I decided to try Zorin Core a couple of months ago and it is good for the most part but my taskbar constantly disappears when I step away from the computer for a bit. The system is not going into sleep, just turning off the screen when idle.
The first few times I rebooted to fix it, then I found other topics with this problem including Alt-F2 and enter r to restart the shell. This works to restore it but it is annoying to have to restart the shell over and over during the day.
A bug fix for this issue was noted on this topic in Jun '21, but others have reported the same problem since:
Panel Intellihide is turned off in my taskbar settings. I tried turning it on to see if it would help, but it didn't. Any suggestions what to try next?
In that same thread you linked to the last reply suggests disabling all other gnome extensions, and test again to rule out any conflicts between extensions. Did you try that?
I did notice that suggestion, but there isn't an Extensions option in my Zorin Settings and no Gnome Tweak Tool installed either. I haven't added any extensions that I know of.
I don't see anything called Zorin Menu in Extension Manager. This is a pretty stock Core install that I have not modified much if at all. This is all I see:
Ah, apparently there is a different way to launch it that gives a different interface. I was running it from the item in Settings, but when I click Launch in the Software Store I see this, Zorin Menu is already enabled:
I get it now, the listing in Settings is the settings for this Extensions Manager app, but I had to run the actual app to see the list. I have not added any extensions.
Also, if you could take a note of what windows was focused before this issue happens that would be helpful. I've read a few reported issues and it seems that most people had something maximized or in full-screen mode.
Maybe Firefox playing a video or something?
There's also a way that may give some additional information, again based on what I've read online so I'm not sure how relevant that may be. When this issue happens again try the following:
Nothing maximized or full screen.
It just disappeared again when I stepped away for a few minutes, this Firefox browser window was focused. I have definitely had it happen with nothing focused though too.
I tried Alt + F2 and lg, enabled errors, it says "this.monitor is null"
I'll try disabling and re-enabling Zorin Menu and Zorin Taskbar next...
Unfortunately disabling/re-enabling those did not help, it just happened again.
I had the idea to check /var/log and found the following error in syslog. Wild guess - is zorin-taskbar crashing when my monitor goes into power save or something like that?
gnome-shell[1603]: JS ERROR: Extension zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com: TypeError: this.monitor is null#012getPosition@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panel.js:505:24#012_init@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panel.js:108:29#012_createPanel@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:417:17#012enable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panelManager.js:81:34#012_enable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/extension.js:95:18#012enable@/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/extension.js:64:5#012_callExtensionEnable@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js:170:32#012_enableAllExtensions/<@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js:612:22#012_enableAllExtensions@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js:611:37#012_sessionUpdated@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js:639:18#012_emit@resource:///org/gnome/gjs/modules/core/_signals.js:133:47#012_sync@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/sessionMode.js:198:14#012popMode@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/sessionMode.js:166:14#012_continueDeactivate@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/screenShield.js:550:30#012deactivate/<@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/screenShield.js:541:44#012finish@resource:///org/gnome/shell/gdm/authPrompt.js:558:13#012finish@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/unlockDialog.js:870:26#012deactivate@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/screenShield.js:541:26#012_onUserBecameActive@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/screenShield.js:342:18
Yes, but the bug related to that was supposedly already fixed. I even checked the code on the Zorin Taskbar extension in case that fix wasn't implemented in ZorinOS but it's there...
It also seems that most people experienced this right after running some program in fullscreen like playing video or games, that's why I asked earlier. One of these reports is still open and refers specifically to Firefox:
Note that the Zorin Taskbar extension is a fork of Dash To Panel so there may be some differences that the ZorinGroup didn't apply. But I doubt those differences are significant beyond the appearance tweaks to make it suit the ZorinOS theme.
I agree with this. One of the Pull Requests claims to have solved the issue, and the changes seem fairly straight forward. If you are willing to get your hands dirty with the code we could at least give it a try.
Let me know I'll try to make some instructions as clear as possible.
I never run Firefox fullscreen as I have an ultrawide monitor 5120x1440. The only app I run fullscreen from time to time is Remmina when I RDP into another system. But I definitely have seen this issue when nothing is fullscreen. Firefox is usually running but not always the top window.
This makes me wonder if something in the environment is not getting reset after one or more apps is used fullscreen and then exited. I rebooted my system a while ago today, have not run anything fullscreen yet and have not had the taskbar disappear yet even though Firefox was running. I generally suspend my system and don't reboot often so if its something in the environment that might explain why I see it a lot. I'll try to correlate this further.
Sure - I'll be happy to look at the code patch, thanks.
Ok, I actually started comparing the code but it's clear that ZorinOS's taskbar is too different from the original to simply apply the code from that pull request...
Unfortunately I don't have any experience coding gnome extensions so I don't think I can provide a full path myself. However, I think we can at least give a try at something rather simple, based on the error message shared above, and see if that works.
Before anything else, the of mandatory disclaimers that this is without guarantees and you do this at your own risk.
With that out of the way all you have to do is modify line 505 from file located at: /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com/panel.js
- let position = this.panelManager.panelPositions[this.monitor.index] || Me.settings.get_string('panel-position');
+ let position = this.panelManager.panelPositions[0] || Me.settings.get_string('panel-position');
The red colored line is the default, and in green is the proposed change. Note it's only the content between the square brackets [].
I'm guessing this would bypass the detection of the monitor entirely but since you only have one monitor, then hopefully this can be a quick fix.
You can use any text editor to make this changes but you will need elevated permissions. I suggest running these commands on the terminal to create a backup copy of the file, and open the target file at the right line:
cd /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-taskbar@zorinos.com
cp panel.js panel.js.bak
sudo gnome-text-editor +505 panel.js
Let's see if there's any luck with this. If it doesn't work, try to get more error messages the same way you did before. That may give us some more information to work with.
