Libreoffice and unity integration broken.

Oh and one more thing - Alt+Tab window switcher doesn't see those broken windows either... As this doesn't happen every time I open files with libreoffice , I'll try to investigate further but hopefully someone else already had.

Not sure if this is related but i get the following message when starting from command line:
Warning: failed to launch javaldx - java may not fuction correctly

a similar bug was fixed last cycle it seems now its back again, it does not happen all the times but it happens. bug 662280

Thanks for confirmation Omer.

I'll add little note: the windows controls also don't appear in the unity panel. You need to use the menu File to exit the application

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I have provided some more information in bug 842566, duplicated to this one. Now I attach a video on something I believe related but where the user looses all control over the Libreoffice window, and the only way of closing it is by killing the soffice process. I can reproduce this (and the other issues mentioned in this report) consistently with the file attached to bug 842566.

I have noticed that with LibreOffice 3.4.3 and the latest build of Oneiric Ocelot this occurring when I first start writer or calc. The controls, menu and title are not drawn until I clcik and give the focus to another window and than click back on writer - then everything works fine. Strange - Empathy behaved this way when I was running 11.04. Empathy now does not do this with 11.10 beta 2 with unity-2d but now LibreOffice now does it.

it happens also in Ubuntu 11.10

Yes, when I open a document associated with one of the libreoffice apps it does export the titlebar, controls just fine to the panel. It does not; however, do it when I open up - say writer directly with a blank document. It seems like it only exports when you open an existing document from within nautilus.

One other thing worth mentioning is that only a window opened as the first is broken. So if I open lets say odt or ods document and then another one then only the first one isn't integrated with unity and the second one is.

Hello,

I have similar problems, I think this is related to the same bug :

Sometimes, even if a LibreOffice document is opened, there is no icon in Unity dock - or, if I configured some LO icons to stay on dock, none is marked as opened with the left white triangle.

Other times, there is the white icon of Libre Office which "replaces" the Calc / Writer icon.

Other strange behavior, sometimes there is no "close", "minimize", "maximize" buttons on the menu bar, when I close all other program windows there can be a LibreOffice document still opened, I can modify it, work on it, save it thanks the buttons bars in LO, but not close it...

Happens both on Natty with LibreOffice 3.3.4 and Oneiric with LO 3.4.3

Please see the following screenshots to understand. First one with blank LinreOffice icon in dock instead of Impress one.

A Calc document is opened, no white triangle on Unity dock on Calc icon, if I click on it, instead of going back to my document, it opens an empty ods new file. No other icon (not the blank one this time...).

All windows, except of LibreOffice, closed, I can work on the document but no global menu - this is the Desktop one, no icon in dock, no way to close or minimize the document, it stays in foreground (this screenshot is in Natty with LO 3.3.4), previous one in Oneiric with 3.4.3)...

As for now installing 'lo-menubar' package (sudo apt-get install lo-menubar) did the trick for me.

'lo-menubar' unfortunately doesn't help here, I always missing menubar and window control buttons.
I need to focus out and focus back libreoffice window get these appearing in the panel.

A workaround to have windows control and title in Unity top panel is to install the package lo-menubar (https://launchpad.net/lo-menubar), available in the Ubuntu Software Center for natty, oneiric and precise.

Installing lo-menubar isn't a workaround on Oneiric - Libreoffice can still break. In fact, it makes things a bit worse, since when it does the menu is totally hidden and you can't close it without knowing the keyboard shortcut to do so.

MS v. OpenDocument filetypes (with workaround):

I find that behaviour is different for .ods and .xls / .xlt files

I can confirm Xavier Guillot's experience (post 1). Here are some detailed observations of my own - all involving LO 3.4.3, CALC, on Oneiric 64bit, Unity 3D. These relate to applications listed as running in both the Application Switcher (and the instances of their open files) and the Unity Launcher

In GENERAL (there could be exceptions):
1) MS .xls and .xlt file types are usually shown correctly, with GREEN CALC icon

2) Open Document .ods files are almost always identified by a general WHITE (general) LibreOffice icon (v occasionally by the green icon, which is correct). They rarely show up at all *when opened first* (before any other LO document). IF one does, it is when the file is opened very shortly (less than 10s or so) after closing the last LO document - i.e. before the application has completely closed.

3) if an .xls or .xlt file is already open, an .ods file has a hugely increased chance of being shown, but always(?) under a WHITE LibreOffice icon

4) When an .ods document is not listed at all, both the window buttons and title are missing from the menu bar.

Further tests show that LO WRITER documents follow a similar pattern (.doc = good, .odt = bad), although the application (IF listed) is always shown as the BLUE icon, rather than the general white one.

Apologies for tedious detail, but I hope this helps point someone towards a solution.

WORKAROUNDS:
1) You can get to an unlisted file using super+W, and close it with alt+F4, Ctrl+Q or through the file menu.

and finally...
2) If I am right about .xls and .doc files get listed correctly, the (temporary) solution is to use MS rather than native Open Document filetypes.

Disappointed footnote to my post above:

CORRECTION!
Despite that all being the case earlier this morning, ALL LO documents (MS or OpenDoc.) now fail to appear in the App Switcher and the Unity Launcher. Sorry about that. All very frustrating...

Running Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit, I find the following consistent behaviors for LibreOffice Writer 3.4.3. I do not by default have a LibreOffice icon on the Unity launcher. The second use case I describe creates a particularly severe usability problem, because an open document becomes completely inaccessible to the Unity launcher and Alt-Tab interface.

Open new instance of LibreOffice writer via Dash:
Writer icon appears on Launcher as it should. However, when I open a .odt document (or write into the blank document and then save it), the system continues to show "Untitled 1" on top of the window menubar. Menus (File, Edit etc.) appear in the document window; the global menu displays "LibreOffice Writer" but mouseover does not reveal any menus. If I maximize and then de-maximize, the correct document title appears in the window menubar, but menus are still in the window. While maximized, the menus appear beneath the global menubar; mousing over the global menus reveals only the close/minimize/de-maximize buttons.

