Standalone panel starts empty

[stefonarch]

If lxqt-panel is started outside of an LXQt session it will be empty, frustrating users

Expected Behavior

A default panel with menu, quicklaunch, clock and so on is started

Current Behavior

All widgets have to be added manually and menu files can be absent or wrong under some circumstances. In my test using openbox plasma-application.menu was used in fancy menu.

Possible Solution

Make sure the default panel.conf is copied if not present.

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

1. Remove ~/.config/lxqt/panel.conf
2. Start an openbox session
3. start lxqt-panel

Context

Several people stumble about that recently.

System Information

• LXQt Version: all

[isf63]

There is /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf which is sourced in some (unknown to me) circumstances. It actually may be the reason for the numbering bug #2126

[stefonarch]

I found that there is generated a panel configuration indeed, but without widgets:

[General]
__userfile__=true

[panel1]
alignment=-1
animation-duration=0
background-color=@Variant(\0\0\0\x43\0\xff\xff\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)
background-image=
desktop=0
font-color=@Variant(\0\0\0\x43\0\xff\xff\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)
hidable=false
hide-on-overlap=false
iconSize=22
lineCount=1
lockPanel=false
opacity=100
panelSize=32
position=Bottom
reserve-space=true
show-delay=0
visible-margin=true
width=100
width-percent=true

[tsujan]

Start an openbox session

A bare environment like Openbox may have problem with purely Qt-based apps too because it may not set basic EVs. Did you test with startlxqt minus its last line (which is exec lxqt-session)?

[tsujan]

A more basic question: what if you add [General] to the top of /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf? Its lack seems suspicious to me.

If that's the reason, we should correct it before making a point release for #2173.

EDIT: Never mind; if the value of the panels key is empty, panel1 is added by the code. That means, although /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf has a wrong panels key, it has no effect.

[isf63]

If there is no ~/.config/lxqt/panel.conf and the panel is restarted, for me a ~/.config/lxqt/panel.conf is automatically created.

Generated panel.conf

[General]
__userfile__=true

[desktopswitch]
alignment=Left
type=desktopswitch

[fancymenu]
alignment=Left
type=fancymenu

[mount]
alignment=Right
type=mount

[panel1]
alignment=-1
animation-duration=0
background-color=@Variant(\0\0\0\x43\0\xff\xff\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)
background-image=
desktop=0
font-color=@Variant(\0\0\0\x43\0\xff\xff\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0)
hidable=false
hide-on-overlap=false
iconSize=22
lineCount=1
lockPanel=false
opacity=100
panelSize=32
position=Bottom
reserve-space=true
show-delay=0
visible-margin=true
width=100
width-percent=true

[quicklaunch]
alignment=Left
type=quicklaunch

[showdesktop]
alignment=Right
type=showdesktop

[statusnotifier]
alignment=Right
type=statusnotifier

[taskbar]
alignment=Left
type=taskbar

[tray]
alignment=Right
type=tray

[volume]
alignment=Right
type=volume

[worldclock]
alignment=Right
type=worldclock

It is not the same as /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf. It has a more detailed [panel1] but is missing plugins=, so should be invalid.

[tsujan]

It has a more detailed [panel1] but is missing plugins=

That's not a problem. The plugins key will be created as soon as you add/remove a plugin; otherwise, that of the default config file will be used.

[stefonarch]

otherwise, that of the default config file will be used.

...but only inside lxqt-session. I think the empty panel.conf is generated by the panels' code but have no clue what triggers the use of /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf.

[tsujan]

have no clue what triggers the use of /usr/share/lxqt/panel.conf.

Qt should use it when there's no user config file.

If I were you, I'd listen to @tsujan's suggestion after removing that empty config file, and if the panel was OK, I would remove startlxqt's blocks, one at a time and from bottom to top, to know which one is effective.

[stefonarch]

Some new element for investigating: testing the case-insensitive PR for panel backend I noticed that with niri-session from tty the default panel is created, while in Hyprland (hyprland from tty) an empty one and even transparent is created and you can hardly see where it is.