Floating icon over all windows

[benK]

Hi Folks,

I'm relatively new to LXDE and I'm having an intermittent problem with a file icon appearing on top of every window.
I want to report this as a bug somewhere, but I'm not sure where to put it.

The image below shows the icon floating above an lxterminal.

floating_icon_capture.png

Screenshot showing the icon floating over lxterminal

(5.56 KiB) Not downloaded yet

The image below shows the icon over my desktop and the top bar of another window.

floating_icon_capture-2.png (106.8 KiB) Viewed 5999 times

Is this a problem with a specific LXDE program (pcmanfm maybe?), LXDE itself, or my linux distribution (Fedora 20, lxde spin)
What can I do to identify the source? I've looked at the output of both `ps aux` and `top` but there is no obvious culprit.

The problem is intermittent but I've not been able to identify what causes it. It doesn't seem to correlate with the start up of any program in particular. And the only way to remove this that I have so far found is to reboot my machine.

I'd be really very grateful for help with this problem!

Ben

[drooly]

can you click it, doubleclick it, drag it, right-click it? what happens then?
is it always in the same place?

you can also open a terminal and try the same with those 2 commands: obxprop and xprop:
after entering the command your cursor turns into a cross, click that on the icon. look at the output if it says something about what application, name, title it is.
is it different than clicking on the underlying application or desktop?

have you installed something funny recently? funny as in "that's a funny smell".
have you in fact installed anything?
since when has the icon been there?
does logging out/in help?

[benK]

Hi Drooly, thanks for your help!

can you click it, doubleclick it, drag it, right-click it? what happens then?

I cannot do any of those things, they were my first thoughts as well. The cursor does seems to sense the icon's presence in that if the icon is positioned over text, so that the cursor at that location would normally be the text editing one (the 'I' shaped one) then it turns to an arrow as it moves over the icon. Unfortunately clicking, right clicking, dragging and so on result in nothing whatsoever.

is it always in the same place?

No it's never in the same place as fas as I can tell. I will start trying to screen capture it each time and compare where it's placed.

you can also open a terminal and try the same with those 2 commands: obxprop and xprop:

I've never come across those commands before so the next time this happens I will definitely try them out, and let you know what I get.

have you installed something funny recently? funny as in "that's a funny smell".
have you in fact installed anything?
since when has the icon been there?

I had this problem within the first few days of installing LXDE and Fedora 20. It was a completely clean install using the Live USB method on an Asus eee pc netbook that had previously only had Windows 7. I have since installed quite a few different applications and libraries and none seem to have affected the problem in any way (that I could notice).

does logging out/in help?

A full reboot certainly helps, and I think I've tried just logging out of my user and back in and it did help, but that was a while ago. Next time I get the problem I'll double check.

When I do reboot though, the icon disappears at the same time any open programs are shut. It is cleared whilst I can still see the desktop background and the lxpanel I think, which definitely makes me think it's to do with some program running. I've tried closing everything down from the lxpanel but the problem persists and nothing jumps out at me from the processes I see when I look at ps or top. It sounds like xprop / obxprop that you suggest will be pretty helpful for this...

I hope this helps. Thanks for your response and I'll add more information the next time I get this problem!

[benK]

This just happened again, only this time I have 3 icons on top of everything ( a new p.b.).

The output I get from xprop when clicking on any of the 3 is:

Code: Select all

WM_HINTS(WM_HINTS):
		Client accepts input or input focus: True
		Initial state is Normal State.
		window id # of group leader: 0x1400001
_NET_WM_OPAQUE_REGION(CARDINAL) = 
_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DND
_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 20975585, 20975586
_NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL) = 1551319
_NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW): window id # 0x1400fe0
WM_CLIENT_LEADER(WINDOW): window id # 0x1400001
_NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 1384
WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_GB.UTF-8"
WM_CLIENT_MACHINE(STRING) = "localhost.lan"
WM_NORMAL_HINTS(WM_SIZE_HINTS):
		program specified location: 0, 0
		program specified minimum size: 32 by 32
		program specified base size: 0 by 0
		window gravity: NorthWest
WM_PROTOCOLS(ATOM): protocols  WM_DELETE_WINDOW, WM_TAKE_FOCUS, _NET_WM_PING, _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "pcmanfm", "Pcmanfm"
WM_ICON_NAME(STRING) = "pcmanfm"
_NET_WM_ICON_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "pcmanfm"
WM_NAME(STRING) = "pcmanfm"
_NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "pcmanfm"

obxprop doesn't seem to be able to identify the window:

Code: Select all

Unable to find window with the requested ID

I had been using pcmanfm, although I have currently closed that window. I also have firefox and libreoffice draw currently running. I will try not to restart my laptop for a while in case there are any suggestions for things I should try or ways to get more info. I hope this all helps!

[drooly]

I had been using pcmanfm, although I have currently closed that window.

yes, but pcmanfm is also drawing the desktop.
you still have 3 icons?
try clicking xprop on all 3, see if you get different results.
after that you can issue "killall pcmanfm" and see what happens.

[benK]

Hi Drooly,
The only differences between the output of xprop on the three icons were the values of _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL), _NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL),
_NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW).

icon1 (left-most icon)

Code: Select all

_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 20975609, 20975610
_NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL) = 1248617
_NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW): window id # 0x1400ff8

icon2 (middle icon)

Code: Select all

_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 20975597, 20975598
_NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL) = 1248617
_NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW): window id # 0x1400fe

icon3 (right-most icon)

Code: Select all

_NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST_COUNTER(CARDINAL) = 20975585, 20975586
_NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL) = 13315596
_NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW(WINDOW): window id # 0x1400fe0

you can issue "killall pcmanfm" and see what happens

Using `killall pcmanfm` removed them! That's very good to know! At least I have a fix when it happens next...

What should I do to continue? Is there somewhere i should post this as a bug? Is this a bug, for that matter?
Thanks for your help though, that's great to have a solution...

[drooly]

do your desktop icons (the wanted ones, not the unwanted ones) reappear after "killall pcmanfm"?

anyhow you know now that pcmanfm is the culprit.

you can always try to remove it's config files from your home (under .config i guess) and see if starting with a clean slate helps.
or re-install pcmanfm plus libraries (i think it's only one, libfm).

btw, i've never seen anything like that before.

i'd say it's a bug, probably with pcmanfm.