Open a .odt document via Dash search:
Writer icon does not appear on Launcher, and the Writer window does not appear on Alt-Tab! Document window menubar displays "LibreOffice 3.4" instead of document name. Global menubar shows Desktop menu options upon mouseover, but does not say "Desktop." After first maximization, global menubar continues this behavior - no minimize, etc. buttons are available for Writer, only Desktop menus are accessible. After de-maximization (by dragging), correct document title appears in window menubar. After the first de-maximization, the global menubar becomes completely dead, showing no text, buttons or menus with or without mouseover. This is true even if the window is maximized again. If a fresh instance of Writer is opened via the Dash, the directly-opened document window remains inaccessible/invisible via Alt-Tab or the Launcher.

This latter case is very troublesome because the invisibility of these open documents to the Unity interface makes multitasking almost impossible. Furthermore, if the documents are minimized, they are essentially inaccessible from then on!

@Michael: I think the first issue you describe is simply the lack of global menu integration for LibreOffice. There is a package "lo-menubar" in the archives, which will install a preliminary LO-addon which will integrate the menu into the global menu. But it seems not to be ready for default inclusion.

The second issue is what this bug report is really about. It makes some LO windows unaccessible, except for Super+W scale mode. This also affects the usability of the global menu integration: I once tried out lo-menubar, and it worked quite well. But if Unity "looses" a LO window, its menu will also not appear in the global menu, and thus there is no way even to close the document. If the menu is displayed in the window (no global menu integration), it will at least stay accessible, even when Unity does not handle it.

All the same here. Opening a file from Thunderbird causes the same issue, while you if you open from the app launcher the app directly and then the file, is all well.

Hey guys:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11417570#post11417570

Could be related to regex matching of the window name ! When you open certain files in read-only mode, LibreOffice append a "(read only)" string somewhere in the title, it could mess up the matching of the task manager of Unity. Hope is useful to fix the bug ! Is really very annoying, and affecting a lot of people that are not posting on Launchpad.

Simone,
This can't be the only cause. I can open the same file exactly the same
way and in the same circumstances I might get this error and I might
not. So it seems to be more random and unrelated to any obvious
circumstances.

I have this behavior always with the writer.

I like to and also have to use unity-2d and one of the most annoying bugs is the persistently missing titlebar in any of the libreoffice apps unless you switch between windows. I found the following workaround: When starting libreoffice with the --nologo option, the titlebar always seems to appear. So I modified the launchers... Can the logo be part of the problem?

I think the missing controls when libreoffice is started up in full screen mode on Unity-2D may be a different bug, as it is only seen (for me at least) on 2d. I have added it to bug #886606 (Some apps show no menu in panel until click away and back). Others seeing this might like to attach themselves to that bug in order to confirm it.

0. Pin libreoffice calc to the unity launcher side bar.
1. Open a nautilus instance.
2. Navigate to a location containing an ods spreadsheet.
3. Double click on the ods spreadsheet to launch libreoffice calc.
4. Press Alt+Tab to switch between applications.

NOTE: libreoffice calc does not appear in the task switcher.

5. Move the mouse to the far left to open the lask launcher.

NOTE: libreoffice calc in the launcher does not indicate that it has an
instance running.

6. Select libreoffice calc in the launcher.
7. Press Alt+Tab to switch between applications.

NOTE: The libreoffice calc instance from (6) appears in the task
switcher, but the one from (3) does not.

8. Move the mouse to the far left to open the lask launcher.

NOTE: Only one calc instance is highlighted (a white arrow instead of
two dots).

9. Alt+Tab to the calc instance.

NOTE: Both windows become visible -- only the selected instance should
become visible.

10. Minimize the instance opened in (3).
11. Select the full-screen nautilus window.
12. Alt+Tab to the calc window.

NOTE: Only the calc instance in (6) is displayed.

13. Select the document opened from (3) in the "Recent Documents" menu
of the calc instance opened in (6).

NOTE: The calc instance from (3) is focused, but is not present in the
unity launcher or task switcher (4-5).

My friend (Unity) and me (Unity-2D) both have this with a fully updated Ubuntu 11.10.

Libreoffice is a core application in the Ubuntu desktop, its integration with Ubuntu have been in this form since 11.04 so I raised the priority to High. As I believe its something we would not want to miss for the LTS and hopefully backport to the stable releases as well.

This bug is very, very high if not critical.

In my experiencie, Is very dificul to replicate because it happen in all use cases but one, when i open a document from within LO,(Crtl-A or File-> Open) this doesn't happen and file (Open document format or MS format) open correctly

i hope this help

I opened a .odt file and everything works as it should. Closed it and reopened it again (again by doubleclick on the text.odt) the document opens in libreoffice writer but doesnt apear in the launcher sidebar or in the (alt+tab).

Fully updated 11.10

installing 'lo-menubar' package (sudo apt-get install lo-menubar) and a restart did the trick for me (until now).

As someone mentioned lo-menubar doesn't work. I can confirm that it isn't reliable, because it work about half the time I try to use it.

very strange: libreoffice (in my case calc) is lost in the task switcher as soon as it is opened from the desktop or from nautilus. the funny thing is, that it also results in unity loosing focus, i.e. the unity bar (on the left) is sometimes not more visible and also the "unity shell" is only opening in the background (not visible if any other app is in fg.

so it seems unity looses its focus or order of apps due to the "lost" calc app?

best
sm

by the way, I think we should tell whether we are using "Quickstart" of libreoffice - I do not use it, i.e. no instance of libreoffice is running when I double click on a ODS or XLS file in Nautilus.

sorry for the two messages ...

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

What is strange is that the bug manifests itself even when I open writer documents from within libreOffice Writer IF the document opened first has a bullets and numbering freefloating window. That's a mouthful. Here's the details.

