weather applet popups appear 2 or 3 times on 17.2

[oldwierdal]

Using the Mate 1.10.2 DE, the weather applet popup notifications will pop up 2 or 3 times whenever they popup. And they popup much more frequently than I have them set for in the weather applet preferences. I have them set for 30 minutes, and the popups appear every 5 minutes or so, and when they do, there will always be at least 2 show up in the upper right corner, one under the other.
Is this a problem with the weather applet or is it a problem with the popup notifications?

[oldwierdal]

F.Y.I. I do not experience this problem with popups from other applications such as popups from my printer. I disabled 'Show Notifications' in the "Preferences," for the Weather Applet, so I don't get the multiple popups. I'm pretty sure the problem lies in the Weather Applet controls, but I don't know where to look for the problem. I've tried removing the applet, rebooting, and then replacing the applet, and get the same results.

owa

[all41]

Removing and reinstalling does not always clear or overwrite configuration files.
You could try this in a terminal:

Code: Select all

mate-panel --reset

This will remove all panel customizations such as panel applets, autohide settings, etc.
Then add the weather applet again. You will need to reconfigure the applet settings
for your locale and preferences.

[oldwierdal]

Thanks all41 for your suggestion. I tried it;
mate-panel --reset,
and, as you said, both panels cleared all applets which I had installed, and I had to manually add the chosen applets.
The results were exactly the same.

A curious note, though. Before I actually tried your suggestion, I had done a manual update/upgrade from the command line. And as the output of 'apt-get update' progessed on the terminal, the weather applet notifications went bonkers, completely filling up the right hand side of the screen with notifications! Then, when 'apt-get update' finished, the weather notifications disappeared one at a time. Really bizzarre!!

Thanks again for your suggestion, though. I'll keep digging and post back if I find anything. By the way, a google search for this came up empty. But, I'll keep digging

owa

[oldwierdal]

Okay! This morning I had way too much time on my hands, so I first did a clean install of LM17.2 vs the upgraded from LM17.1 to LM17.2 version with this problem. Note, I used the same /home/me directory as I had used with the problem. After the install and reboot, and then a whopping 110 updates to install, I did the 'Restore software selection' with the hand-dandy Backup Tool. And after another lengthy pause to get all the other stuff installed, we might have been ready to roll. But, hold on!.... during the 'Restore software selection', the Mate panel Weather applet started doing its bizzarre popping up a dozen or more times! Problem definitely not solved.
So... I wiped both partitions clean again, and started off with a TRULY clean install, with not even a /home/me directory to possibly inject a problem. Again, there were a ton of updates to install, and again, I used the 'Restore software selection' tool, and after everything was completely installed, I began rebuilding my desktop to the way I like it.

AS SOON AS I INSTALLED THE MATE PANEL WEATHER APPLET, it began popping up like popcorn again!

Conclusion.... The Mate panel Weather applet has a problem! The only solution I have found is to turn off the notification option in 'preferences.'

Since there has not been an over-whelming flood of responses to this post, I'll just sit back and wait for a week or so, and then check back.

Thanks,

owa

p.s. This problem ONLY occurrs for me using LM17.2 LM17.1 works just fine!

[all41]

'spooky action at a distance'.

I normally use a conky weather display--but I added the mate panel weather applet to try to
force your problem--even added an extra panel. No misbehavior observed.
You could try creating a new user in Users and Groups, logout and log back in as the new user.
Then try adding the applet and observe for a while.
I have never gotten into the Restore Software thing--maybe that's bringing some configuration/conflict problem forward.
You could also boot into the live mode and add the applet and verify.

If you choose to reinstall again (I would probably want to do so at this juncture) add the applet first thing -observe.
My strategy with a fresh install is add new software needed as opposed to installing a wishlist of everything at once.
Often I have learned new and better ways to accomplish tasks as they present themselves, and conflicts are more easily pinned down.
I have never gotten into the Restore Software thing--maybe that's bringing some configuration/conflict problem forward.

[oldwierdal]

Thanks, all41.
As you suggested before,

You could try creating a new user in Users and Groups, logout and log back in as the new user.
Then try adding the applet and observe for a while.

