Dock persistently removes apps

#1

hello,

so i imagine this is a known issue. i used to think it was because i hadn’t run the install budgie script to finalize installation. i’ve finalized the install weeks ago, but now i see the dock removed chromium after it did an update. this is beyond annoying and seems like a basic usability thing that you should have fixed long ago. i dont understand how this is a thing. it should impact everyone.

reproduce? install something that updates like chromium and update it. watch it disappear from your dock. maybe not even have a dock if you must type and search it in that top menu whatever you call it.

#2

Hi and welcome!

chromium is not part of our default install (20.04 and later) - whilst we as a project are interested - we aren’t responsible for absolutely every piece of software out in the world.

Whilst I appreciate your frustration - please be careful in future in demanding things from any opensource project. All work is provided by multiple people who give up their free time to-do stuff.

Lets point you to the correct place for you to report this issue.

Chromium is a snap package. It sounds like the snap update process is not as seamless at it should be - I’m guessing that there is a certain time interval between updates and that is sufficient to convince plank and probably other docks that the app has been removed and hence removing the chromium icon from the dock.

Thus for first instance https://forum.snapcraft.io is probably your best place to raise your issue to understand better why snap updates is not seamless and causing docks like plank to think the app has been removed.

#3

@fossfreedom I guess it’s related to the launcher of the snap-chromium : it may get written anew by the update and plank get lost ?

I’ve seen that with some snap-app’s launchers : the path to icon is an absolute path to a specific version of the software, instead of being a more « universal » path only « linking » to current version.

Initial .desktop launcher shows
Icon=/snap/chromium/1424/chromium.png
but should show
Icon=/snap/chromium/current/chromium.png

As a workaround @bananapeal you may copy from
/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications
the launcher for Chromium
chromium_chromium.desktop
and paste it into your
~/.local/share/applications

Then modify the Icon line in this launcher through a text editor in order to have
Icon=/snap/chromium/current/chromium.png
or just
Icon=chromium

That should do the trick.

#4

i’m so sorry, but isn’t it your decision to include this plank dock thing as part of budgie’s window management?

why doesn’t the start menu thing lose track of the chromium snap? you’re saying the chromium people didn’t configure their snap correctly to work with your dock? it seems unrealistic for these folks to target so many different desktop environments. the fragmentation on linux in this area is surreal. either the desktop experience people get ahead of it or … well idk what to tell you. why is the menu in upper left able to find it but your dock isn’t? ubuntu made the decision to move package management to snap. they made it too early? i see many snaps are installing in basic mode too. again idk what to tell you. you ship budgie with the dock included i didnt add it. idk how the dock works in detail, but you’re the desktop people. you should know. i see the menu above doesn’t forget chrome. your dock does. maybe there’s a way to merge these experiences so they’re consistent. i wouldn’t even be here if gnome on ubuntu wasn’t such a dumpster fire.

thank you for your hard work in making a simple and stable alternative to gnome. you’re still my favorite. just thought i’d point that out.

also since all package management on ubuntu is going to snaps, maybe the dock is just a dumb idea if you can’t manage it properly. like other softs i install that way (all of them, since that’s what ubuntu wants) will also get removed? well … then like i said , why even include the dock if it functions this badly?

#5

Ok…

You know you can disable plank ( dock ),
see Budgie Desktop Settings and remove plank from « automatic startup ».

Still it’s not Budgie’s fault if snap behave rough around the edges sometimes.

You can also disable snap if you want - official APT/.deb repositories are not meant to disappear : Chromium though unfortunately is only available as a snap in *buntu, so if you need it daily, modify its launcher as suggested above { launchers placed in ~/.local/share/applications won’t get touched by updates }

All other programs are still available as .deb through official repositories and ppa, newer versions of LibreOffice or Gimp or Minecraft… Snap things are not at all mandatory ( except for Chromium ).

A package manager like synaptic will show you only APT/.deb related offers.
snap-store well as its names suggests will only show snap things.
gnome-software aka software may show many things, even flatpak if you add the right plugin, so while using it always pay attention to the « source » of app’ and choose wisely.

Wisely means first best choice is .deb from official repositories, second best is .deb from a trusty ppa. If what you need is not there, try something else ( snap, flatpak ). In last alternative, AppImage or compile from sources.

And please for second time : beware here are benevolent volunteers, not paid workers for providing free support to bratty people.

#6

One of the great things about Ubuntu Budgie that I have discovered, is that it is indeed very community driven. It was something the team brought up to the community. Yes, this is a while ago, but still… Me, personally, I use Icon Task List instead of Plank. But the team asked, we answered, they listened. So I guess you could say it was our decision.

That being said, we all certainly have the ability to make things better, even if its just pointing out that things aren’t working as expected. But aside from whether or not to include it as a default app, Plank is outside of the control of the Ubuntu Budgie team. However, you may want to comment on the issue here. It is an old issue that has been reported on launchpad it seems, with not much progress made, but every voice only helps to draw attention to it: