monitor but I was using several virtual workspaces. I cut them down to one and then logged out and back in, but the problem still remains. Everything else in the panel works but the Window Buttons item is simply not doing its job - its one single job. I just checked, my  file hasn't been touched in over five years. I have upgraded the system several times in that time - thanks to keeping the system itself and my home directory on separate partitions, I can retain the same home directory across upgrades. I haven't yet tried a full reboot but I could try it sometime later.  J I P  &#124; Talk 21:19, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I have asked the same question on Unix/Linux Stack Exchange (I originally asked it on Stack Overflow but was told Stack Overflow was only for programming, I should go to Unix/Linux for general Linux user questions) but so far got no answer. Does Xfce have an official Bugzilla or Jira or another kind of issue tracker? J I P  &#124; Talk 21:22, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Now I have restarted the entire computer. Just as I suspected, even that didn't help. The "Window Buttons" panel item is still only showing only a solid grey slate. Not one single actual window button. J I P  &#124; Talk 23:33, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Now this is getting weird. I apparently have two panels, panel #0 and panel #1. Adding "Window Buttons" on panel #0 didn't work. But adding it to panel #1 worked just OK and it is actually showing the window buttons. This seems to depend on which panel I add the item to. On panel #1, it works all OK. On panel #0, it doesn't show anything. And this happened even when I didn't have the item previously on panel #0. J I P  &#124; Talk 23:41, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, it appears that "Window Buttons" only wants to work on panel #1. It doesn't work on panel #0 even if it's the only panel I have. J I P  &#124; Talk 23:46, 24 October 2020 (UTC)
 * You say you have one screen. There's no reason to have 2 panels. I have a gut feeling that you have one panel sitting directly on top of the other one. I suggest deleting one of the panels and having only one panel. If you have two panels on one screen, one should be away from the other. For example, you can have one on top and one on bottom. I've seen people with one on each side of the screen. I think it is weird. I have one at the bottom of each of my three monitors and that's it. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 11:16, 26 October 2020 (UTC)
 * No, I checked from the panel preferences that I have exactly two panels, and they appear separately, not on top of each other. And I have verified that when I add "Window Buttons" to panel #0, what gets added there is actually otherwise a fully working "Window Buttons" panel item, except that it doesn't actually show any window buttons. What it contains is a large, flat grey slab. That large, flat grey slab goes away when I remove the panel item. Everything, literally everything, points to the "Window Buttons" panel item only showing actual window buttons when it is added to some other panel than panel #0. J I P  &#124; Talk 15:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)