Ubuntu
tracker package

tracker-applet icon constantly animates even when idle

Bug #194743 reported by David Adam
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
tracker (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: tracker

Ubuntu Hardy Alpha 5, tracker-search-tool version 0.6.4-1ubuntu1.

Related to the comments in bug #177398, the tracker icon continuously animates. I'm no UI expert, but having a constantly-changing indicator in the area of the screen reserved for "something important is happening" seems to be against intuitive design.

I have disabled both indexing and watching in the Tracker Preferences.

Given that there is no way to get rid of the icon (bug #176981), it would be super if I could prevent the tracker icon from animating when it isn't doing anything, even if I can't get rid of it.

'killall -SIGSTOP tracker-applet' is a bruteforce solution when I feel like the constant animation when idle is showing me up, making me look bad to my boss by always appearing to be helpful and productive even when not doing anything. Don't get me fired, tracker-applet!

Revision history for this message
Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu) wrote :

Sounds like caused by bug 194221 (as tracker will get stuck indexing a file over and over)

Revision history for this message
David Adam (zanchey) wrote :

No, I don't think this is related to bug 194221. Running strace(1) over the trackerd process shows no activity (i.e. it's sitting in poll(2)), yet the icon continues to animate. Tracker is disabled - it should not be indexing any files.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Nuzum (newz) wrote :

I have this problem too. I installed Alpha 5 on Feb 22nd from scratch (doing a cliean install). The tracker icon blinks constantly. It's been about 40 hours of mostly idle time.

This could be a bug on multiple levels - it could be that the icon is supposed to blink sometimes and not others and something has got it stuck in the mode where it blinks.

However, that the icon blinks at all is a bug. A blinking icon should rarely if ever be used and then only in cases where something really needs your attention. This is kind of like someone walking up to your desk and jumping up and down waving their hands at you. I can't imaging tracker *ever* needing to get my attention in this way.

(Note that power manager has an animated icon but only in so much as that the icon changes very slowly over time to show the state of your battery - this is far different than tracker which is a constant pulsing)

Revision history for this message
Matthew Nuzum (newz) wrote :

Just checked, the relevant portion of the GNOME HIG is: http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/desktop-notification-area.html.en#notification-area-animation - basically, icons shouldn't blink.

Also the other sections on that page linked discuss guidelines for the notification area, including rules about which icons should be perpetual and how to tell if you want a notification icon or a panel applet. According to these guidelines, tracker probably should not be in the notification at all.

See Bug #177398 for a slightly related bug.

Revision history for this message
Murat Gunes (mgunes) wrote :

The issue seems to have been fixed in 0.6.5, which has just been released. Animation rate has also been slow down to be less obtrusive.

Revision history for this message
David Adam (zanchey) wrote :

From my point of view, this is fixed - tracker-applet is not shown when indexing and watching are disabled.

Jamie McCracken (jamiemcc-blueyonder)
Changed in tracker:
status: New → Fix Released
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