Unity launcher and Alt-Tab switcher missing entry for gnome-terminal

Actually, I need to broaden the scope of this. Looks like it's affecting all sorts of apps at various stages. E.g. currently I have Chrome and Gnome-Terminal open. Alt+tab shows Terminal and Desktop, but not Chrome.

I'm not 100% convinced, but now wondering if it's just happening to the first app started on boot.

isn't gnome-terminal on a different workspace?

No. I hadn't moved the window, and I did double check on each workspace just in case. I'm a little surprised that the workspace switcher icon is non-dynamic. Almost every GUI indicates in some way that windows are open on other workspaces, even minimalist GUIs do it.

I'm unable to re-create it this morning after spending 15-20 minutes yesterday succesfully re-creating it time after time (wanted to be sure I wasn't doing anything stupid). Only real difference between yesterday and today is I've installed the fglrx_updates drivers. I'll experiment with them on and off and see if it does make a difference.

I've attached a hopefully a good example of the behaviour, this time affecting Chrome.

In the foreground is Gnome Terminal, with transparency enabled (and a dmesg output just to have text appearing). Behind it you can see Google Chrome on the Google home page. In the alt+tab box you can see just Desktop and Terminal.

To get Chrome to appear in the alt+tab box I had to switch to it (using dock icon) then press alt+tab whilst it had focus. Alt-tabbing between then works fine.

This seems to be happening quite frequently, but I can't figure out an exact sequence that results in it happening. Applications are not always registering as running according to dock, but are clearly loaded and visible on the screen, and not alt-tabbable.

Also noticing, in cases where the program is loaded, not appearing in dock (see screenshot: chrome is clearly forefront, and not appearing in dock as running). Also it's not appearing in alt+tab. Pressing alt+tab to desktop reveals desktop and hides the window without any obvious way to recover it. Switching to any other running program and then alt+tabbing to desktop instead of taking you to the desktop then returns the window to the forefront.

I guess I could take a video of this behaviour if it's of any value?

The alt-tab only shows the apps that are running on the same workspace.

The picture above that has the terminal showing as running, also shows that unity thinks it is on a different workspace (the arrow being hollow instead of solid).

That's interesting, I'm certainly not moving it (ctrl+alt+shift+direction isn't a combination you just stumble across), but also that doesn't explain what's going on in note #6 with screenshot where Chrome is clearly on the same workspace (you can see it right behind the active terminal pane) but not appearing in the alt-tab box.

You've actually hit on the right problem there Tim. It looks like Unity is getting confused about where a window is.

See the next attached two screenshots. In them you can see Gnome Terminal running behind Ubuntu Software Center, but according to the icon in the dock bar Unity thinks Gnome Terminal is on another desktop (it isn't, and I've double checked).

Clicking on the Workspace Switcher and then a second time to bring it back to where it started seems to force Unity to reevaluate what is on what desktop and then Gnome Terminal suddenly ends up appearing in alt-tab.

I believe this problem is part of an even wider scope.

Unity seems to be having big problems with remembering which workspace an application is associated.

This is manifesting itself in one of three specific ways:

1) Applications not appearing in alt-tab. (usually combined with a hollow triangle on left, even if window is visible)

2) Applications appearing in dock as on the current workspace (solid triangle on left) but can't be brought to front by clicking on the icon.

3) In cases where 2) is the case, and the application is in alt-tab the menu bar doesn't alter for the application. Interaction with the application works so far as mouse clicking is concerned, but not for keyboard input, e.g. with Gedit I'm able to select and copy text but not get a live cursor in the window to alter it. It also means I can't click on any of the window resize buttons or get at the menu for the application forcing me to right click on the icon in the dash and quit from there.

The attached screenshot 'Dead Parrot' show this, with Polly being the stuck application. Even though title bar isn't shaded (application is forefront) it doesn't have the menu bar and I can't type within the application, even though all other mouse based interaction works.

I was finally able to re-create this consistently.
Clean install from Beta 1, press alt+f2, type in gnome-terminal, and hit enter (don't click the icon).
That resulted in a gnome-terminal screen loading but with an unfilled triangle.

It seems that some update since I originally reported the bug (and was seemingly derided, and then ignored) has resolved this.

I should add, the other problems still exist, as documented in screen captures and photographs. However given you've been ignoring those so far in the ticket, I suppose it's unlikely we'll see any kind of dialogue about them.

that could be related to bug 772063

This bug is also affecting me. I think people who use chrome might keep hitting this bug regularly now that 12.04 is released. Marking importance as high

I am facing this mainly with the Terminal, is there any workaround to switch to open terminal windows from keyboard? If not, sadly, my yesterday's impression of Unity was so wrong!

