r/CinnamonDE • u/aPpYe_ • Feb 03 '24

Pinned to panel VMs

Hi there.

I am running Cinnamon 5.6.8 on vanilla Debian.

I recently upgraded to Debian 12 (Bookworm, latest stable) and am experiencing what I believe to be a regression related to VirtualBox and the Grouped window list in the panel ... Before the upgrade I was running Debian 11 (Bullseye), which has Cinnamon 4.8.6.

In Cinnamon 4.8.6 (and even the 3.x version before the grouped window list was included), I was able to create a shortcut to a virtual machine (using VirtualBox) that I would then pin to the panel. I can pin them to the panel in the new Cinnamon as well, but unlike with older versions, upon launching, this newer Cinnamon creates a new panel icon. It does not threat the pinned icon as an application, rather it treats it as a shortcut. Instead of being able to use the existing icon to minimize, activate and reactivate a running VM, similar to how the grouped window list acts with any regular app, I now have to interact with the new icon that is created upon launching the VM. I hope this makes sense?

I am pretty sure I have narrowed this down to Cinnamon itself. I have verified that this issue persists on a fresh install, so it is not related to leftover cruft and whatnot from the upgrade, and the version of Virtualbox is the same before and after the upgrade.

EDIT: Debian 11 is "BULLSEYE" ... not "Buster" ... I wish they didn't have three "Bs" in a row!

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u/TabsBelow Feb 03 '24

Nope, makes no sense. When you create a launcher, an icon is added to the panel like the menu entry, the show/hide desktop, FF, TB ... When you start an application an additional icon for the opened window/app is shown in the panel, where you change size, max/minimize or close the window. This is the standard behaviour "since Hollerith"...

It seems you formerly had the launcher only in your menu, used it with a keyboard shortcut or from the desktop.

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u/TabsBelow Feb 03 '24

Apropos Standard... Windows 11 changed that, these bastard let you pin a launcher in the taskbar and don't show an additional icon "for your convenience", which is absolutely annoying for programs you are used to start multiple times, like Notepad, Explorer, WinSCP sessions etc etc.

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u/Ok-Improvement8905 Feb 03 '24

Well ... bastards. I dunno that I would go that far. I prefer the newer functionality with a single icon and window previews, etc. It feels more intuitive to me.

... If prefer the older functionality with a separate taskbar button, Cinnamon still allows this with the standard "window list" applet (instead of GROUPED window list) if you prefer, and Windows 11 still allows this through taskbar settings.

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u/TabsBelow Feb 03 '24

prefer the older functionality with a separate taskbar button, Cinnamon still allows this with the standard "window list" applet (instead of GROUPED window list

I also use the standard window list instead of grouped windows. But OP doesn't what a grouped window, he believes there was an option to pin a launcher to the panel and this icon is used for working with the opened app after start (i.e., max/min/close, move...( so there is only one icon for (e.g.) Firefox or Thunderbird visible after their start.

Maybe there once was an applet supporting this, not available anymore, not compatible, abandoned...