If I do the following I DO see the bug:
1 open Writer from the unity launcher
2 open a writer doc from File->Open or File->Recent
3 Move the cursor in your doc to a line with bullets (so that the bullets and numbering window is showing). If it is docked undock it so that it shows as a free-floating window
4 Open a second document from file-> open or file->recent
I see the bug. I cannot alt-tab between the two and the unity launcher shows me the wrong number of little white arrows open.

But if instead I do this I DON'T see the bug:
On step 3 make sure that the bullets and numbering window is not visible or if it is visible it is docked. Note I haven't tested all other windows but at least I can say that the Styles and Formatting window doesn't have this problem. Maybe it is only applicable to windows that come and go depending on your context.

For me this is valuable information since this bug is driving me crazy when trying to work on two writer documents. I need to know how to avoid it. Hopefully it is valuable to others looking for a proper work around. I also hope there may be some key here to help a developer figure out where the problem is and properly fix it.

+1 on Unity and Unity 2D. lxde is just peachy.

I've had something similar happen once with WingIDE (not appearing as an icon, and it was not possible to alt-tab to it), so it may not be just LibreOffice.

I have similar problem. My temporary solution:
- Close all documents
- rm -rf ~./libreoffice (i have only default settings)
- open all closed documents. It works

Hope this help...

@44, this doesn't solve the problem for me

I am new to this so may not be following correctly. If I'm interpreting these updates correctly Marco is working on fixing this. Marco (or anyone) Will there be some point where we can test this to see if the fix works as expected before it is released? If there's a link that answers this type of question, I'd much appreciate being pointed to it.

snowguy,

You can test this fix by compiling it yourself my branch, just do:

  bzr branch lp:~3v1n0/ubuntu/oneiric/bamf/libreoffice-fixes bamf-libreoffice-fixes
  cd bamf-libreoffice-fixes
  sudo apt-get build-dep bamf
  ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
  cd src
  make && sudo cp bamfdaemon /usr/lib/bamf/bamfdaemon

Then restart bamfdaemon (and unity) to check that it's working:
  killall bamfdaemon

To restore the default version, just use:
  sudo apt-get --reinstall install bamfdaemon

No longer affects? Has their been an update?

No, but simply the issue is not in unity or unity-2d, but in BAMF.

unity(-2d) are only showing a bug that is at lower levels, in fact.

For those how want i've attached the newest bamfdaemom...i'm trying it!
Thanks Marco!

IT WOOOOOOORKS :) :)
I'm using it on Ubuntu 11.10 amd64!!!!

THANKS MARCO :D

I can confirm that the bug seems to be fixed, tested with 15+ documents (doc, ods, odt, xls) and all are open correctly

Ubuntu 11.10, 64 bits

great work, thanks

I am optimistic about this fix, it was interesting to be reading it along and see the last post was just 4 minutes ago. What is the typical time frame for this fix to propagate through all the channels and get pulled with all the regular updates? I'm happy to use his bamfdaemon if it will be weeks away, but if it isn't that long, I'll just wait until it comes down normally.

Great work!
Thanks

Marco, It is a big improvement. Thanks for the work on this. I did find some oddities that still seem not to be working but they are much more livable then the current problems. Thanks for the fix.

I am using 11.10 32 bit. I compiled using the steps above. For the benefit of anyone else who wants to compile. I used a fresh version of 11.10. I needed to install bzr (which was easy since the terminal told me I needed it and how to get it) and I had to manually copy the file bamfdaemon to /usr/lib/bamf/ because the copy in the last step of the instructions failed. Other than that the installation instructions worked perfectly.

Here is a scenario to show the problem.
1) Open Writer. It will open to a blank document. (Additional windows, e.g. styles and formatting, may be open if you closed libre writer with them open. If they are open, close them now.)
2) Type anything in this document to help you keep it straight (how about Doc 1)
3) File -> New -> Text document
4) Type anything in this doc to distinguish it from the other (how about Doc 2)
5) Alt-Tab works great. Note: when you hold down alt and hit tab once you'll switch from Doc 2 to Doc 1 and then Doc 1 to Doc 2 (assuming other windows aren't open as well). Also Alt-tilda works great with the same result.
6) Now hit F11 to open the styles and formatting window. All of a sudden Alt-tab doesn't work perfectly and alt-tilda stops working well at all. Here's what I see:

alt-tab. Whereas the normal behavior is that when I hit tab once while holding the alt key down I get to a different window, now the first time I hit tab it selects the active window and I need to hit tab again to get to the other window. This is actually sort of a big deal if you have gat the alt-tab ingrained in your muscle memory because you have to now remember in which scenarios you are supposed to hit tab twice to get to the last doc and which scenarios you just need to hit it once.

alt-tilda. Switches between the document window and my "Styles and formatting window" and doesn't allow me to get to the other window at all. Also sometimes it shows a bunch of other icons that you can't get to. That's not a big deal but does look a bit ugly.

Also maybe this is an unrelated bug or one that is part of office and not bamf, but just in case here goes. If I open a document with bullets and have my cursor in the bullets and numbering so that the bullets and numbering window shows up, then if I move the window to another location, then if I switch to a different writer document and then come back to the original, my bullets and numbering window reappears in the original location--not where I moved it to. I though this might be related since it seems like alt-tab is hiding these dependent windows and then reshowing them at the right time and maybe it is forgetting to record their location. Styles and formatting window doesn't have this problem though.

Sorry, but this most definitely does not work on my system (11.10, Unity3D, 64bit). With the bamfdaemon replaced with the one supplied by Paolo Stivanin, or freshly compiled by me according to the recipe, the result is that not only does the app switcher fail completely, but no (global-)menu items appear for any application, or the desktop. Verdict = utterly broken, rather than fixed, I am afraid.

Very grateful for all efforts at fixing this, of course.

However, I have experienced a general improvement recently, possibly combined with the loss of the globalmenu in LO (it is now back in the traditional place - by design?). Anyone else report this?

I have the same experience as Peter Harvey Comment #55, but after log-out all worked well

snowguy,

Thank you for your comprehensive feedback. I think that the alt+tab/alt+` thing can be solved by another branch that I'm working on related to bug #784804
For the latest issue you mentioned, BAMF shouldn't be connected to that.

Peter,

Just check that you're effectively running my bamfdaemon (ps aux | grep bamfdaemon returns /usr/lib/bamf/bamfdaemon ?).
Also make sure that you've correctly restarted it and/or unity.
However, the fix is surely working on Precise codebase.

Marco, thanks for pointing me to that other bug. I can see there are some thorny issues here. Will there be a way to test the two together?

Also, is there some place which documents the desired behavior around these less than full features windows such as the styles and formatting window?

If I could first read what is supposed to happen it would help me test better what does happen.

Thanks.

snowguy, unfortunately there's no a full document that explain this, you should refer to the single ayatana-deisgn bugs.

That one is still a WIP by the way.

snowguy, thanks to your comments, I've been able to correctly match also the transient windows like the Writer's styles window.

Now it's matched as a sub-window of the writer, and so the alt+tab will work fine.
However, don't use the new code that I've just pushed on my branch since I don't think that it will work well with alt+tab/` in oneiric (it will be worst, in fact).
To get that you'll need another unity branch that I'm working on.

Marco, awesome. Let me know if there is something you'd like me to test when the time is right.

Actually if you're quite brave you can already test lp:~3v1n0/ubuntu/oneiric/bamf/libreoffice-fixes + lp:~3v1n0/unity/quick-alt+tab-fixes . This PPA can help to build ( https://launchpad.net/~unity-team/+archive/staging ), however do this at your own risk :)

I've now had a chance to check the situation and the results are below. Unless I'm missing something, the new version of bamfdaemon is not working for me. I'm not sure how to start and stop a daemon, so I have been logging out and back in (but do note the exception where the working version was activated by a single click on the launcher, not requiring a logout).

With old (working) bamfdaemon:

Output from 'ps aux | grep bamfdaemon':
peter 3698 0.0 0.3 333248 11580 ? Sl Dec14 0:01 /usr/lib/bamf/bamfdaemon
peter 12574 0.0 0.0 13456 896 pts/0 S+ 09:05 0:00 grep --color=auto bamfdaemon

Functionality:
Launcher, app-switcher, window buttons and title all working normally

With new (non-working) bamfdaemon (after logout-login):

Output from 'ps aux | grep bamfdaemon':
peter 13479 0.0 0.0 13452 896 pts/1 S+ 09:08 0:00 grep --color=auto bamfdaemon

Functionality:
App-switcher shows only desktop, but does manage to switch between desktop and last-viewed application only
The following are invisible: Global menus, window titles, window buttons
Newly opened applications do not appear in Launcher, and any applications permanently 'pinned' to launcher are not 'ticked' when running

Oddly enough, after reinstating the old (working) bamfdaemon, it only required a click on the launcher to restore the correct behaviour (i.e. no need to logout-login). Conversely, after pasting in the new (non-working) bamfdaemon, things continued to function correctly UNTIL I had logged out and back in. Is this a clue to why the new version is not functioning?

Hope that is of some use.

PS: What would be the commands to stop/start/restart this daemon?

Peter, killing it should be enough. Since it gets relaunched when needed.

However, for who wants to test the last version, now you can just use these packages coming from the unity-team staging ppa: http://is.gd/BbFazO (you don't need to use the whole PPA, if you don't want to update all the unity framework)

Thanks for that. In that case your daemon seems not to be running for me (see output from previous post).

Ideas? Actually, it's not a problem for me right now, but it is concerning if your fix is not going to work on all systems, that is a problem, I would have thought.

Peter, try to use the above packages.

However, I was just wondering: are you maybe using a localization that modifies the libreoffice's application window titles?
Window titles should be something like - LibreOffice <APP> (where <APP> is something like Calc, Writer, Math, Draw...)
If yes, well... I think we need to fix these localizations.

I don't think I have any unusual localisations, but this is much wider problem: it's not just in LO that window titles are missing when using the updated bamfdaemon- it's in ALL applications (along with app-switcher not working and window buttons missing), and the system is made absolutely unusable. (Do have a look at my previous post on what works and what does not. Essentially, using the old daemon everything worked, and with the updated one nothing does.)

I am reluctant to make major changes I cannot easily undo, but let me know exactly which packages to add and I'll have a go.

As mentioned before, the problem (LO not appearing in launcher, etc.) had pretty much gone away, but I had news of your fix, so I checked it out. I wouldn't be spending time on it for my own sake, but I am bothered that this apparent fix leaves everything so broken, and can't quite let it go.

Peter, I'm honestly wondering that you've something else broken there, more than BAMF.
Since this branch just changes the way to handle the LibreOffice windows, while the rest should be mostly untouched.

However, to install it from packages you only need to download and install the .deb files for your architecture available in this page http://is.gd/BbFazO
You shold need just bamfdaemon_*.deb libbamf3-0_*.deb and (maybe) libbamf0_*.deb install them with sudo dpkg -i *bamf*.deb

If you want revert your changes just do:

sudo apt-get install bamfdaemon=0.2.104-0ubuntu1 libbamf3-0=0.2.104-0ubuntu1 libbamf0=0.2.104-0ubuntu1

Hi Peter,

usually I wouldn't interfere, but the problem you have got seems strangely familiar to me. I once had this problem after a programm messed up the compiz settings. Try to look in the Compiz Settings dialog and look for the program switcher. It could be that the switcher settings are cleared. It could also be that the switcher settings in the Keyboard Dialogs is messed up (had this once in previous versions). This allways happend when turning on and off compiz in ubuntu.

I hope this can help.

best
Mario

Success at last :). I installed all three debs and now the bamfdaemon runs.

The problem before was that after killing the daemon, the (first) replacement version of bamfdaemon had been quite simply failing to start, so it's not suprising that no window management was functioning.

