Bug 30721

I would say this one is INVALID as this function is already implemented. This function is dependent on the used desktop environment. Stripped down DEs like LXDE and other don't offer this functionality. But full grown DEs like Plasma have this since ages...

Note that the icon may be hidden when there are no updates available.
In plasma, configure the system tray to always show mgaapplet in the entries.

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins

My experience is that it remains hidden if there are no updates. I have since been noticing HDD activity five minutes after logging in, so that may be mgaonline running as it should, but there was that one time (above comment) when it apparently ran butremained hidden (MATE desktop), yet there were updates after I checked.

There were issues I encountered with Plasma in the past (before using Mageia), so I no longer use that desktop.

(In reply to Edward from comment #3)
> My experience is that it remains hidden if there are no updates.

That is apparently normal, probably depending on desktop.
You may ask on a mate forum, for advice


I agree it is best to always have it visible so you see your system is updated.
Automatically hiding it is a feature (that i dont personally like, but some do)


> there was that one time (above comment) when it apparently ran but
> remained hidden (MATE desktop), yet there were updates after I checked.

Could just be that an update got available on your mirror between those two times.

CC: (none) => fri

(In reply to Morgan Leijström from comment #4)

> Could just be that an update got available on your mirror between those two
> times.

Very possible. 

Since then, mgaonline has worked perfectly with the MATE desktop. It's showing updates are available right now.  :)


Having it persistent in the desktop panel and displaying green (when fully-updated) would be positive.

I agree with this last comment; I have an idea that other distributions do something similar. OTOH "No news [nothing shown] is Good news".

I am tempted to pass this on to the mageiatools people, but would like the opinion of others as to whether it should be technically possible. It might even be easy to implement.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith

I'm using Tumbleweed (real machine) and Fedora 35 (VB), and non of them show the update notification permanently. The update notification only shows up when an update is available.

But as already said, with a mature and full grown desktop environment like Plasma you can make this icon permanent shown in the taskbar even if there is no update available. 
Most other desktop environments are so extremely stripped down that they don't even give you the possibility to set such behaviour. I would be surprised if there would be an easy fix for all DEs by our devs....

Your evidence for other big name system behaviour is a powerful hammer!
My distant memory was of a big tick (system up-to-date) in perhaps LMDE.

This still looks a reasonable enhancement request, which the devs can turn down WONTFIX if they see it thus. It seems better that they make a decision, rather than us. It simply may be too much pain with non-Plasma desktops.

Assignee: bugsquad => mageiatools

(In reply to sturmvogel from comment #7)
> I would be
> surprised if there would be an easy fix for all DEs by our devs....

It apprently can show different icons when active/visible.

So maybe a workaround would be for it so say to the DE that it is active/visible, but select to show a green icon.

It's currently a blue circle with a checkmark if there are no updates.

In the past I found there was a problem with some desktop environments, such
that if they were installed the icon would only show if there were updates
available, even if the currently running desktop environment normally worked.
I don't remember now which desktop environments being installed caused it not
to show. I should probably have opened a bug report at the time, but didn't
really have enough info for it to be useful.

In plasma, the systray program items can be configured to show, not show, or "show if relevant".

Some DE only show icons if the program say it have something "relevant", and the problem is that most users think it is relevant to see system is updated (we can not directly see if mgaapllet is not running or not if it is invisible).

My proposal is to be able to configure mgaapplet to always say it is "relevant".

> My proposal is to be able to configure mgaapplet to always say
> it is "relevant"
Why 'configure', rather than just 'change'? Would any user complain if he sees a new 'up-to-date' icon in Systray? Most other icons there are permanent.

I disagree. I don't need icons in Systray which doesn't tell me anything usefull or are not needed permanently. I hide all unecessary icons and only want to be notified if there is something relevant. That my system is "up-to-date" is not relevant for me but that "there-are-updates-available" is.
The only permanent visible icons in my systray are volume and networkmanager.

(In reply to Lewis Smith from comment #12)
> Why 'configure', rather than just 'change'? Would any user complain if he
> sees a new 'up-to-date' icon in Systray? Most other icons there are
> permanent.

I would complain, yes. I don't want useless icons in the taskbar, because this means less free space for opened applications. I agree with sturmvogel that an "up-to-date" icon is irrelevant.

(In reply to Dave Hodgins from comment #10)
> It's currently a blue circle with a check-mark if there are no updates.

Since I have been using Mageia (late 2021), using the LXDE, LXQt and Xfce desktops, I have never seen a blue icon with a check-mark in it with any of these desktops, as the icon doesn't display / disappears, as the case may be. 

If it is persistent with one desktop in particular, then there ought to be consistency among all of them.


(In reply to sturmvogel from comment #7)
> I'm using Tumbleweed (real machine) and Fedora 35 (VB), and non of them show
> the update notification permanently. The update notification only shows up
> when an update is available.

I'm also running Tumbleweed and Fedora Rawhide as VirtualBoxes, Xfce desktop with both. Their respective update icons are persistent after updating, here. See attached.

Created attachment 13358 [details]
Persistent Fedora update icon (red cube)

Created attachment 13359 [details]
Persistent Tumbleweed update icon (check-mark inside circle)

Regarding comment 16 and comment 17. Thats not a standard Plasma configuration which you show us in these two pictures. I don't even know from which desktop environment these picons should be. Tumbleweed Plasma has a completely different icon (not shown permnanently) and Fedora 35 Plasma also not shown permanently.

