Issues with the icon and app name in Linux

[Wastelander]

Operating system:Arch Linux
Browser version:34.1.0
32-bit or 64-bit browser?:64-bit

I use Wayland and the browser window has no icon on the top left corner. Reporting the issue to the compositor devs pointed to kind of a mismatch between the icon name ‘pale moon’ and the app_id that identifies the browser as ‘Navigator’. The suggested workaround was to add

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=Navigator

to the [Desktop Entry] section in the palemoon.desktop file. The icon works now but of course the taskbar window is still named ‘Navigator’. Could I try a cleaner and more complete fix? Thanks in advance.

[moonbat]

No such problems for me on KDE Neon and Wayland.

[Wastelander]

So it might be a compositor specific issue. I run labwc with no desktop environment.

[Moonchild]

I run labwc with no desktop environment.

If there is no desktop environment, there is likely no way for the browser to query Window Manager class names or its own window reference to apply the icon. Not sure if there is a solution in that case.

[mr tribute]

I don't use app pinning so I don't have this problem. However, I just checked and this is actually true:

Code: Select all

...a mismatch between the icon name ‘pale moon’ and the app_id that identifies the browser as ‘Navigator’.

Isn't "app_id" (WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator") defined in the Pale Moon source code?

[Bababo26]

I don't use app pinning so I don't have this problem. However, I just checked and this is actually true:

Code: Select all

...a mismatch between the icon name ‘pale moon’ and the app_id that identifies the browser as ‘Navigator’.

Isn't "app_id" (WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator") defined in the Pale Moon source code?

Maybe its a typo but the WM_CLASS can be "Pale moon", upper case P.

Code: Select all

$ xprop -name Browser | grep WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Pale moon"

Note I don't use wayland and compile palemoon myself so its unbranded.

[Wastelander]

Code: Select all

$ xprop -name Browser | grep WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Pale moon"

That's what I get too. Both the taskbar and the browser window both pick up "Navigator" as app_id. Isn't it possible to make the appName the same as the className, that is "Pale moon"?

[Wastelander]

If there is no desktop environment, there is likely no way for the browser to query Window Manager class names or its own window reference to apply the icon. Not sure if there is a solution in that case.

I don't know how wayland compositors work, but in the palemoon.desktop entry the

Code: Select all

Name=Pale Moon

property should do the job even though

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=

is not set. However, maybe labwc is not able to correctly parse the desktop file and it's searching for an icon that matches the appName ("Navigator"), obviously not finding it.

[Moonchild]

I guess this is a case of ...

"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

[Veit Kannegieser]

i get

Code: Select all

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "pale moon", "Pale moon"

for the repacked SSE2 build with XFCE4.

[Wastelander]

i get

Code: Select all

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "pale moon", "Pale moon"

for the repacked SSE2 build with XFCE4.

Hmm which distro are you using?

[vannilla]

I guess this is a case of ...

"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

Off-topic:
In fairness, this is ICCCM which predates Linux by something like 10 years.
If anything XDG/Freedesktop compounded the issue and the group is primarily Linux.

[Veit Kannegieser]

Hmm which distro are you using?

This is plain Debian 12.7.
I have tried to claim that it may come from from application.ini, but then i got this too:

Code: Select all

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Pale moon"

And after following a link in the link bar, it changes to:

Code: Select all

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "pale moon", "Pale moon"

Possibly as part of changing the window title?

Yes, seem to switch between the two, depending on window title.
about:blank -> "Navigator"
quick dial, about:config -> "pale moon"
"html page" with just 123 -> "Navigator"
normal page with title -> "pale moon"

[Wastelander]

Oh actually on Arch I always get 'Navigator' as app name, whatever the page I have contacted the maintainers of the palemoon-bin package, the developers of the labwc compositor and sfwbar and they all told me that if the application identifies itself as 'Navigator' there's nothing they can do about that, unless I change the icon name from Pale Moon to Navigator or set the WM Class to 'Navigator' in the palemoon.desktop file.

[mr tribute]

While this is a problem for a subset of Linux users it's still interesting I think. This is what Firefox gave me:

Code: Select all

$ xprop WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "firefox"

[Night Wing]

Hmm which distro are you using?

This is plain Debian 12.7.

I do not know if this will change anything, but Debian (Bookworm) is now on version (12.8).

[Wastelander]

While this is a problem for a subset of Linux users it's still interesting I think. This is what Firefox gave me:

Code: Select all

$ xprop WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "firefox"

That, but curiously the icon is working fine with FF on my side.

[Veit Kannegieser]

That, but curiously the icon is working fine with FF on my side.

And they use:

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=firefox

Similar LibreWolf, even for about:blank:

Code: Select all

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "LibreWolf"

but

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=librewolf-default

The strings are set using a

Code: Select all

typedef struct {
	char *res_name;
	char *res_class;
} XClassHint;

structure https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/ICC/client-to-window-manager/wm-class.html,

for UXP this is set in /widget/gtk/nsWindow.cpp: https://repo.palemoon.org/MoonchildProductions/UXP/src/commit/7f93d259670ef975d0a721628d6295a45ddc27e9/widget/gtk/nsWindow.cpp#L4086

Ignoring that the res_name changes between "pale moon" and "Navigator", the res_class is actually constant "Pale moon", and be the only thing that matters.
And matches

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=Pale moon

in the desktop file. Maybe the blank is a problem?

[mr tribute]

Ignoring that the res_name changes between "pale moon" and "Navigator", the res_class is actually constant "Pale moon", and be the only thing that matters.
And matches

Code: Select all

StartupWMClass=Pale moon

in the desktop file. Maybe the blank is a problem?

Blank space has a tendency to cause problems so I think it's a good guess. Maybe someone can compile without it, if not Pale Moon then New Moon. Also, "Navigator" seems like a remnant from the past (Netscape Navigator?).

[vannilla]

Also, "Navigator" seems like a remnant from the past (Netscape Navigator?).

Well, the WM_CLASS property is designed to identify windows through two names that, in general, should never change.
In particular, the second name identify the type of application this window belongs to; in this case the application type is Navigator.
According to https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/ ... S_Property the first part of WM_CLASS should be the name of the process which in this case should be "palemoon", while the second part should either be "Pale Moon" or "Navigator", i.e. the opposite of what is done now.
In general, the ICCCM is very ambiguous and things have not improved in the slightest and I'm personally amazed things even work at all.