I can confirm this bug (using Ubuntu 12.04 [amd64] with latest updates on laptop) - behavior is exactly the same as in bug report description:
 - booting and login
 - run Firefox
 - run gnome-terminal (yes, at the same workspace)
 - press alt-tab

Expectation:
 - Firefox, Terminal and Desktop in tab list

Reality:
 - Firefox and Desktop in tab list only, without Terminal

That's really annoying (not a moan, just a usability thought).

I have the same thing happening with me. I'm running an instance of Eclipse which doesn't show up in my alt-tab window. If I minimize it, the only way I've found to get back to it is to shift-alt-tab.

I also have this problem with gnome-terminal (Precise x64, Intel graphics). I tested Unity 2D just now though, and that does not have this problem. On logging back out and into standard Unity, the problem seems to be fixed.

I should probably point out that this system was upgraded from Oneiric, and that on first-boot, I had several problems with both Empathy's account manager and colord crashing (both reported with apportd). In the end, I had to selectively clear .folders (.gnome2, .local, .cache and .gconf?) to fix the problem. While that is unrelated to the gnome-terminal issue here, it makes me suspect that some Unity-specific user settings are somehow being corrupted (or not updated correctly) during the upgrade process.

I can confirm that on a clean install of ubuntu 12.04. Eclipse does not show in alt+tab. Running eclipse also is not marked as running on sidebar.

See also:
Bug 995916: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for Gimp windows
Bug 999171: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for Scribus windows
Bug 762193: No launcher icon or Alt+Tab entry for xchat/xchat-gnome windows
Bug 951929: Unity launcher and Alt-Tab switcher missing entry for gnome-terminal

I hope they're all the same bug, but we won't really know until a fix is proposed.

In case it's helpful, I just noticed this bug after having done a Crashplan restore. Against my better judement, I did a restore from 10.10 onto a 12.04 including my home directory (including hidden files). Perhaps I have updated an important config file with an outdated option and that is triggering the issue. Perhaps this is a big red herring, and the bug was there before I did the restore. Take it with a grain of salt.

I also observe this bug with newer versions of tortoisehg. tortoisehg 2.2 from precise repos is fine, latest stable 2.4 from a ppa does only briefly show an icon inside the launcher and immediately removes it again. The icon or at least the space for it is visible for 1 or 2s during application startup.

As Robert already noted, login out and back in seems to fix the problem. This is true for tortoisehg. I did not log into unity 2d.

same problem here with both (gnome terminal and tortoisehg) on precise 64bit desktop

I have this issue on an HP laptop VH481PA#ABG (Intel graphics)
https://h10057.www1.hp.com/ecomcat/hpcatalog/specs/provisioner/05/VH481PA.htm

In My case it's Rythym Box is the only app that is showing.

I have 2 screens with the launcher/start menu showing on both screens and I have 'Sticky Edges' switched to off.

The main drawback with this bug is I can't get to any existing window like Firefox/Chrome/Vmware and have to create/open a new instance of the program.

I haven't tried switching between 2D and 3D yet.

This is from a fresh Install of Pangolin 12.04

New laptop. Fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 and I'm having the same issue. So far I've only noticed it with gnome-terminal.

Linux Version: Linux 3.2.0-25-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 23 20:30:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Laptop Model: HP DV7-6C95DX

My issue is similar but may not be the same. I'm running ssh with -X and launching gvim from the remote. The remote gvim sessions are not in the alt-tab list; nether are they in launcher.

If the window gets minimised there is no way to bring the application back.

Precise Pangolin x86

Actually there IS a way to get lost applications again. You can press alt+f2, type "unity" and press enter to restart unity shell. That way you get all your applications again in switcher and dock. All assigments of applications to virtual desktops will be lost though.

This is affecting me on a fresh install of 12.04 with updates.

I immediately ran all updates following installation, so I'm unable to report if the behavior existed prior to updates.

It seems to affect a variety of applications with no discernible consistency - I've specifically seen it in Calibre, google-chrome, and VirtualBox. As described above, there are varying combinations of app icons being missing from the alt-tab switcher, the dock, or both.

I don't know about the rest of all the apps installing wrong, but Chrome I figured out how to fix it. With Chrome in particular it seems it is an error with Ubuntu Software Center's handling of .deb files. I was disappointed when they pulled the Debian installer a few generations ago in Ubuntu. I am not an avid Linux user, so I don't do command line where avoidable. I downloaded the debi installer or something similar and Synaptic's package manager. On my system the Ubuntu Software Center would not uninstall Chrome, and said it was a terminal only application. I used Synaptic to uninstall Chrome as I had the issues listed above. On a fresh install installing chrome downloaded as .deb file and using the Ubuntu software center.

Fix: Upon fresh install make your first install a Debian package installer application. Either use debi installer (something like that anyway) or use "debian-installer" on the Synaptic package manager.