Created attachment 13360 [details]
Fedora 35 Plasma system up to date (leftmost icon)

Btw, the picture from comment 17 is not even the updater icon. It is the dnfdragora icon (which is not an update notifier). The update icon under Fedora 35 Plasma looks like this if no update is available (system up to date). Leftmost Icon (which i explicitly enabled to show for this picture as this is no standard Plasma Fedora 35 setting). If an update is available, this icon shows a red dot.

(In reply to sturmvogel from comment #18)
> I don't even know
> from which desktop environment these picons should be. 

Better let it say this way: You don't say which dektop environment these icons are from.

Definitly not from a untinkered Plasma installation (neither Tumbleweed nor Fedora 35).

From my Comment 15:

> I'm also running Tumbleweed and Fedora Rawhide as VirtualBoxes, Xfce desktop
> with both. Their respective update icons are persistent after updating,
> here. See attached.


(In reply to sturmvogel from comment #19)
> Created attachment 13360 [details]
> Fedora 35 Plasma system up to date (leftmost icon)
> 
> Btw, the picture from comment 17 is not even the updater icon. It is the
> dnfdragora icon (which is not an update notifier). The update icon under
> Fedora 35 Plasma looks like this if no update is available (system up to
> date). Leftmost Icon (which i explicitly enabled to show for this picture as
> this is no standard Plasma Fedora 35 setting). If an update is available,
> this icon shows a red dot.

The Fedora icon image I attached is dnfdragora and it continuously displays like that if there are no updates, or while it is checking for updates. If there are any updates, the icon then changes to a solid red (filled-in) cube.

The icons Fedora is using for it, are clearly different between the desktop environments.

Created attachment 13361 [details]
Xfce desktop Tumbleweed update icon (turns into a gear when there are updates)

Created attachment 13362 [details]
Xfce Fedora Rawhide update (icon turns into a solid cube)

Other distributions are not relevant to Mageia. The icons that are used by
mgaapplet can be viewed using any svg viewer with ...
$ ll /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8809 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-bugfix.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8718 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-bundle.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7403 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-busy.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6459 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-disabled.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6468 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-disconnect.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8200 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-noconf.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6501 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-okay.svg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9088 Jan  4  2021 /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/actions/mgaonline-updates.svg

Normally mgaonline-okay.svg is displayed when there are no updates,
mgaonline-busy.svg when checking for updates and mgaonline-updates.svg when
there are updates available.

Not all desktop environments handle systray icons the same way, which is
usually intentional and may result in only showing the icon when there is
action required.

Thank you for providing the path names. The only mgaonline icons that are seen with the LXDE, LXQt and Xfce desktops, are mgaonline-updates and mgaonline-busy.

Please create a new user. Log out, then log in as the new user using xfce.
In my tests, mgaapplet does display the icon indicating no updates available.

Using Xfce, new account was added, system rebooted. Five minutes after it came up, there was HDD activity (checking for updates), the icon did not appear in the panel at all.

When I installed Mageia 8, I used only the LXQt desktop up until recently, when I installed Xfce.

(In reply to Edward from comment #27)
> Using Xfce, new account was added, system rebooted. Five minutes after it
> came up, there was HDD activity (checking for updates), the icon did not
> appear in the panel at all.
> 
> When I installed Mageia 8, I used only the LXQt desktop up until recently,
> when I installed Xfce.

This was done on Mageia 8, host OS. Still no difference in behavior with Cauldron.

Created attachment 13363 [details]
Screenshot showing "no updates available" icon.

The attached screenshot shows what I see in a new user's xfce screen with
no updates available.

Thank you for uploading that. I have never seen that icon on either of my Mageia 8 installs, or Cauldron virtual machines.

IIRC, I used the Mageia 8 net installer to install LXQt, as LXQt was not on the Classic installer. 

Could the original install of LXQt, be causing the current behavior of mgaonline that I'm seeing?

I currently have two Mageia Cauldron VirtualBoxes, MATE desktop in one, Xfce in the other. Both were installed using the Mageia 8 Classic installer, then upgraded to Cauldron. 

Same behavior as with Mageia 8 on the hosts, appears when there are updates, disappears at reboot/restart or if I manually select it to check for updates and there are none.

Is the behavior possibly related to Mageia 8?

I'm pretty sure it could be caused by lxqt. Try just installing one or more of
the three main desktop environments, plasma, and/or gnome, and/or xfce4, without
any other desktop environments. Those three environments are the ones Mageia
produces live iso images for, and from what I've seen, most people use.

I Just read comment 31. If you're seeing it without lxqt, then that's not the
cause, and I have no idea why you're seeing it. I did have that problem at
one point in the past on one install, but that disk drive failed after a
lightning strike and I never figured out what I had installed or configured
that was triggering the behaviour.

This is getting out of hand, too much hot air over a small matter.
Personally I happily accept - even agree with - comment 13 (sturmvogel), comment 14 (Frédéric), who justify "Don't want it". I stand corrected.

Can we agree that some users would like it, others not?

In an ideal world, this small functionality would be user configurable; and there even exists a suitable place to add it:
 MCC - Manage Software - Configure Update Frequency
Just one more tick-box with a suitable caption like "Always show up-to-date icon" - or conversely, "Hide up-to-date icon".
As such, it remains a valid 'enhancement request'.
This would have repercussions for the MCC manual, and all its translations.

Closing as works for me.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => WORKSFORME