Re: [Gretl-users] Anybody else with menu problems on Ubuntu 18.04?
On Thu, 13 Sep 2018, Sven Schreiber wrote:
Am 05.07.2018 um 20:56 schrieb Sven Schreiber:
> Am 29.06.2018 um 18:15 schrieb Sven Schreiber:
>> quite often the menus in the main gretl window become unresponsive
>> ...
>> This is likely _not_ a gretl bug but probably induced by the specifics of
>> the ubuntu deskop.
>>
OK sorry to populate this thread all by myself...
On the Cinnamon desktop (in Ubuntu 18.04) the menu problems definitely do not
appear. Instead on the standard Ubuntu desktop (which AFAIK is _not_ Unity,
but based on Gnome shell) I get the problem basically immediately, as soon as
I use a second gretl window or stuff like that. Also with a more basic Gnome
shell desktop without ubuntu tweaks it happens.
It's a pity because the Gnome shell really has some nice window manager
features.
And let me repeat: This makes gretl currently unusable on the default install
of what has been (or was) the most popular Linux distro. Plus I'm not aware
of any other affected program, so I'm not so sure anymore it's not a gretl
issue. But whatever the cause, isn't that a problem for a program like gretl
which basically considers Linux its home?
I mean right now the best platform for gretl from a non-expert/non-developer
point of view is Windows I guess...
There's no problem on Mac OS X, and no problem on Arch or Fedora
Linux (can't speak for other Linux distros, though I do know that
Jack doesn't have such a problem on Debian.)
Ubuntu, over the last several years, has been well known for f*cking
around with the user interface of third-party programs, in the
service of some notion of uniformity and without regard to whether
their interventions actually work for all affected programs. Unity
was the worst example but it seems to me that what you're observing
now is most likely a manifestation of the same tendency. So I'm
pretty sure this is Ubuntu-specific.
However, there's one point in the current gretl code that makes me
wonder. I put in place, some time ago, special code to protect gretl
against the depradations of Unity whenever Ubuntu is determined to
be the OS at runtime. I suppose it's conceivable, if Unity has now
gone into the dustbin of history, that the special code has become
harmful.
I could try masking that code in git. If I do so, could you try
building gretl from from git on Ubuntu and see if the change helps?
Allin