I note that when I compiled the daemon myself it was 541.2KB in size (the same as the file I first downloaded from Paolo Stivanin, so apparently correct), but the latest one now residing on my system is much smaller, at 134.8KB, which is far closer in size to the original version of bamfdaemon (130.7KB).

Very glad to have this working. Still cannot see what I might previously have done to break anything, though. Out of interest, I reverted the changes (result: system still working) and then installed ONLY the bamfdaemon*.deb. That gave me a working system, so the problem clearly lay with the intermediate (514.2KB) version of bamfdaemon, which would not start. I have since installed all three debs again to be on the safe side.

Thanks for taking the trouble with this.

Hi,

What exactly do I have to do to get rid of this error..I am using Ubuntu 11.10 - 32 bit OS.

Thanks,
Shravan

Shravansetty:

1. Wait for the fix to be released
or
2. Use the instructions above to try it before it's released
or
3. Downgrade to 11.04
or
4. Switch to gnome-shell :)

I wouldn't suggest 4 or either 3 :P

However, upgrading libbamf(3) is not needed (or even not suggested, as it introduces a new feature that could interfere with old unity versions [the ones < trunk]).

So those are the bamfdaemon debs you need:
 - amd64: http://go.3v1n0.net/uvuJQo
 - i386: http://go.3v1n0.net/sLZWhE

This bug was fixed in the package bamf - 0.2.104-0ubuntu2

---------------
bamf (0.2.104-0ubuntu2) precise; urgency=low

  * Importing trunk revision 424 fixing various LibreOffice related bugs:
    - Unity acts not as a dock for LibreOffice but as a launcher
      (LP: #741995)
    - Libreoffice and unity integration broken (LP: #842566)
    - Libreoffice Calc icon does not appear when opened via Writer
      (LP: #861355)
    - Alt-tab and launcher shows floating toolbars in LibreOffice as
      additional windows (LP: #840000)
 -- Marco Trevisan (Trevino) <email address hidden> Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:05:02 +0100

Any chance for a backport to oneiric?

It would be pretty dreadful if this wasn't patched in Oneiric. It's a massive bug that affects everyone.

Backport?? Isn't Oneiric the current version??
Won't this fix be included in an update?

Well, actually I've already made two branches ready to go as SRU in Oneiric ( lp:~3v1n0/ubuntu/oneiric/bamf/libreoffice-fixes and lp:~3v1n0/ubuntu/oneiric/bamf/libreoffice-fixes-v2 ), I'm just waiting for one of the two to land. Don't worry, it will happen soon.

Great, I have to dig through my open applications on a daily basis to find my hidden lowriter instances :)

There is still a problem with the latest(?) version (0.2.104+bzr423ubuntu0+392):
although the bug described is fixed (or seems to be), the name of the opened file is no longer displayed in the window title. So when working with multiple files, there is no way to know which file you have actually opened.

Mh, I can't reproduce that issue...

Marco: did you fullscreen the window? The bug I described is present when libreoffice is windowed, ie. not fullscreened.
If you fullscreen the window is it OK, and even if you go back to windowed, it is still OK.

lenooh, that shouldn't be related to bamf, since BAMF has not control over the decoration. That should be managed by the unity decorator that uses libmetacity. I also had experienced this on a virtual machine, but even months before this BAMF change...

Ok, so this seems like a different issue.
I will do some further testing, and if necessary report a new bug, although I guess it still falls under the category "libreoffice and unity integration broken".

I'm using using unity-2d 5.0 from staging ppa and I still can't see LibreOffice window buttons, title and globalmenu in the top panel.
It is a fresh install and it is reproducible on different machines. So, it is really fixed?!

just a note to my previous comment.. i'm still on Oneiric, haven't tested it yet in Precise.

@Lucazade
Note that the affected package is BAMF, not unity, so that upgrading it won't change anything.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Sorry for my ignorance - I see that this is 'fix released' now - what do I have to do to get the fix on my system (I'm running Oneric). I haven't seen anything in update manager yet - will the fix show up there sometime soon, or do I need to download it from somewhere?

Thanks

The fix has not been backported to Oneiric yet. You can find the bamf package with the patch for this bug in my ppa: ppa:mjuhasz/backports
Please be aware that the ppa has other packages with various backported fixes. I suggest you only upgrade bamf unless you specifically need another package.

Miklos - thanks so much, it works great on my system (Oneric 32 bit), as does the fix for the bug with nux that you posted elsewhere.

The only slightly weird thing with the bamf fix is that when the files are first opened, the generic openoffice icon (just a white document) appears momentarily in the launcher, but then it disappears and the little white triangles appear next to the writer icon as they should. I'm not sure if its supposed to do this or not, and in any event its at most an aesthetic issue.

I think that's the way it's supposed to work. The welcome screen of LibreOffice opens up first and then based on the actual file type it switches to writer/calc/etc. If you type LibreOffice in Unity then you will find this generic welcome screen with the black and white icon.

Will the updated bamf land in Oneiric?

I just did some more tests on precise with all updates, and there are still two issues:

1. if you open a document from a file manager, it gets a new white icon, instead of the corresponding writer/calc/impress icon.

steps to reproduce:
 - open file manager
 - doubleclick any libreoffice file (.odt, .ods, .odp)
 - observe the panel creating a new white icon instead of creating a triangle to the corresponding icon

2. if you open writer/calc/impress and select File->New->(what ever) there will always be a triangle added to the current icon, instead of creating a new corresponding icon.

steps to reproduce:
 - open writer
 - click File->New->Spreadsheet
 - observe the panel not create an Impress icon, but just adding a triangle to the Writer icon

Hope this helps,
BR

edit:
in the last step of above post I meant "Calc icon", not "Impress icon".

@lenhoo a further fix is needed for precise, the code is already there (but not merged or released yet) and is tracked on bug #919892

In the meantime, this simple workaround proves to be very effective:

- start Writer or Calc from launcher. The first, empty document will open correctly, as already stated before;
- minimize it;
- now you can open any libreoffice document by clicking directly on it, every window and the launcher icons will behave correctly, as long as the first document stays minimized (or open, of course).

