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StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 11:56
by paluntu
Ubuntu 20.04, Pale Moon installed with the OpenSUSE PPA/Repository (
https://software.opensuse.org/download. ... e=palemoon)
When I open Palemoon, I get two icons in the Ubuntu dock. The first Pale Moon icon is the desktop file pinned to my dock (as Favourite), the second one with the dot is the Pale Moon window that was launched + an indicator for the amount of windows associated with that application. I have nearly abandoned Palemoon because of this as it is inconventient.
@OPNA2608 proposed a solution (Incorrect capitalisation of StartupWMClass desktop file entry,
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?t=26746) and it works not only on Pantheon DE but also on "native" Ubuntu:
The installed palemoon.desktop contains:
It works with (capitalised and without quotation marks)
I did following in a terminal:
Code: Select all
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/palemoon.desktop
Changed to this (including deleting “”):
And it works as expected with only one icon/launcher in the dock when Pale Moon is launched.
Could this be changed in the repositories? This would be benefit many users.
Thanks.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 14:22
by Moonchild
This was brought up a few times before but nobody told me definitively what works in which distro.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 14:46
by paluntu
Thank you, @Moonchild, for this quick feedback!
Does your answer mean that it could be changed for the Ubuntu repo?
Hopefully others using a different distro will give a feedback as well.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 15:17
by Moonchild
Well the thing is, we only supply mainline binaries. While we can adjust what is supplied there to work with most common distros and window managers/DEs, it's impossible to make it work with all of them (and we don't have the manpower to become package maintainers for all the different distros out there; not even a handful). Steve Pusser may be able to make some concessions but I personally wouldn't know. My area of expertise is the various flavours of Windows, not GNU or Linux.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 15:31
by paluntu
Thank you for the explanation!
As I am just a user, I am not sure whether there is a desktop-file in the binaries and the StartupWMClass-line can be changed accordingly there.
StartupWMClass=Pale moon sounds like a clean and appropriate line for all distributions.
If not and if @stevepusser could change it for the Ubuntu repo, this would be be great! What is the best way to ask him or alert him about this thread?
Thank you all for all your work!
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-26, 16:12
by Moonchild
Like I said; I never really got information about what works where. What you did may work on Ubuntu with your desktop environment, but might not on others.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 09:32
by paluntu
I have searched the forum again. As I now know the "StartupWMClass" is the problem, I searched for it. I found several similar threads. The first one about two years ago.
Here is the most comprehensive one from EMH_Mark_I:
In regards to desktop launchers and the startup notification protocol - Pale Moon forum —
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25497&p=202378&hili ... ss#p202378
He tested StartupWMClass=Pale moon without issue in MATE, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, and GNOME. That is quite an impressive list of Linux desktop environment.
There are some newer ones with the same conclusion:
I did not have this problem till 2020 having used Pale Moon for some years and I wonder what was the change then? Could it be that StartupWMClass="pale moon" was added to the desktop-file? And somebody mistyped it (pale instead of Pale) and did not know that quotation marks are not needed?
As I have found several threads about this and EMH_Mark_I took a lot of time to explain it well, I assume this is really a problem.
There were no threads about this before 2020 and therefore I assume that no other distro had a problem with this before that, too, which would have warranted a change of the StartupWMClass-line. A capital letter for Pale moon is the right spelling & the one assigned by the program itself and therefore I assume it would be safe to change the one line in the desktop-file to
Not sure if this can only be done for the Linux version and if not, I assume this would not affect the non-Linux versions as they don't rely on the desktop-file.
Thanks again for your kind consideration. This could benefit a lot of people, especially the not advanced users.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 09:43
by Moonchild
Thanks. That does seem like a sane change even if the WMClass name itself makes no sense why it drops one capital and keeps another and why by exception a space isn't escaped and quotes can't be used.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 09:57
by paluntu
I am not a programmer. But all people who had this problem solved it with this "insane" change. I can not look at the code but maybe at some other place in the code
Pale moon was used ...
