[dash] Apps lens shows no result by default

The bug is actually in the lenses themselves.

Unity has a hack to workaround the issue (introduced by bzr revision 1405.1.5):

In plugins/unityshell/src/LensView.cpp:

  Categories::Ptr categories = lens_->categories;
  if (category.index + 1 == categories->count())
  {
    lens_->Search("---");
    lens_->Search("");
  }

IRC quote: "< njpatel> Kaleo, hey, yes, this used to be an issue with third party lenses too. The code you reference is actually not the useful bit, I didn't realise I left it in so have removed it from trunk. The useful part is LensView::OnActiveChanged and, in the same file, lens_->connected.changed.connect.... between those two, the LensView handles starts and restarts of lenses correctly"

In the applications lens, line 100 of utils.vala in the applications lens considers that the old_search (null) is the same as the new_search (""). The same code is duplicated in the files lens.

But the bug also occurs with the music lens and the gwibber lens.
The probable extra cause is that a Scope has a default LensSearch active_search attribute whose search_string is "" by default
hence when getting to line 229 of unity-scope-private.vala the new "" search is discarded.

I've linked branches for the lenses. I think Gwibber is not displaying initial results for different reasons, will investigate separately.

I do not think anything needs to be fixed in libunity, unity-lens-search makes the initial search_string = NULL from my tests, so I think the main issue was with the daemons ignoring the null search (they were all doing this apart from Gwibber). In my tests (with the workarounds in Unity removed), they all display results initially, so I hope this fixes the issue for 2D too.

This bug was fixed in the package libunity - 4.0.2-0ubuntu1

---------------
libunity (4.0.2-0ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
    - [dash] Apps lens shows no result by default (LP: #834571)
    - Quicklist can't be correctly hidden (LP: #843425)
    - Python PyGI support broken (LP: #844779)
  * debian/control,
    debian/libunity5.symbols => debian/libunity6.symbols,
    debian/libunity5.install => debian/libunity6.install:
    - makes the necessary tweak for ABI/API breakage
 -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:01:04 +0200

This bug was fixed in the package unity-2d - 4.6.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity-2d (4.6.1-0ubuntu1) oneiric; urgency=low

  * Fix a segfault due to new unity service backend change.

unity-2d (4.6.0-0ubuntu1) UNRELEASED; urgency=low

  * New upstream release
    - [dash] Apps lens shows no result by default (LP: #834571)
    - Metacity needs command line options to activate capture before unmap and
      compositing without effects (LP: #791205)
    - Bold fonts everywhere in the UI (dash, launcher, workspace switcher) but
      in the panel (LP: #808849)
    - the migration script needs to be run in unity-2d as well (LP: #819733)
    - [dash] "View photos" in the dash launches default image viewer instead
      of shotwell (LP: #822605)
    - Launcher tooltips sometimes leave holes in panel and windows
      (LP: #837277)
    - [dash] Search with non ascii characters fails (LP: #840010)
    - add a configuration key (dconf) to enable the opengl backend
      (LP: #809202)
    - [launcher] when pressing super key shortcuts numbering start at 2
      instead of 1 (LP: #830036)
    - [UIFe] Unity 2D should be using the same BFB icon as Unity (LP: #838829)
    - [launcher] trash icon needs to be the same as in Unity 3D (LP: #840025)
    - Pressing alt on maximized window does show menu but not window controls
      (LP: #836274)
    - [dash] DropShadow on "See X more results" can cause visual errors on
      scroll (LP: #843820)
    - Dash - In the App lens filters, users should only be able filter by
      'star' rating in one star increments (LP: #839759)
    - Emptying the trash from the unity sidebar should respect nautilus' "Ask
      before emptying" setting (LP: #730003)
    - UIFe: Panel - Indicators should be orderable regardless of their parent
      IndicatorObject (LP: #823061)
  * debian/control:
    - rebuild against current nux and unity (API change)
 -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:50:22 +0200

I've just installed updates, rebooted PC, but I still have the problem. My application menu is totally empty.

Re #8: I had the same problem (still empty after update), but somehow managed to get the lenses to populate by searching for "", then hitting return. I cannot remember the exact sequence, but magically it all populated. Perhaps it was actually generating the list in the background while I was fiddling.

I can confirm that the lenses do populate as described in comment #9 by entering "" in the search, waiting a second and then deleting the "". However, the list is only available during the present session. Logging out and then back in shows nothing in the lenses once again and must be repopulated.

Hi, I have Unity-2D v4.12 installed in Oneiric and experience similar problem. In default mode app-lens shows no results. If I chose it from list below — it works. But results disappears as soon as I switch back to default or just re-open dash.

#9 and #10 doesn't work for me.

Using 4.24.0-0ubuntu2, I very frequently have all of my Apps lesnes completely blanked out, including no buttons. This even happend to me right away on a restart. Is this related?

I got the same (or a similar?) error with Unity and Unity2D (two different laptops). From dash, I cannot start any apps but the four favorites. If I search for them I only get files and music as results. Even Alt+F2 doesn't work.

I purged and reinstalled unity, the lenses, places and zeitgeist several times to solve the problem. After the reinstalls, dash sometimes worked fine for some ubuntu-restarts, but the error came back every time. Gnome shell doesn't have that error. Both systems was upgraded from natty.

It seems that a "unity --replace" solves the problem for me, but I have to do that every time I start ubuntu. Annoying!

Same Problem with 11.10 - 4.12.0