Note that if you open and minimize a new Writer document, the next Writer document you open will replace the first, so you'll have to remember keep it open all the time. So, if you work a lot with Writer and Calc for example, it may be useful to start with a new Draw document and keep it always minimized.
Hope it helps.

Another workaround:
Cairo Panel shows all icons in 'Gnome Mode' and you can switch between open windows with it.

I've just add the ppa:mjuhasz/backports, update bamf (and 2 more files like libbamf or something), remove ppa:mjuhasz/backports, reboot and it didn't work. Did I miss something?

I couldn't use "force version" in Synaptic to go back to previous versions. It was a pain to remove the ppa's versions. I had to remove each file individually with other dependencies (unity and other), and then install original versions.

From the Synaptic history you can check the packages that you upgraded and downgrade them all at once from command line. You have to force the version like this: sudo apt-get install somepackage=someversion anotherpackage=someotherversion etc.

The ppa has the official fix and worked well for several people testing it. Did you log out or reboot your computer? It is necessary for the bamfdaemon to be restarted.

The bamf package is waiting for approval and will be included in the proposed repository soon. After a week or so it can make its way to the updates repository from where everyone will get it as an update.

Hello Lukasz, or anyone else affected,

Accepted bamf into oneiric-proposed. The package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

I did various tests, installing, opening different types of documents (not only open documents), unistalling, reinstalling and so...

1) Removing from command line works fine (force version in Synaptic is a pain and didn't work).
2) Ppa's solution works for icons on Launcher.

Is Bamf responsible for the integration of LibO menu in Unity menu? I couldn't figure it out at what point LibO menu stop integrating to Unity menu.

@omvsj: Menu integration is done by lo-menubar which is not part of the default installation. It has issues with shortcuts and the Window menu is not visible either (see bug #760879).

I figured out that disabling the Logo elsewhere called splashsceen (in the file /etc/libreoffice/sofficerc set Logo=0) does the job. funnily enough this really cancels all problems (no more messing around with bamf or lo-menubar). So the major bug is about the splash-screen messing up something in the case "open a document from desktop/nautilus"

hope that helps.

mario

@Mario S. (sm666): I tested it, with and without ppa's fix and it make no difference:

- Without ppa's fix and Logo=0 or 1 there's a misbehavior of icons on Launcher
- With ppa's fix and Logo=1 or 0 icons show correctly.

I do not know about oneiric, but in precise the bug is still (or again?) present. It's just like it was in the beginning. Disabling the logo makes no difference.

All updates applied, -proposed also.

Yes, the problem before was mostly caused by the Splash screen that confused bamf due to a bug.

Anyway, lenooh:
In Precise the bug is not fixed since the package misses some patches that are actually in trunk (I figure).
You need to use the packages from the unity-team staging ppa to get the fixed version. I had to improve the previous work, since libreoffice desktop files changed slightly with last updates (as now libreoffice needs to dashes to launch its tools [i.e. libreoffice -writer vs libreoffice --writer :)]).

I've updated bamf some time ago using unity-team ppa and I no longer experience this bug. Right now I'm using bamfdeamon 0.2.104+bzr423ubuntu0+392.

After Installing the suggested bamfdaemon_0.2.104%2Bbzr423ubuntu0%2B392_amd64.deb in comment #64 Openoffice works again as expected (fullscreen and minimezed) on 11.10.

Everything working fine after installing the version in oneiric-proposed.

By the way, packages in -proposed are:

bamfdaemon
libbamf0
libbamf3-0

all at version 0.2.104-0ubuntu1.1

Please test these.

when will these fixes come out of proposed and make it into the main branch (not sure if that is the right terminology)?

This bug was fixed in the package bamf - 0.2.104-0ubuntu1.1

---------------
bamf (0.2.104-0ubuntu1.1) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * Correctly signal a closed BamfLegacyWindow, fixes libreoffice and unity
    integration bug (LP: #842566)
  * Don't ignore local .desktop files with OnlyShowIn flag (LP: #863290)
  * Fixed a lot of memory leaks
 -- Marco Trevisan (Trevino) <email address hidden> Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:13:36 +0100

http://youtu.be/Zi_JvGFkWKI
This is a bug with LO and Dash.

It happened again.
Ubuntu 11.10 up-to-date
LibO 3.4.5 1:3.4.5-0ubuntu1~ppa1
bamfdaemon 0.2.104-0ubuntu1.1

1) Make a NewDocument.odt using the Master template (Normal.ott); save it and close it.
2) Modify the master template; save it and close it
3) Re-open de NewDocument.odt.
- LibO shows a dialog asking to "update" the document and Unity shows the generic white icon with 2 arrows.
- Click update or don't update and LibO will close the dialog and shows the document which remains with the white icon

In step 3) you have to wait for the icon to appear:
- At the very begining, the dialog opens without showing icons on Unity. If you click "update" before the white icon appears, the document will open and Unity will show the right icon.
- If you wait for the White icon to show and then you click on "update", the document will open and the White icon remains

omvsj: that's due to the upgrade to libreoffice 3.4.5 it needs other fixes (already in precise).

So or you backport bamf (just grab the bamf precise packages) or you can "fix" it by manually editing the /usr/share/applications/libreoffice-*.desktop files changing the Exec value to something like "libreoffice -writer %U" (instead of "libreoffice --writer %U", i.e. remove one dash char). You can just save these files in ~/.local/share/applications not to worry about upgrades or if you don't want to edit them system-wide.

I still have this problem with bamfdaemon 0.2.104-0ubuntu1.1 and libreoffice 3.4.4 on an up-to-date oneiric.

Slightly offtopic, but in comment #80 I pointed out that the window title does not contain the filename of the opened document.
Since this problem occurs for all windows, not just libreoffice, I created a new bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bamf/+bug/926055
but it does not seem to be getting any attention.
If you are affected by this bug (most probably), please mark that the bug affects you. Thanks ;-)

Duplicate Bug #946077 affects Ubuntu 12.04 beta 28-feb-2012 Precise Pangolin.

