Broken taskbar and desktop issue Zorin OS Lite

General Help
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#1

Hello all,

When I turned on my computer today, I noticed that all of the dock/taskbar (not sure what it is officially called; it’s the bar spanning the bottom of the screen) icons were gone (except for the start menu and the Sound/Wifi/Clock at the far right). Open applications also did not show on the taskbar. I was able to get open windows showing on the taskbar by changing the panel settings, but I could not get it back to its original look. I also worry something is broken with the desktop, as I cannot change the Layout of the desktop in the “Zorin Appearance” app (there’s just white space below the “Layout” title). There should be a dot below applications that are open but with minimized windows, and the open application that I am using should have a line underneath the application icon. I still had the original installer USB, so I booted from the USB (and the taskbar worked as expected) and found that I was missing this thing called “Dockbar X,” but I cannot find a version of it for Zorin OS. I installed a version from GitHub, but it didn’t work. However, my main concern is the fact that I cannot change the desktop layout. Is there any way to reset this or will I have to reinstall the OS? I am using Zorin OS Lite 15.3.

#2

Hi, LinuxPenguin.
Can you do a Search for “zorin-appearance” (without quotes) in Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)? Then right click on it, Mark For Reinstallation, and then click Apply.
If you don’t have SPM in your System Tools sub-menu, press ctrl+alt+t and in the terminal window type sudo apt install synaptic

#3

Hello carmar,

Thank you for the info, but that unfortunately did not work. I installed SPM and I re-installed Zorin Appearance. I then restarted the machine, but nothing changed; I still could not change the Layout of the desktop. What would you suggest doing next?

#4

There seems to be an influx of Panel issues as of late:

Some of the above had me suspect a change in Gnome-Shell. However, Zorin OS Lite does not use Gnome-Shell.

Dockbarx is in the repository as the following packages:
dockbarx - 0.93+git20190103-1~ppa3+zorin1
dockbarx-theme-zorin - 1.1.0
dockbarx-themes-extra - 2.1-1~2

I do not know if it is involved- I have had no trouble but I am not using Gnome or XFCE at this point,but Cinnamon on Zorin. And my first act upon install of Zorin OS is always to remove dockbarx.

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#5

LP, that is all I can suggest.
Aravisian is not only more versed in troubleshooting but also runs Lite (I run Core). Further, I don’t have dockbarx installed on my machine. Given those two, if you haven’t already removed dockbarx (as he recommends), then you can try that (also through SPM).

#6

Thank you for the information. Weird that other people are experiencing issues with the taskbar. Anyways, I will try installing those packages. Are they in the apt repository or do I use Synaptic Package Manager? If that does not work, then is there any other sort of window/application manager thing you would recommend? I don’t mind resetting the computer since there’s barely anything on its hard drive, but I worry about that issue popping up again later on down the line.

Thanks again for the help; I will see if it works out.

#7

Mine was core

#8

Yes, you can use terminal or Synaptic. Synaptic relies on your sources list in the same manner as APT does.
Zorin OS comes with all the Zorin Repos added. So, either installation method will see them.

That aside, I have no idea of the cause.
Until your thread, I was examining exclusively code in Gnome-Shell (With no results as of yet) wondering of that was where the fault is.

I believe tan10vir is also using Core (Gnome).
So either coincidence or something outside of gnome or XFCE is affecting panels on both…
Another post:

For XFCE users that experience panel issues on login or unlock, you might avoid having to restart by hitting alt+F2 and entering in “xfce4-panel --restart” without quotes.
Gnome users may be able to with alt+F2 and entering in “r” without quotes to restart the gnome-shell.

#9

Thank you all for the help, but unfortunately I could not find all of the packages. I decided to switch to Zorin OS Core, since my computer is already quite overkill for the Lite version (Xeon E5-2680 V4, AMD FirePro S10000 12GB), and I felt that it would be best for me to use the Core verison. The taskbar now functions as intended.

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#10

Hi. (Zorin 15 Lite 64-bit.) I have the problem that started this thread. When I minimize an application, it disappears instead of appearing as an icon on the panel. There doesn’t seem to be a problem with “Zorin Appearance.” I’m guessing that the problem is connected with Xfce panel or Dockbarx. I’ve tried reinstalling the packages for Dockbarx, as Aravisian suggested, but it doesn’t make any difference. Has anyone had any success in addressing this problem? Thanks.

#11

Minimizing something to the panel usually relates to the “Windows Buttons” add-on for XFCE4 Panel.
Can you right clickt he panel, check Panel Preferences, Items Tab and ensure Windows Buttons is still there?

#12

Hi, Aravisian, It depends on which of the two Desktop Layouts one selects under Zorin Appearance. Under the left-hand layout, it’s Dockbarx. Under the right-hand layout, Dockbarx is replaced by Windows Buttons. That function, Windows Buttons, seems to be working, but Dockbarx is still dysfunctional.

#13

Ah, I see. I use Zorin LIte, but I admit, I do not use the Zorin Appearance very much. I tend to go wandering off and do my own thing. And I always remove dockbarx, first thing.
I’ll need to load up and do some trial and error with Zorin Appearance and see what kind of a mess I can make of things and then try untangling it.

#14

Thanks, Aravisian. Dockbarx was working fine under Zorin 15 Lite 32-bit. If was only after I did a fresh installation of Zorin 15 Lite 64-bit that it stopped working. I’ve searched various discussion boards without being able to confirm a diagnosis.

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#15

Have you tried removing and reinstalling dockbarx using the provided packages earlier in this thread?

#16

Hi, Aravisian. The packages that you mentioned in the post from Oct '20? Yes, I did try removing and reinstalling them, as well as any other Dockbarx packages. It didn’t make any difference. But I’ll try a complete removal and report back.

EDIT: I can’t remove dockbarx because Synaptic then wants to remove xfce4-dockbarx-plugin and then zorin-os-lite-core, etc.

#17

Yes, I am not sure. I do not use that extension so my own knowledge is very limited. Searching the web has not yielded very much.
My own personal opinion of Dockbarx is “too many cooks in the kitchen.” I find the panel addons in xfce to be far more configurable and useful.
In Gnome, is where dockbarx shines. It provides some functionality that is lacking in Gnome Shell.
But it is more of a decoration in xfce.

#18

What’s useful about Dockbarx is that it lets you start and stop docked applications without maximizing them. Is there a panel add-on that would serve that function?

#19

I honestly am not sure what you mean, since everything I ever launched from Dockbarx maximizes when launched, though you can minimize it to the dockbar without closing it.
Here is a list of XFCE panel Plugins:

The places plugin and panel application launchers operate, in my opinion, the same way as dockbarx does, on XFCE. Perhaps there is a difference on Gnome.

#20

Thanks, Aravisian, for the link.

When applications are docked and minimized in Dockbarx, one can access some of their functions by right-clicking on them.

The problem was here: /lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32

Once I replaced PIL, Dockbarx started working again.

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