date and time in gnome-system-log is white text on white background

Bug #1045602 reported by Rocko
174
This bug affects 38 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-system-log (Ubuntu)
Invalid
High
Unassigned
ubuntu-themes (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

The datetimes in syslog, kernlog, and auth.log (ie that appear to the left of the log text) are normally invisible. They are there - selecting them makes them appear as white text on orange background - but the problem is that they are normally being drawn as white text on white background.

The same problem doesn't exhibit in the Xorg.0.log, possibly because that isn't translated to date and time.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: gnome-system-log 3.5.90-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-13.14-generic 3.5.3
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.5.1-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Sep 4 11:07:06 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Alpha amd64 (20120606.2)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-system-log
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Rocko (rockorequin) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in gnome-system-log (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Bert (e-bert) wrote :

Also affects dpkg.log (all logfiles in there with date and time shown).

Revision history for this message
Serge (sspapilin) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Serge (sspapilin) wrote :

Sorry, forgot to write a description for patch above. It can be fixed by changing timestamps color from gray to black.

Revision history for this message
Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton) wrote :

The attachment "my.patch" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

tags: added: patch
Revision history for this message
Hans109h (hans109h) wrote :

Thanks for the patch. Solved the problem for me.

Revision history for this message
Juan Simón (simonbcn) wrote :

If they have a patch, why Canonical don't apply it and release it?

Revision history for this message
Juan Simón (simonbcn) wrote :

I have installed the Raring version and same problem!

Revision history for this message
Adam Dingle (adam-yorba) wrote :

The date and time looks fine with GNOME's default Adwaita theme, so I think this is really a theming bug. I suspect the right way to solve this is by patching unity-themes, not gnome-system-log itself.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in ubuntu-themes (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Bill Turner, wb4alm (wb4alm) wrote :

I installed Ubuntu 13.04 as a clean and default installation, and the timestamps WERE NOT displayed, unless one or more lines were highlighted. With all of the recent changes that have been made to make a 13.04 desktop "look like" a "touch tablet" or smart phone, I no longer know where to go to determine what theme is now in use on my system.

Since the initial install, I have had to changed a large number of "defaults" in an attempt to make the entire system USABLE, but have not found an effective way to repair this particular issue.

Since Canonical has not released a fix, it would appear to me that (1) their development machines are in a closed environment (i.e. not attached to the Internet) and (2) that they do not use the logs. Period.

Otherwise, I feel that this issue would have been fixed well over a year ago!!!

Unfortunately, there are many of us that do need to monitor the logs and fix outstanding problems - and need to make use of packages like fail2ban to minimize hacking attempts. This does require matching timestamps between logs and highlighting large blocks of log text just to find particular timestamp entrys is not exactly work efficent.

Revision history for this message
Rocko (rockorequin) wrote :

@Bill Turner: Do the times show up if you use the Numix theme (http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/beautiful-numix-gtk3-theme-released.html)? I'm using it in 13.04 and I can see the log times now.

Revision history for this message
Adam Dingle (adam-yorba) wrote :

Unreadable dates/times in gnome-system-log in Ubuntu are a longstanding annoyance. I'd love to see this fixed for Trusty.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Would be nice to fix for the lts indeed

Changed in ubuntu-themes (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
Changed in gnome-system-log (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

William, do you think you could have a look to this one? It might be that it doesn't play nicely with our theme color but that would still be an upstream code bug, it should work with any theme

Changed in gnome-system-log (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → William Hua (attente)
Revision history for this message
William Hua (attente) wrote :

It's probably an upstream bug since it doesn't play nice with gnome-accessibility-themes' High Contrast theme either. But at least we can apply the MP to ubuntu-themes to make it work.

Changed in ubuntu-themes (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-themes - 13.04+14.04.20131211-0ubuntu1

---------------
ubuntu-themes (13.04+14.04.20131211-0ubuntu1) trusty; urgency=low

  [ William Hua ]
  * Fix timestamp colours in gnome-system-log (LP: #1045602). (LP:
    #1045602)