Just wanted to make that clear since Precise is not mentioned in the "affects" column at the top of this page.

This bug is still an issue. I can get the buttons back by choosing file/fullscreen, then leaving fullscreen mode...
It's a big irritant for our customers.

This also occurs for Natty. Can't install bamfdaemon 0.2.104 in Natty and I am not about to "upgrade" to 11.10 as it seems to be a lot more buggy than 11.04 even 6 months after release.

For Natty enabling quick starter seems to have solved the problem completely. The catch is that in order to shut down the machine you would need to manually quit quickstarter, also have to configure with the dconf-editor to show the quick starter icon on the panel. Don't know if it works for later versions of Ubuntu.

LibreOffice 1:3.5.1-1ubuntu1~natty2 installed from the LO ppa https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=natty

On my installation of 12.04, LibreOffice base and Unity do not work well at all. When I launch Base from Dash, the Base icon does not show up at all in Unity, so if I navigate away from Base, I can only regain focus by minimizing other windows or accessing Base through Dash again. Writer and Calc do not have this behavior (maybe since they are permanently in the Unity dock?). Also, I cannot seem to be able to add Base to the Unity dock at all.

Bump. Can't find LibreOffice on Ubuntu 12.04 in the launcher either...

I see this bug on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit with LibO 3.5.4.2 and bamfdaemon 0.2.118-0ubuntu0.2.

Which versions of Ubuntu distribution have this fixed?

I use the following repositories and components in /etc/apt/sources.list:
precise main multiverse universe
precise-updates main multiverse universe
precise-security main multiverse universe
precise-backports main multiverse universe
precise-proposed main multiverse universe

-- rpr.

I have writer in the laucher, and after the actualization of bamfdeamon to 0.2.118-0ubuntu0.2 when i open writer the launcher doesn't appear to have an open window nor in the atl-tab switcher.

What i did was to remove (un-dock) writer from the launcher but when i did the writer icon didn't so i do a logOut-LogIn.

Then all seems to be working fine.

I hope it helps

now i have other problem but i think it's related to this bug
I have attached a foto

after the bamf update There is still no Libreoffice Base icon on the launcher.

I experienced the behaviour described in #844119 (which led me here, because it is a duplicate) and it seems I found a workaround.

1) The behaviour I had:

To reproduce:
 * Open Libre Office Writer
 * Open a few other applications such a Firefox and Thunderbird
 * Hit Alt-Tab and switch to Firefox
 * Hit Alt-Tab again while keeping Alt depressed

Expected behavior:
 * Libre Office should be in the list of available switchable applications

Actual behavior:
 * Libre Office is not in the list of available switchable applications when hitting Alt-Tab and keeping Alt depressed
 * Libre Office is not switched back to when tapping Alt-Tab quickly (the last-used application before Libre Office is jumped to)

2) my configuration:

- Precise Pangolin (12.04)
- libreoffice3.4* packages installed
- the LibreOffice PPA (https://launchpad.net/~libreoffice/+archive/ppa) added in my source.list
- libreoffice* packages installed (note the lack of version number at the end of the package name), which is actually LibreOffice 3.5.5.2
- bamfdaemon 0.2.118-0ubuntu0.2

3) the workaround (to be confirmed by others)

- uninstall libreoffice3.4* packages (sudo aptitude remove libreoffice3.4*)

This way, I can now switch (alt-tab) between Firefox and libreoffice

ouch, this has worked for 3 hours but I'm getting back to the problem now...

I don't have any libreoffice3.4* packages installed and I'm experiencing the same problem, seems to have surfaced in the past couple of days for me (on an up to date 12.04, no PPAs). At present my only workaround is to fire up an XP VM and read the spreadsheets in Excel.

I am seeing is this for the last two weeks.

I have been using Ubuntu 12.04 Since a week after its release and been regularly updating.

I am using the distro provided Libre office and not using external PPAs for Libre Office as far as I checked with the repositories list in /etc/apt/sources.list

1. I am facing the issue of not being to switch to Libre Office file that is open using Alt+Tab.
This issue is not seen sometimes when only one file is opened. But, when multiple Libre Office Writer files are opened, this issue shows up always.

In this case, Launcher icon is not lit and I can switch to Libre Office only by minimizing the windows that get shown over the Libre Office window.

2. I also have the issue of Libre Office icon shown again in the Libre Office for the file that has been opened. Alt+Tab also does not work occassionally during this scenario.

On not all, but most occassions, if I restart the machine, everything works normally for sometime and goes back to showing the above mentioned issues.

If it helps, the applications that I normally have open are Terminal, Google Chrome, Thunderbird, Skype and Netbeans 7.1.2

I have had this issue on a 12.04 freshly installed.

The problems seems to be fixed after running:
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bamfdaemon

Although there appears to be still a few glitches with the icon on the Unity bar:

- sometimes the icon appears to be invisible, although it's working as when clicking on it the document is indeed brought forward;

- sometimes an empty document LibreOffice icon is showed instead of the correct LibreOffice application icon;

- sometimes an empty slot is left on top of the opened document icon;

In view of all those still seeing problems with this, should the bug be re-opened or does it need a new one?

The workaround given by Marco Lackovic (comment #134) worked also for me.
I ran a:

sudo aptitude reinstall bamfdaemon

then opened 2 files in LibreOffice writer, and could swith from one to another or to another application (eg Nautilus).

I have the same problem on 12.04 up to date on a Samsung N310.

This started a few days ago. It is very annoying, as often I click on the launcher icon and instead of bringing the document that is already opened, it opens a new blank document.

So the document is often not visible on the launcher or in alt+tab, but it is visible when using the spread function (either with super+Z or with a hotcorner set by Ubuntu Tweak).

I sometimes also get an extra icon at the bottom of launcher (the icons don't merge for some reason).

