[SOLVED] mouse-pointer symbol "background activity"

Hi altogether,

I´ve got a question concerning my mouse-pointer.

From time to time my mouse-pointer changes to a symbol that represents something like an arrow melted together with a loading-circle.
I tried to find out something about it and believe that it means "background activity".

So far so good. But there´s one thing I cannot really explain:

Whenever I open my file-manager pcmanfm in a "normal" way, i.e. by clicking on a desktop-icon or the respective symbol in the task-bar, the window immediately opens - without any mose-pointer activity.

However when I start pcmanfm by clicking the key-combination "WIN-key + e" the window opens as well but with the addition of the "background-activity" symbol.
That one can be seen for about 20 seconds and then vanishes.

Can someone help me find out why that is?

Many thanks in advance.

Greetings.
Rosika

P.S.:
system: Linux/Lubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, 64 bit

shouldn't the key combo be Win+F?
anyhow, you can edit your rc.xml to remove that, but it's hardly worth the effort.
i think this is a tiny misbehaviour that was fixed in later versions, but it doesn't cause any problems.

if you're willing to edit ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml, i can walk you through it.

Hi ondoho,

nice to hear from you again.

On the page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Keyboard there is a list of keyboard shortcuts for Lubuntu. It states among others:

Super+E Launch PCManFM

And it works well. I only wanted to understand why there is some sort of background activity for 20 seconds - but only when using that combo.
Never mind.

i think this is a tiny misbehaviour that was fixed in later versions, but it doesn't cause any problems.

O.K. I´ll take that for a bit of reassurance.

Thanks and greetings.

Rosika

Hi again ondoho,

as far as my "problem" is concerned I really spent quite a time trying to do some research on that mouse-pointer symbol.
Yet I couldn´t find anything remotely connected to that phenomenon.

In the meantime I´m also convinced that it must have something to do with openbox.

In addition to what I´ve already described I noticed the following:

When performing a right-click on my desktop I get a context-menu with some applications (heading: "shortcuts") like: File Manager, Terminal, Internet, Accessories etc.).
Whenever I click on an application (etc. "calculator") using that context-menu it produces that 20 seconds-long mouse-pointer symbol (obvoiusly denoting background-activity).

BUT:
When opening the respective programme (or command) via the terminal or application-starter (ALT+F2) I don´t get that mouse-pointer symbol at all.
That leads me to believe the whole thing has to be connected to the window-manager openbox.

Another point worth noticing:

I´m not quite sure whether it´s due to my imagination, but I think that I could perceive this phenomenon only recently.
So I looked up the latest installation-date of openbox.
In my case it´s 21.03.2018 when I got the latest version via my normal update routine.

So COULD it really be a matter of that update/latest version of openbox?

At least theoretically it might be possible that they changed mouse-pointer behaviour......

Greetings.
Rosika

P.S.:
current openbox-version: 3.6.1-1ubuntu2.1 amd64

if you had looked closer at my previous post, you'd already know that it has something to do with openbox, but kudos for doing your own research anyhow!

please have a look at that file. (warning! XML is hard to read without syntax highlighting!)
the name might differ slightly, but you'll find it (*).
you will notice that most app launch entries have a section that says something like this:

      <startupnotify>
        <enabled>yes</enabled>
      </startupnotify>

startup notification is a mechanism that displays the background activity pointer until it is able to recognize that the application started.
unfortunately, sometimes it is not able to recognize that, so the background activity pointer just stays there until it times out.

that's what you're seeing; it does not mean that there actually is any background activity, or that the launched application has a problem. it simply means that the mechanism that displays the background activity pointer is broken.
and your system remains perfectly usable.

a small annoyance, but harmless.

(*) rc.xml is for hotkeys and ohter stuff, menu.xml is for the menu. you can find <startupnotify> entries in both.

Hi ondoho,

thanks for your reply.

if you had looked closer at my previous post, you'd already know that it has something to do with openbox

Perhaps I wasn´t too clear as far as my statement is concerned. Of course you already suggested that it has something to do with openbox. By doing some research I just wanted to obtain some information as to whether there was some change regarding that mouse-pointer behaviour recently.

I found the respective file here:

/home/rosika/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml

So I took a look at the file (gedit helped me with syntax-highlighting "xml").
I found four entries with <startupnotify>, amongst those this one:

 <startupnotify>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
          <name>PCManFM</name>

sometimes it is not able to recognize that, so the background activity pointer just stays there until it times out.

Right. That must be the 20 secs visibility of the icon then. Glad that I know this now.

it simply means that the mechanism that displays the background activity pointer is broken

O.K. That´s the explanation then.
It´s odd though because formerly it seemed to work. But I´m not at all sure about that. It´s merely a guess. I didn´t use to notice those things.

O.K. Many thanks for your explanations and the work you put into communicating them to me. It´s greatly appreciated.

Greetings.
Rosika

Originally Posted by Rosika Of course you already suggested that it has something to do with openbox. By doing some research I just wanted to obtain some information as to whether there was some change regarding that mouse-pointer behaviour recently.

3.6.1 is the current release.

I am not convinced that this problem is with openbox, and isn't specific to your setup.
I know there was some talk about this ~5 years ago, but we're long past that.

If the behavior disturbs you, you can remove the appropriate blocks (i.e. everything between and including <startupnotify> and </startupnotify>) for those applications affected.
then just reconfigure openbox (should be inthe menu, or terminal: 'openbox --reconfigure').
always make sure you can undo what you edited in case it didn't work.
openbox is famous for giving very non-descript error messages.

Hi ondoho,

tnx for our reply.

If the behavior disturbs you, you can remove the appropriate blocks [...]

Well, it´s not so much of a disturbance per se. I was just wondering why that odd phenomenon occurs at all.

Another example:

I use firejail (sandbox) and the associated tool firetools. When opening firetools from the menu there´s the same thing: background activity-symbol for a few seconds. But when opening via command line: no symbol whatsowever.
Plus: When opening firetools from clicking on an entry from classicmenu-indicator there´s no
mouse-pointer symbol either (!). That eventually led me to believe that the whole thing has something to do with openbox.

But as I said, it doesn´t really disturb me that much ......

you can remove the appropriate blocks (i.e. everything between and including <startupnotify> and </startupnotify>) for those applications affected

As far as editing the lubuntu-rc.xml-file is concerned I´d rather not touch that one because I´m afraid of doing something wrong.
Because it´s quite difficult for me to find out the affected applications, like e.g. galculator.
It´s the same thing with that one. And I couldn´t find it in the file.

Anyhow, as you already said "it's hardly worth the effort".

Thanks again for your help.

Rosika