Tip: xfce4-notifyd not rearranging annoyance workaround

[ToddAndMargo]

*Tip: xfce4-notifyd not rearranging annoyance workaround:*

Fedora 37
libnotify-0.8.2-1.fc37.x86_64
xfce4-notifyd-0.6.4-1.fc37.x86_64
osmo-0.4.4-2.fc37.x86_64
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/issues/154


*Background*:  when a popup is issued to libnotify,
xfce4-notifyd intercepts it.  xfce4-notifyd changes
the yellow and blue background to white and alters
the font size somewhat.  There may be some transparency
too, but I am not sure.

Problem: as of Fedora 33 (and whatever Xfce is
supported) xfce4-notifyd will no longer re-arrange
popups went you cancel one (“remind me later”,
“done”, etc.).  When a lot of popups occur,
xfce4-notifyd will thereby leave popups right in
the middle of your screen or at the bottom right.
In other word, right where they were to start with.

So you are left with having to write down the popup
on a piece of paper or suffering with the popup in
the middle of your screen.  Prior behavior would be
to mouse over the remaining pops and they would
auto arrange under right the upper right of your
screen.

This behavior is especially annoying when you are
using Osmo (a wonderful personal information manager)

This unwanted behavior was reported on issue 154
and currently has a “won’t fix” status.


*Workaround:*

Kill xfce4-notifyd and let libnotify handle the
pops directly.

      $ kill -9 $( ps ax | grep -i [x]fce4-notifyd | awk '{print $1'} )

Or you can just remove xfce4-notifyd completely:

     $ su root -c "dnf remove xfce4-notifyd"

This restores the previous behavior (happy camping
returns).


*screenshots*

Here is a example of the previous libnotify behavior
with xfce4-notifyd killed :

Five popups arranged in the upper right:
      https://imgur.com/aZ06AVxl.png

Center three pops cancelled:
      https://imgur.com/5gEVcg1.png


Hope this helps someone else,
-T

[ToddAndMargo]

On 6/20/23 09:35, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
>  *Tip: xfce4-notifyd not rearranging annoyance workaround:*
>  
>  Fedora 37
>  libnotify-0.8.2-1.fc37.x86_64
>  xfce4-notifyd-0.6.4-1.fc37.x86_64
>  osmo-0.4.4-2.fc37.x86_64
>  https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/issues/154
>  
>  
>  *Background*:  when a popup is issued to libnotify,
>  xfce4-notifyd intercepts it.  xfce4-notifyd changes
>  the yellow and blue background to white and alters
>  the font size somewhat.  There may be some transparency
>  too, but I am not sure.
>  
>  Problem: as of Fedora 33 (and whatever Xfce is
>  supported) xfce4-notifyd will no longer re-arrange
>  popups went you cancel one (“remind me later”,
>  “done”, etc.).  When a lot of popups occur,
>  xfce4-notifyd will thereby leave popups right in
>  the middle of your screen or at the bottom right.
>  In other word, right where they were to start with.
>  
>  So you are left with having to write down the popup
>  on a piece of paper or suffering with the popup in
>  the middle of your screen.  Prior behavior would be
>  to mouse over the remaining pops and they would
>  auto arrange under right the upper right of your
>  screen.
>  
>  This behavior is especially annoying when you are
>  using Osmo (a wonderful personal information manager)
>  
>  This unwanted behavior was reported on issue 154
>  and currently has a “won’t fix” status.
>  
>  
>  *Workaround:*
>  
>  Kill xfce4-notifyd and let libnotify handle the
>  pops directly.
>  
>        $ kill -9 $( ps ax | grep -i [x]fce4-notifyd | awk '{print $1'} )
>  
>  Or you can just remove xfce4-notifyd completely:
>  
>       $ su root -c "dnf remove xfce4-notifyd"
>  
>  This restores the previous behavior (happy camping
>  returns).
>  
>  
>  *screenshots*
>  
>  Here is a example of the previous libnotify behavior
>  with xfce4-notifyd killed :
>  
>  Five popups arranged in the upper right:
>        https://imgur.com/aZ06AVxl.png
>  
>  Center three pops cancelled:
>        https://imgur.com/5gEVcg1.png
>  
>  
>  Hope this helps someone else,
>  -T
>  
Hi All,

A booboo in my first post:

https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/issues/154

is a duplicate of

https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/-/issues/54

The maintainer closed issue 54 as leaving pops
where they occurred and not auto arranging them
is part of xfce4-notifyd's design spec..

So now you have a choice.  If when multiple pops
occur -- some right in the middle of your
work -- and you do not mind having them not
auto arrange out of the way, you can stick
with xfce4-notifyd.  xfce4-notifyd's popups
are prettier too.

I have been running without xfce4-notifyd for
a few days now and am delighted to have
libnotify's auto arrange feature back.

I have also noticed that a popup I have been
firing off for about five years now at log
on and forgot about suddenly showed up.

I reported the issue over on

https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-notifyd/-/issues/106

but the maintainer closed it because it was no
longer affecting me.  (I reported it to help
others still running xfce4-notifyd.  I am not
the only one running Xfce after all.)

The call to libnotify in question was:

notify-send -t 0 -u normal -i "${DrivePic}" "Boot Drive"
"${BootDrive}"

Let me know if anyone wants the entire script (it is
also posted over on issue 106).

You got to love Xfce!

-T

Be nice if we could amend xfce4-notifyd's spec.
to accommodate auto arrange.

[ToddAndMargo]

Hi All,

Jut uncovered something else different
between xfce4-notifyd and libnotify.

With libnotify, when Thunderbird pops up a
new mail alert, if you do not let it time
out and do not click the "X" in the upper
right corner, but instead click on the pop
up itself, Thunderbird will open to the eMail.

With xfce4-notifyd, it just exits the popup.
I have no idea is this is part of xfce4-notifyd's
spec..

Xfce4-notifyd colors are prettier though. But
I like the extra functionality of libnotify.

-T