This kind of issue really is disappointing on an "end user" version of Linux especially, since flash will become Chrome only in the near future. I don't know of any workaround yet for video streaming (which seems will soon be Amazon only via Chrome only, and way too soon at that), but your average "grandmother" as the Ubuntu documentation says Ubuntu is simple enough for would not know that .deb files are not handled very well. Perhaps most are, but not the one which is most likely to be the most common new user download and install .deb file...

I have same issue but with Eclipse. Upgrade of 12.04 from 10.04.
Eclipse installed from repository.

If you need any more information, please let me know

I am having the same issue with at least terminal and Libre office. They are not showing up in alt-tab and the triangle is not showing that indicates that the application is open. The only way for me to see the program is to use SuperKey-w or type "unity --reset" after pressing alt-f2. This is very frusturating because now I am writing an essay and libre office is always disapearing and I am doing "unity --reset" many times each day.

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 upgraded from 11.10 and even upgraded before that, this is 32-bit version.

Possibly related: bug 1030542.

I'm having this problem with several applications, and have been having this issue for a long time! With the removal of "unity --reset" it seems the only way to work around it is to restart lightdm which is obviously not very nice to do while you're busy at work.

With the fix version of this bug being set to 7.0.0 does that mean this won't be fixed until 13.04?

I've had a horrid day today, with several apps missing from the launcher and alt+tab. I can't believe this is still not fixed! Apps failed today are gnome-terminal, gedit and eclipse.

Stopping the app and restarting has solved the issue.

If there is any debug information I can provide for this, let me know and I'll be happy to assist.

It's very strange what you're reporting... I'm basically not seeing this for ages, that's why it's difficult to fix here.

In case it happens, check that bamfademon is running in that moment

I saw this today on a fresh install of today's 12.04.2 iso, happened to firefox and gnome-terminal.

I've noticed that if an app is locked to the launcher the issue does not occur. I had this problem with gnome-terminal and I had 'lost' several terminal windows. I dragged terminal from the dash and locked it to the launcher and then suddenly all the existing terminal windows were dissociated with it and were also in the alt-tab menu.

I start a full screen terminal (Ctrl+T and then F11) from which I launch gedit from a script file wishlist to append a file wishlist.t with date and PWD. I am then able to work inside gedit. The problem is that I cannot get back to gedit once I use Alt-Tab. Gedit simply is not in the list but is clearly open on the applications column. Totally frustrating to resort to a touchpad on an ACER Aspire running 64bit 12.04. How to use the keyboard only to get back to typing in gedit session?

Just installed 13.04 on Sunday, and this is happening to me. If I switch workspaces, it suddenly figures out which workspace the application is supposed to be in.

This bug (and many others) put me off trying any of the 12.xx builds of Ubuntu, and so far 13.xx isn't faring any better.

I can confirm that this bug is still present in 13.04.

On 13.10 ... still present. Seems to mostly affect gnome-terminal; but maybe that's what I have running most(?) Tends to happen when I have two terminal sessions running. Close the newer one. The old one is still running (shows with filled triangle on launcher) but can't switch to it with alt-tab nor go to it by clicking icon in launcher. Right-click in launcher does not list it either. Restarting Unity restores it to the list.

Can you still reproduce this bug?

This is a rather old bug and is sitting stale. Since no one responded to Andrea on his 2014-12-01 inquiry about being able to reproduce this, I'm going to mark it fixed as some prior release probably fixed it.

If this still does occur, then we can reopen this bug or open a new one.

Can't say for sure if it's a problem any more or not. I've long since given up on Unity, in no small part due to this bug. The response on the bug report did little to convince me it was worth continuing to use it either. A whole bunch of people experiencing it, and the bug just constantly being punted off to the next milestone.

I'm observing this on Xenial, although I've never previously experienced it. I've been using Terminal every day on Xenial for a few months with no issues.

I am seeing this on 16.04 on a fresh install.
I suspect that there's an interaction with the graphics drivers which is why the meagre attempts above to reproduce the problem have failed.
You need to be running on a susceptible computer, in my case it's an Acer Aspire 5332.
It would probably help if other posters returned to add in their computer's details.

Seeing this on ubuntu 16.04, happened shortly after boot.
'terminal' was the first application started, 'google-chrome' was the second. Both started via
<cmd> and the typing the application name.

When the problem appeared, I was switching with alt-tab from chrome to terminal, but had the impression i had misstyped (pressing alt-cmd-tab or something like that not sure), and instead of switching to terminal i switchted to desktop. When trying to alt-tab to terminal agian, I noticed chrome was not in the list anymore.
Chrome application is running, and I am able to switch to chrome by switching with alt-tab to the desktop twice in a row. First time shows the desktop, second time shows all windows, with focus on chrome.