Bug#563894: gnome-panel messes up icon placement if screen resolution is changed

[Craig Sanders]

Package: gnome-panel
Version: 2.28.0-3


NOTE: this has been happening for ages, probably years - as long as i
can remember.  I don't know when i first noticed it, i've just avoided
switching res unless absolutely necessary (usually not a problem except
for games). recently i've been playing a few steam games with wine and
they tend to change to full-screen at 800x600 or 1024x768 the first time
you run them (and some don't even have an option to run in windowed
mode).  I'm getting very tired of having to fix up the icon placement.

gnome sometimes (often!) messes up the icon placement when the screen
resolution has changed. if the resolution is lower (than my standard
1920x1200 res) then it bunches the icons up so that they fit in the new 
narrower panel.  if any of the icons are locked to panel it will
also rearrange them.

it doesn't happen all the time, just most of the time. it seems more
likely to happen if the program which changed the resolution dies before
switching the resolution back (but it still happens even if the program
switches back to 1920x1200 before exiting).

if the screen is left in a lower resolution because some program
died, then sometimes (rarely) gnome-panel will fix the icon placement
automatically when i change the resolution back to 1920x1200 with
gnome-randr-applet.

sometimes (rarely) it will fix, or partially fix them if i
start moving some of the icons.

usually it just leaves them bunched up, and i have to waste time
getting them back where they belong.



I've attached to png images to show what happens.

"panel-icons-fixed.png" shows the icons roughly as they should
be...quickly fixed after the most recent incident. several groupings of
related programs.

"panel-icons-messed-up.png" shows the icons as gnome-panel rearranges them
after the resolution has changed.




this could be fixed if gnome-panel would remember the icon placements
for each individual screen resolution. or at least for the current
resolution and the immediate prior resolution.

feel free to forward this bug report upstream.

craig

PS: are there any substitutes for gnome-panel which don't have g-p's
appalling history of crappy bugs that never get fixed? i just want a
panel at the top of the screen for menus and icons and a few status
applets, and a panel at the bottom for selecting active windows, some
more status applets, and a system tray.

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>
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