[techtalk] gnome inter-panel rivalry

[Marisa Mack]

i thought maybe someone else would respond, (someone with a better idea
of what's going on here) but they haven't, so i'll try...

> 1). When I start panel-h, I get told "there is a panel already
> running..." (panel-v I guess).  Now, which panel has detected this and is
> asking about it.  I presume panel-h knows nothing about the client host
> except that it is showing on a remote display (It probably doesn't even
> know this; it has no need to know) so that leaves panel-v or the gnome WM
> itself.  Could be a situation like an ethernet card broadcasting its IP
> address and another machine responding that it is already using that IP.
> Why should panel-v/gnome know/care that there is a panel from another
> host running also?

it seems to me like this is actually expected behavior, because the x
server maintains current state info for all clients, and there is
already a current window "panel" running. so neither panel-h/gnome nor
panel-v/gnome knows that a current panel is running, as they are both
"clients" on the client machine's x server, and it is the x server that
is complaining of a current panel process.

> 2). panel-h contains a couple of applets (clock and mailcheck since the
> server is the mail server also).  When panel-h collides with panel-v,
> these applets dissappear from panel-h and appear on panel-v so I end up
> with 2 clocks in panel-v and none in panel-h and the mailcheck also
> migrates to panel-v where it happily monitors the mail spool on the RH
> client which never gets any mail since that all lives on the IMAP server!
> If I then logout from the RH client and login at the server's console and
> startx, panel-h has no lost its clock and mailcheck!  This behaviour seems 
> bug-like to me. 

my guess here is that maybe when the second panel tries to start, it starts
the applets separately, and this is why they open on the current panel,
because there is no rule about multiple applets, as they are handled by the
panel itself. keep in mind that i don't run gnome, so this is really just
a guess :) let me know what you figure out, this is interesting...

marisa 

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