So what is the package that needs to be fixed? It would be good to change the status to reopen the bug so it gets some attention (it was tricky to find this bug as the fixed bugs don't appear in the search results by default).

Ouch ! The problem appeared again for me, but in a different way.

I had only one writer document opened, moved it from one workspace to another, did many different things for one hour, and then I could not switch from Firefox to LibreOffice. I had to minimize Firefox to see Libreoffice. In the mean time, I tried to clic on the LibreOffice icon, but nothing happened.

Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the behaviour.

Is there anything we can do to help identify what the outstanding problem is and get this bug fixed? Perhaps it's just that some of us are running the 'wrong' package or haven't got the update yet (although I'm running a standard 12.04 installation with no PPAs, all updates installed etc.).

I found a (very) little workaround:

the LibreOffice window is still accessible by pressing SUPER + W (which presents a panorama of all the windows of the current workspace)

Please open new bug report for any problem you face now.

Matthieu FAURE (mfaure) wrote on 2012-07-18: #139

Well as Matthieu pointed out, this bug really suddenly appeared again. I saw it today several times with libreoffice...

bad is that i don't know, how to triger it. It usually happened when i opened multiple windows of calc sheets and jumped to another window like firefox and then I tried to open calc, and i couldn't get window back. So i guess that this is back in some another form and should be fixed asap as... some co-workers also saw this...but they don't know what should they do to get back windows....their solution is to get back to 8.04 or 10.04..... So I hope, that we can really find how to fix this. I did 5 clean installs of 12.04 because, it worked quite well and now ...:/

Same issue here.

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

$dpkg -l
unity 5.12-0ubuntu1.1
libreoffice-base-core 1:3.5.4-0ubuntu1

And I also get the same issu with other applications, such as VirtualBox-ose, where now only the main window appears in the panel and in the switcher. The VM I have open is only accesible vie SUPER+W

Dear all

Here is the new bug: Bug #1026426

Please go to that one, mark it as affecting you, and follow the discussion there.

Cheers

I also noticed that the "save as" is broken. in Ubuntu 12.10.

I was having the same problems (particularly the inability to switch using Alt+Tab, and blank logos appearing in the launcher), but installing lo-menubar and re-installing bamf (sudo apt-get --reinstall install bamfdaemon) seems to have done the trick for me.

Edu, en referencia a les icones de libreoffice que desapareixn. A veure si funciona...

----- Kris Warner <email address hidden> escribió:
> I was having the same problems (particularly the inability to switch
> using Alt+Tab, and blank logos appearing in the launcher), but
> installing lo-menubar and re-installing bamf (sudo apt-get --reinstall
> install bamfdaemon) seems to have done the trick for me.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (862171).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/842566
>
> Title:
> Libreoffice and unity integration broken.
>
> Status in BAMF Application Matching Framework:
> Fix Released
> Status in Unity:
> Fix Released
> Status in Unity Distro Priority:
> Fix Released
> Status in “bamf” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
> Fix Released
> Status in “bamf” source package in Oneiric:
> Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> SRU TESTCASE
> 1 Enable the splash screen in libreoffice
> 2 Launch libreoffice double-cliking on a lo file
> 3 Repeat this action multiple times and the bug should manifest.
> 4 Now install bamf from oneiric proposed and the repeat the above steps
> 5 The issue wont appear
>
> When I open an existing file with lets say oowriter or oocalc it's
> icon isn't listed in unity panel as a running app. Window controls and
> window title isn't shown on a top panel either (see attached
> screenshot). Empty-staring these app's doesn't rise this issue.
> Sometimes after fresh boot this problem doesn't occur but it's usually
> pretty soon back after opening few existing files.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
> Package: unity 4.12.0-0ubuntu2
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-10.16-generic 3.0.4
> Uname: Linux 3.0.0-10-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> Architecture: amd64
> CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,imgjpeg,decor,compiztoolbox,regex,move,winrules,place,imgpng,mousepoll,resize,grid,vpswitch,gnomecompat,session,animation,wall,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,wobbly,fade,thumbnail,expo,scale,scaleaddon,unityshell]
> Date: Tue Sep 6 13:02:31 2011
> InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
> SourcePackage: unity
> UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-08-28 (8 days ago)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bamf/+bug/842566/+subscriptions

--

Dani Mardones Musoll
Tècnic Informàtic
Consell Comarcal de la Noguera
Passeig Àngel Guimerà, 28-30. 25600 Balaguer
Tel 973 448 933 Fax 973 445 324
-------------------------------------------
Tota la informació que pot tenir aquest correu electrònic
 i els seus arxius annexos és confidencial i es dirigeix exclusivament
al seu destinatari, i es troba emparada per la Llei Orgànica 15/1999, de
 13 de desembre, de Protecció de Dades de Caràcter Personal (LOPD)
quedant prohibida la seva revelació, còpia, distribució o l'exercici de
qualsevol acció relativa al seu contingut per qualsevol persona sense
autorització expressa del Consell Comarcal de la Noguera. Si ha rebut
aquest missatge per error, es prega que ho comuniqui de forma immediata...

I am still experiencing the same promlems with LibreOffice on Ubuntu 12.04 x64. Installing bamfdaemon kind of helped in the sense that the icon does not completely disappear from the launcher panel and I can use Alt+Tab, but I still get strange behavior. E.g. when I open a .doc file, two icons appear on my launcher panel. One of them in invisible (just an empty space on the launcher panel) and does not do anything.

As this bug has been marked as fixed, it is suggested to add new comments to bug #1026426 if you still have the issue.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

The attached image shows the same issue reported in this bug or is it another problem?
This happens after opening 2 or 3 documents it with double click, just like in the bug description above.

I'd say you have another issue reported in bug #1082496.

Rpr nospam, I reported the bug you mentioned, but it seems strange that only 3 people have the same problem. This always happens to me, so I expected it to affect more people. I'm looking for similar problems, they may have the same cause.