I had done that, added a new user, and, first, added all the stuff I normally want on the panel, starting with the weather applet. No problems after an hour of observing.... when the weather applet updated, the notification popup only appeared just the one time.
So, one at a time, I added the some of the programs and applications I normally use, and even did a couple of "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" s, and the weather applet behaved itself. Some one of the several applications is conflicting with the .config entry for the weather applet. As I have many applications and programs, I didn't try adding more to the new user.
Next, I'll remove ALL of the .config files, leaving just the folders, etc from my original installations, and re-install FRESH, and add my programs one at a time and hope that the culprit will show itself. Since I'm using LM 17.1 as my primary system which does NOT exhibit this problem, and just tinker with LM 17.2 when I have the time, it may be a while before I can post back with the results.
No hurry for me because my wife loves the modification I've made to the boot-up screen so that it reads "Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca"". Her name is, no surprise, Rebecca.

Thanks again for your suggestions, and, as I said, I'll post back when I have more time to tinker with this thing.

owa

[oldwierdal]

I had the time and inclination the other day to come back to this problem with the weather applet.
In an effort to duplicate the problem as nearly as possible, I did a fresh install of LM 17.1 so that I would be using the upgrade feature from Update Manager. I did this fresh install with a clean /home directory, and manually, one step at a time, rebuilt my /home directory. After the install had finished, I rebooted into my new LM17.1 and did the hundred or so updates waiting for me. Then I did the "Restore Software Selection" from the Backup Tool. Once all that had finished, I began the tedious task of rebuilding my /home directory, which after having used Linux exclusively for almost 13 years had grown considerably. Every thing seemed to be going along well, even after adding the Weather applet to my panel. Then I did the upgrade to LM 17.2 from the Update Manager. The upgrade seemed to go pretty well, too. When it came time to reboot after the upgrade, my wife needed the computer to do some of her work, so I rebooted instead to the LM 17.1 I have on my primary hard drive.
However, the next day when I returned to this project, after I booted to the new LM 17.2 on my "test" drive, there were a few updates available in Update Manager. As the updates were being installed, the weather applet once again began popping up enough to completely fill up the right hand side of my screen, and dropping off the top as new ones would appear at the bottom. Problem not solved, obviously.
As my wife prefers LM 17.1 since she believes it was named after her, and since I don't want to waste any more time chasing this problem, we will just continue to use LM 17.1. LM 17.1 works just fine for us.
My conclusion is that there is a problem either with Mate 1.10.2 or there is a problem with the Weather applet for Mate 1.10.2. Hopefully it will be resolved by the time this LTS expires, and we will have to upgrade or lose support. The installation of LM 17.2 will remain on my "testing" drive so that I can return to it when I have the time and/or inclination to tinker with this strange problem. Or, some other distribution might catch my eye, and I'll blow LM 17.2 away to make room for testing it.
I will keep checking back to this thread to see if someone has a suggestion or to post anything I might come up with. Worst case, it is just a matter of turning off the notification option in preferences for the weather applet if, for some reason we should decide to finally upgrade past LM 17.1.
Linux Mint, in our opinion, is the best distribution we've used dating back to our very first, Red Hat 9.something, back in 2002. This vexing issue with the weather applet is trifling compared to some of the wild adventures we've had over these several years with various distributions.... some of the wildest were with Fedora in the early years.... and a few exciting rides with the early Ubuntu releases.

Thanks for the replies, and thanks for any other suggestions which might be offered.

owa

[Monsta]

Well, the only possibly related change in the applet code from 1.8.x to 1.10.x was the change to another "engine" for monitoring the network status... You see, when the applet detects that the network became available, it updates the weather status right away (and if you have notifications turned on, it shows a notification as well). What's your network configuration BTW? Is it a wireless connection that comes down and up often, by any chance?

[oldwierdal]

@MONSTA Firstly, let me appologize for the several months delay in responding to your post. There were some other more pressing family needs..... Anyway,

What's your network configuration BTW? Is it a wireless connection that comes down and up often, by any chance?

, No, this is wired, going through a router. The easiest workaround is what I have done already, just to turn off the notification option.

I've dinked around with various methods of installing 17.2 ........... a clean installation on '/', leaving the .config(xxx) files from the 17.1 /home/user intact ....... a clean installation on '/' and deleting all of the ".dot" files ........... and using the update manager to upgrade .......... all produce the same results. As I have no other applets which are refreshed via network connection, I cannot say either way whether this is network related.

Thanks, though, for your reply.

owa