calibre option --start-in-tray does not work

[lunixer]

Hello! I have been using Calibre to download various newspapers and magazines that I read and then automatically email them to my kindle. Beautiful feature! Today I decided that instead of running calibre once a day to get all this done, I would just keep it running all the time. I won't even have to bother with it unless I am adding a book to my bloated collection Unfortunately, the --start-in-tray option is not working. When it launches I get a blank window until I quit calibre and manually launch it. I have attached a screenshot of what this looks like after a clean boot (or a launch using the same options from the terminal).

Note: I am on a Linux Ubuntu 10.04 system using Gnome as my desktop environment on an HP dv7t quad edition computer with an x64 processor.

[kovidgoyal]

have you enabled the system tray icon in preferences?

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

have you enabled the system tray icon in preferences?

I have.

[kovidgoyal]

works on my KDE desktop. Probably some toxic interaction between Qt and GNOME. Any other GNOME users care to try it and comment?

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

works on my KDE desktop. Probably some toxic interaction between Qt and GNOME. Any other GNOME users care to try it and comment?

Should I have some Qt libraries installed? Maybe I don't have some necessary dependency? I installed this using your script so I could get the latest version so perhaps Synaptic didn't resolve all of the dependencies.

[kovidgoyal]

no, the calibre installer includes all needed binaries.

[capidamonte]

I have a similar experience, and I'm not using Gnome, I'm using XFCE (Xubuntu 10.04).

I have Calibre set to launch on boot, and it uses the --start-in-tray parameter. I find that instead of having to restart Calibre, I just have to click on the tray icon. Then Calibre shows the contents of the window.

A secondary bit of strangeness: when Calibre shows the window, I get a tiny, little, decorationless book-browser window in the upper-left corner of the main window (I chose an external window in preferences.) If I click on the book-browser button, it becomes full size and behaves properly thereafter.

I don't reboot very often, so it doesn't bother me frequently enough to have brought it up.

[kovidgoyal]

I'm not going to install a new desktop environment just to debug this issue, so unless some other calibre developer picks it up, I'm afraid you'll have to live with it.

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'm not going to install a new desktop environment just to debug this issue, so unless some other calibre developer picks it up, I'm afraid you'll have to live with it.

Here is the terminal output when I launch it:

This is launching it after the computer has already started up but when calibre is closed and completely exited. Can you tell anything from this?

ross@ross-laptop:~$ calibre --start-in-tray
/home/ross/.gtkrc-2.0:1: Unable to find include file: ".gtkrc-2.0-gnome-color-chooser"

Is there any other debug information that could help us solve the problem?

EDIT: I also reinstalled gnome-color-chooser. Same message. Then I did a complete uninstall and scrubbed all config files. Same message.

[kovidgoyal]

Not really. This isn't something that's happening at the calibre level (calibre's system tray code is common to windows, osx and linux), its some interaction between the Qt toolkit and the WM used by GNOME/Xfce. Debugging it is not going to be trivial.

[kovidgoyal]

I just installed Ubuntu in a VM and --start-in-try is working for me there as well.

[capidamonte]

Hmmm. Compiz?

I don't think that it's Compiz, but I am using it. I start with xfwm4 and then do a simple startup compiz --replace via autostart that may be happening before Calibre launches.

(I've tried several ways to make Compiz start instead of xfwm4, but none of them worked. XFCE seems to insist, somehow.)

[kovidgoyal]

Try metacity --replace

and then see if you can reproduce it

[capidamonte]

Okay, I installed metacity. I do not have the rest of Gnome installed.

For this test, I'm quitting Calibre, then changing window managers, then launching Calibre with the --start-in-tray switch. (And only that switch.) I also click the book-browser button once the window is visible so that the tiny window is restored to full size and doesn't, perhaps, save its size when Calibre exits.

Under compiz: Launching calibre produces a tray icon and a blank window. Clicking the tray icon shows the window, and the tiny book-browser window in the upper left corner.

Under xfwm4: the same.

Under metacity: Launching calibre produces a tray icon, no window. Clicking the tray icon shows the window, and the tiny book-browser window in the upper left corner. However, for a moment, the window is blank before it changes to visible.

Under all three window managers, launching Calibre without the --start-in-tray switch works as expected: visible window, visible tray icon and no tiny book-browser.

Hope that helps somewhat.

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by capidamonte

Okay, I installed metacity. I do not have the rest of Gnome installed.

For this test, I'm quitting Calibre, then changing window managers, then launching Calibre with the --start-in-tray switch. (And only that switch.) I also click the book-browser button once the window is visible so that the tiny window is restored to full size and doesn't, perhaps, save its size when Calibre exits.

Under compiz: Launching calibre produces a tray icon and a blank window. Clicking the tray icon shows the window, and the tiny book-browser window in the upper left corner.

Under xfwm4: the same.

Under metacity: Launching calibre produces a tray icon, no window. Clicking the tray icon shows the window, and the tiny book-browser window in the upper left corner. However, for a moment, the window is blank before it changes to visible.

Under all three window managers, launching Calibre without the --start-in-tray switch works as expected: visible window, visible tray icon and no tiny book-browser.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Very helpful. How would I go about permanently replacing compiz with metacity? I don't use any of the compiz animations. I only have it on because I hotkey most of the functions that I frequently use.