Bug #15269

Inconsistent power off button in top-right corner across different hardware

Added by sajolida 2018-01-29 19:54:27 . Updated 2018-03-27 17:53:25 .

Status:
Rejected
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Hardware support
Target version:
Start date:
2018-01-29
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Feature Branch:
Type of work:
Research
Blueprint:

Starter:
Affected tool:
Deliverable for:

Description

  • On my two laptops I see no “power off” button in the very top-right corner of Tails 3.5 where the battery icon is.
  • If I remove the battery from my laptop I get a “power off” button instead of the battery icon.
  • On virtual machines, Alan sees a “power off” button instead of the battery icon.

Foundations team: Why is this inconsistent? Always showing a “power off” button would be useful for people who are new to Tails. During the Additional Software UX sprint, at least 3 people out of 7 had an issue with that.

Subtasks

Related issues

Blocks Tails - Feature #14761: Core work 2017Q4 → 2018Q1: User experience Resolved 2017-10-03

History

#1 Updated by intrigeri 2018-02-02 05:46:44

  • Assignee changed from intrigeri to sajolida

> Foundations team: Why is this inconsistent?

It seems to be a GNOME design decision and I have no idea where it comes from. I guess that the power button is there (when there’s no battery) in order to display something that indicates that the system menu can be found there.

#2 Updated by sajolida 2018-02-19 19:27:24

  • Assignee changed from sajolida to intrigeri
  • QA Check set to Info Needed

From https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=708735:

« The ‘power’ icon is used instead of the battery icon to make sure that there is at least one icon to access the system menu (all other indicators are optional). »

I bet that, in the case of laptops, GNOME cares more about having a single icon than about having a clear signifier to power off.

So unless there’s a super easy to diverge, we should reject this.

If there is a super easy way to diverge, then it might be worth it since Tails should be easier to learn for newcomers than GNOME in general as Tails is not meant to be the primary OS of people.

#3 Updated by intrigeri 2018-02-19 20:51:27

  • Assignee changed from intrigeri to sajolida
  • QA Check deleted (Info Needed)

sajolida wrote:
> So unless there’s a super easy to diverge, we should reject this.
>
> If there is a super easy way to diverge, then it might be worth it since Tails should be easier to learn for newcomers than GNOME in general as Tails is not meant to be the primary OS of people.

Agreed.

The code lives there: https://sources.debian.org/src/gnome-shell/3.26.2-4/js/ui/status/power.js/?hl=34#L109 (it’s the same on sid).

I guess it’s doable via an extension or crude patching (but then we have to maintain a patched GNOME Shell package, does not qualify as “super easy”). It might be “super easy” for someone who masters GNOME JS programming i.e. not me (yet :)

Is there anything you want from me? If not, I suggest you:

  1. try to find an existing extension that does either exactly what we want, or also fiddles with the system menu default indicator icon
  2. ask someone better qualified (Alan, segfault, anonym have all done much more GNOME JS programming than me) if they think it’s easy.

#4 Updated by sajolida 2018-03-27 15:07:37

  • blocks Feature #14761: Core work 2017Q4 → 2018Q1: User experience added

#5 Updated by sajolida 2018-03-27 17:53:25

  • Status changed from Confirmed to Rejected
  • Assignee deleted (sajolida)

The closest extension I found is https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1056/gnome-shutdown-button/ but it’s not what we want.

By “super easy to diverge” I was hoping for a configuration line somewhere. But if that’s not that easy, then we should reject this.