  [ Andrés G. Aragoneses ]
  * Cleanup gtk3 CSS files removing empty rules (Ambiance and Radiance
    themes).
  * Radiance-GTK3: Fix CSS state pseudoclasses precedence This fix is
    the same one that was applied to Ambiance in Ubuntu Saucy:
    http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-art-pkg/ubuntu-
    themes/trunk/revision/311 But this time for the Radiance theme. The
    launchpad bug for Ambiance was:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1211831. (LP: #1211831)
  * Ambiance: remove redundant attributes Before revision 311 [1], the
    attributes for states pseudoclasses were not being applied properly
    (as by the rules of CSS precedence, these had the same specificity
    as other class rules, so the last one to be specified won), so then
    these attributes were being hardcoded in a duplicated manner in many
    rules with pseudoclasses. Such was the case for the following
    attributes: row:selected { color: @selected_fg_color; }
    row:selected:backdrop { color: @backdrop_selected_fg_color; }
    .entry:selected, .entry:selected:focused { color:
    @selected_fg_color; } GtkIconView.view.cell:selected,
    GtkIconView.view.cell:selected:focused { color: @selected_fg_color;
    } But, as revision 311 [1] added the pseudoclasses at the end of the
    CSS file, then these attributes finally took effect in all cases,
    and therefore they become redundant, so it is safe to remove them.
    [1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-art-pkg/ubuntu-
    themes/trunk/revision/311.

  [ Ubuntu daily release ]
  * Automatic snapshot from revision 328
 -- Ubuntu daily release <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:12:29 +0000

Changed in ubuntu-themes (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
snurfle (snurfle) wrote :
Download full text (4.5 KiB)

Maybe I just don't know enough about ubuntu yet, but if the fix is released, then why is it not showing up in the software updater?
I tried searching for the fix that was listed in post # 18 "This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-themes - 13.04+14.04.20131211-0ubuntu1", and that led me to here: "https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-themes/13.04+14.04.20131211-0ubuntu1", where I could download this: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+files/ubuntu-themes_13.04%2B14.04.20131211.orig.tar.gz
Downloaded, extracted, and tried running the "Makefile", which only returned a blue million errors:
./Makefile: line 1: THEME: command not found
./Makefile: line 2: SIZES: command not found
./Makefile: line 3: ICONS: command not found
./Makefile: line 6: PADLOCK: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: THEME: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: SIZES: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: ICONS: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: foreach: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: foreach: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: foreach: command not found
./Makefile: line 7: FILES: command not found
./Makefile: line 9: FILES: command not found
./Makefile: line 9: all:: command not found
./Makefile: line 11: fg: no job control
./Makefile: line 12: PADLOCK: command not found
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./scavenge.py", line 53, in <module>
    main()
  File "./scavenge.py", line 33, in main
    base = xml.dom.minidom.parse(args[0])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/dom/minidom.py", line 1921, in parse
    return expatbuilder.parse(file)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py", line 922, in parse
    fp = open(file, 'rb')
IOError: [Errno 21] Is a directory: 'Ambiance'
./Makefile: line 14: clean:: command not found
./Makefile: line 15: FILES: command not found
./Makefile: line 15: -rm: command not found
./Makefile: line 17: .PHONY:: command not found
snurfle@snurfle:~/Desktop/ubuntu-themes-13.04+14.04.20131211$ py Makefile
py: command not found
snurfle@snurfle:~/Desktop/ubuntu-themes-13.04+14.04.20131211$ ./ambiancetoradiance.sh
mv: cannot stat ‘*/*/*.svg’: No such file or directory
./ambiancetoradiance.sh: line 7: */*/*.svg: No such file or directory
file */*/*.svg processed
rm: cannot remove ‘*/*/*.svg.bak’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat ‘*/*/*.svg’: No such file or directory
./ambiancetoradiance.sh: line 14: */*/*.svg: No such file or directory
file */*/*.svg processed
rm: cannot remove ‘*/*/*.svg.bak’: No such file or directory
snurfle@snurfle:~/Desktop/ubuntu-themes-13.04+14.04.20131211$ sudo ./Makefile[sudo] password for snurfle:
./Makefile: 1: ./Makefile: THEME: not found
./Makefile: 2: ./Makefile: SIZES: not found
./Makefile: 3: ./Makefile: ICONS: not found
./Makefile: 6: ./Makefile: PADLOCK: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: THEME: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: SIZES: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: ICONS: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: foreach: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: foreach: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: foreach: not found
./Makefile: 7: ./Makefile: FILES: not found
./Makefile: 9: ./Makefile: FILES: not found
./Makefile: 9: ./Makefile: all:: not found
./Make...

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Revision history for this message
William Hua (attente) wrote :

Hi snurfle, the fix was released in trusty 14.04 and seems to be working for me. If you're still running saucy, you can try installing the package found here: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/amd64/light-themes/13.04+14.04.20131211-0ubuntu1 to see if that fixes the problem for you.

Revision history for this message
Ken VanDine (ken-vandine) wrote :

This bug was in the theme which has been fixed now.

Changed in gnome-system-log (Ubuntu):
assignee: William Hua (attente) → nobody
status: Confirmed → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Seán Ó Séaghdha (seanos) wrote :

Some clear information on how to fix this (e.g. what particular classes cause it) would be useful. Every class mentioned above is contains either the word ‘selected’ or ‘focused’ or both. This problem is for non-selected rows.

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