Maybe there is a search function for the code and it can search for "Pale moon". This might reveal some other mistyping which could be corrected. I would also prefer
Pale Moon but it seems
Pale moon is the winner for this problem although I don't know why (I have not developed Pale Moon
).
As written before if you ask for the opened window name of Pale Moon with xprop WM_CLASS you get
Pale moon and I don't think this naming was invented by all the DEs mentioned in the other post, I assume this is comes from the Pale Moon app itself ...
As an avid user I just want to help to make Pale Moon better and more user-friendly ...
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 11:19
by patrick-g
Hi,
Just for information, when I create a new launcher (right-click + Create a new ... App launcher) for Pale Moon in KDE Plasma, it fills this line this way :
Code: Select all
StartupWMClass=Navigator;Pale moon;
and everything seems to work correctly.
In fact Plasma generate a full .desktop file with lot of pertinent information.
Except the French name and the path I give myself, I don't know where all these info come from. I use the vanilla tarball from
http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/ which doesn't seem to contain a .desktop file and my distro doesn't package Pale Moon.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 15:55
by coffeebreak
paluntu wrote: ↑2022-01-26, 15:31
@stevepusser ... What is the best way to ask him or alert him about this thread?
You might try the
thread in the
Browser Support board where he announces his releases.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-01-27, 16:37
by Lucio Chiappetti
I use Pale Moon installed under personal home from the tar ball on Pale Moon site at work (under OpenSuse) and at home (under Ubuntu) with no problem, but in both case I have no desktop environment but a good old plain window manager (fvwm). Pale Moon starts at login from .fvwmrc, or, if needed, from the command line.
Looks like the problem is with the desktop environment the OP is using, not with the browser. Should perhaps post to an Ubuntu forum ?
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-02-03, 16:50
by paluntu
Thank you all for your comments!
@patrick-g
Just for information, when I create a new launcher (right-click + Create a new ... App launcher) for Pale Moon in KDE Plasma, it fills this line this way :
Code: Select all
StartupWMClass=Navigator;Pale moon;
This hints again that the naming "Pale moon" is coming from the code (as you used vanilla tarball from
http://linux.palemoon.org/download/mainline/) and
Pale Moon is the used name for the Pale Moon window. And a change in the "delivered" desktop-file to
Pale Moon would follow this.
@Lucio
Looks like the problem is with the desktop environment the OP is using, not with the browser. Should perhaps post to an Ubuntu forum ?
I also think it depends on the desktop environment, but also where you get Pale Moon from.
@coffeebreak
I will do so!
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-03-05, 20:53
by paluntu
Moonchild wrote: ↑2022-03-05, 19:42
And yet you couldn't be bothered to read a few posts further where I thanked and said it was a sane change even if the result didn't make sense to me.
It's been adjusted in the tree.
Sorry, Moonchild, for misreading your post.
I read it and even responded to it. I interpret it as you missed a "not" and the change would not be sane. Maybe because I am not a native English speaker. And that is why I missed you would make a change. Thanks a lot for making the change! This solves (hopefully) this problem!
Thanks again for all your work!
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-03-28, 11:35
by paluntu
I have upgraded to the newest version Palemoon 29.4.5 (Ubuntu) but palemoon.desktop still contains StartupWMClass="pale moon" and not the proposed StartupWMClass=Pale moon (Capital P and no hyphens).
A shy question: Will it be included in the next version?
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-03-28, 11:48
by Moonchild
This was part of the fixes for the new milestone. A security update won't have it.
it will be coming, just not in a security point release.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock)
Posted: 2022-03-28, 12:03
by paluntu
Thanks a lot for the quick and helpful answer! I am looking forward to the next milestone release.
Re: StartupWMClass desktop file entry bug (two icons/launcher in the dock) solved
Posted: 2022-05-17, 13:20
by paluntu
Thank you Moonchild & other developers for the latest versions!
I am really happy that the change works and this bug has been solved, at least in my setting (hopefully also with others)!