Mendeley stuck in background

Support Snap/Flatpak
1

Hello there.
I have the software “mendeley” installed. Once I minimize it, I have troubles re-opening it. The process runs in the background, but there is no indication of it in my menu-bar. Nothing shows when hitting alt+tab neither. If I attempt to start mendeley again, it says “already running an instance.”

Task manager:
/home/dejhost/Downloads/mendeleydesktop-1.19.8-linux-x86_64/bin/..//lib/mendeleydesktop/libexec/mendeleydesktop.x86_64
Repository: flathub

Some info about my system:
Manjaro: 64bit Xfce: 4.18 Kernel: 6.2.16-2

2

Well, I cannot say that I have any experience with that software, and therefore I have no idea how it’s supposed to work. However, it’s also available from the AUR, so maybe you can try that version instead? :arrow_down:

pamac build mendeleydesktop
3

I just tried the Appimage version from the website and it (un)minimizes correctly. Never got past the Welcome screen though, don’t know if it makes difference. Seems to be just another electron application. So you can try the Appimmage instead of the AUR. There is also a AppimageLauncher in the repo which integrates it with the start menu.

As a side note: sometimes it happens with badly coded apps (or such that are poorly imported from debian…) and minimize to Tray. And not every implementation of a system tray is the same, so it does not appear on OUR tray. Just make sure you have “Status tray plugin” in the panel and that it is properly configured.

1 Like
4

thanks.
I killed the runnning process, started mendeley again and created a backup. Then I uninstalled it. Installed the AUR-version. All my files appeared straight away - I cannot tell a difference between the two versions. Unfortunately, when I minimize, it’s “somewhere in the background” as well. In order to get it to the front, I need to kill the process and restart the software.

So let’s try the AppImage:

[dejhost@Workstation Downloads]$ ./mendeley-reference-manager-2.97.0-x86_64.AppImage 
(node:161924) ProtocolDeprecateCallback: The callback argument of protocol module APIs is no longer needed.
(node:161924) ProtocolDeprecateCallback: The callback argument of protocol module APIs is no longer needed.
[161924:0809/132551.994640:FATAL:gpu_data_manager_impl_private.cc(445)] GPU process isn't usable. Goodbye.
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

Any help appreciated.

5

As @Teo said, it probably minimizes to the tray, and so you need to make sure that it has a tray entry, and that it’s visible.

That’s not the desktop application, that’s the reference manager. And that one’s available from the AUR as well.

6

Sorry i did not know the difference. But you get the idea: check the “Tray” settings first(both tabs, tray and notification). It has been the culprit in such cases more than once. If not, try another source.

1 Like