The tint2 panel crashes when using certain applications, such as Remote Desktop Manager or Steam client.
More information is needed…
For now, I’m working on a workaround.
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Great.
In my case the tint2 bar has been the same -and no crashes- for years. I do use RDP (xfreerdp3) but from console only. Crashes are random and scarce but only a couple of months ago. 
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I will try to write a toggle, as we already have for Conky W-c and for Picom W-p.
It won’t fix tint2 bug, but at last make life a little bit easier 
Script like this may work…
#!/bin/bash
# tint2_toggle
if pgrep -afu $USER "tint2 -c " 2>/dev/null; then
killall -u $USER tint2
else
mb-tint2-session
fi
I will test it and probably publish with mabox-tools update later today.
Tint2 can be enabled or disabled from the Windows & Desktops menu, which you open with W-A-d or by clicking on the desktop while holding the Super key.
Hi @napcok and users facing the tint2 issue
I debugged the tint2 systray SEGFAULT issue that users reported. The crash occurred when:
- RemoteDesktopManager embeds a 1×1 pixel systray icon
- Moving windows between workspaces on multi-monitor setups
- Steam adds systray icons to the panel
The root cause was in src/systray/systraybar.c:
Two critical bugs:
-
Missing pointer validation in
on_change_systray()traywinpointer was dereferenced without NULL checks- Window handle validity was not verified
- Pathological 1×1 pixel icons caused integer overflow in layout calculations
-
XGetGeometry failure handling
- When window geometry retrieval failed (common on secondary monitors), the code used uninitialized variables
- This led to memory corruption when repositioning icons
- Especially triggered when moving windows between workspaces
The fix:
- Added NULL pointer validation before dereferencing
traywin - Added window handle validation (
win == None) - Added graceful error handling for failed XGetGeometry calls (skip problematic icons)
- Enforced minimum icon_size bounds
What’s now fixed:
- RemoteDesktopManager no longer crashes tint2
- Steam systray no longer crashes tint2
- Moving windows between workspaces is safe
- Multi-monitor setups work reliably
Testing
This is a fork for community testing:
# First uninstall tint2
sudo pacman -R tint2
# clone git + install package
git clone https://gitlab.com/muzlabz/tint2.git
cd tint2
sudo makepkg -si
# Check package info
yay -Qi tint2
# Check install path
which tint2
# To be sure: Reboot system.
reboot system
Please test and report back with output logs!
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Very interesting… but:
15:13 $ sudo makepkg -i
==> ERROR: Running makepkg as root is not allowed as it can cause permanent,
catastrophic damage to your system.
✔ ~/tint2 [master|✚ 3…63]
Running without sudo results in CMake errors.
Edit:
Looks like your Gitlab repo is missing whole src directory.
Current PKGBUILD and patches used by Arch Linux.
@muzqs I will try later to cherrypick your patches from Gitlab and build it
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Hi @muzqs,
I built tint2 with your patch for the file systraybar.c
It is available here → our repo testing
From my quick tests…
Lutris with systray icon enabled… no crash
Steam … still sometimes crash 
I have only one monitor so not tested other things…
systray.patch
--- tint2-master/src/systray/systraybar.c 2022-01-31 19:01:29.000000000 +0100
+++ Downloads/systraybar.c 2026-04-09 15:40:25.968415056 +0200
@@ -276,6 +276,12 @@
if (systray.icons_per_column == 0 || systray.icons_per_row == 0)
return;
+ // SAFETY CHECK: Validate icon_size
+ if (systray.icon_size <= 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: WARNING - Invalid icon_size: %d, using default 24\n", systray.icon_size);
+ systray.icon_size = 24;
+ }
+
// systray.area.posx/posy are computed by rendering engine.
// Based on this we calculate the positions of the tray icons.
Panel *panel = systray.area.panel;
@@ -297,8 +303,21 @@
for (i = 1, l = systray.list_icons; l; i++, l = l->next) {
traywin = (TrayWindow *)l->data;
+ // SAFETY: Validate traywin pointer FIRST, before using it
+ if (!traywin) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: ERROR - NULL traywin in systray list\n");
+ continue;
+ }
+
+ // SAFETY: Validate window handle
+ if (traywin->win == None) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: ERROR - Invalid window handle in traywin\n");
+ continue;
+ }
+
traywin->y = posy;
traywin->x = posx;
+
if (systray_profile)
fprintf(stderr,
"%s:%d win = %lu (%s), parent = %lu, x = %d, y = %d\n",
@@ -333,7 +352,9 @@
unsigned int width, height, depth;
Window root;
if (!XGetGeometry(server.display, traywin->parent, &root, &xpos, &ypos, &width, &height, &border_width, &depth)) {
+ continue;
fprintf(stderr, RED "tint2: Couldn't get geometry of window!" RESET "\n");
+ continue;
}
if (width != traywin->width || height != traywin->height || xpos != traywin->x || ypos != traywin->y) {
if (systray_profile)
Workaround for Steam…
Simply do not allow Steam to place icon in system tray.
Edit your tint conf file:
systray_name_filter = steam
Hi,
I noticed in your systraybar.c diff there’s a double continue; at the XGetGeometry check:
if (!XGetGeometry(...)) {
+ continue; // ← inserted
fprintf(stderr, ...);
+ continue; // ← inserted (this would be unreachable)
}
I think you meant just one continue; after fprintf:
if (!XGetGeometry(...)) {
fprintf(stderr, RED "tint2: Couldn't get geometry of window!" RESET "\n");
continue; // Skip this icon and log
}
Also, I’m planning to test the combined fixes together:
- Apply the Arch patch (main.c + area.c null checks)
- Apply your systraybar.c fixes (icon_size, traywin NULL, window handle, XGetGeometry)
- Build and test with RDM on secondary monitor
Let me know if I got the continue logic right, or if you intended something different.
Hi,
Patch is produced from modified systraybar.c file taken from your Gitlab.
from fix/systray-segfault-validation branch, as master branch does not contain src directory at all.
I didn’t touch source code 
Patch made with diff:
diff -Naru orgin_file modified_file > file.patch
Lutris does not crash panel… so it is already good improvement.
Unfortunately Lutris crashed panel for me just now.
So workaround for Lutris is: to not enable system tray icon in Lutris (by default it is disabled).
For steam:
Do not allow Steam to place icon in system tray.
By directive in tint2 config file:
systray_name_filter = steam
Updated PKGBUILD for tint2
Added new PKBUILD (it uses branch systray-crash)
Fixes: SEGFAULT when RDM/Steam interact with systray on multi-monitor setups
Branch: fix/systray-crash
--- tint2-master/src/systray/systraybar.c 2022-01-31 19:01:29.000000000 +0100
+++ Downloads/systraybar.c 2026-04-09 15:40:25.968415056 +0200
@@ -276,6 +276,12 @@
if (systray.icons_per_column == 0 || systray.icons_per_row == 0)
return;
+ // SAFETY CHECK: Validate icon_size
+ if (systray.icon_size <= 0) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: WARNING - Invalid icon_size: %d, using default 24\n", systray.icon_size);
+ systray.icon_size = 24;
+ }
+
// systray.area.posx/posy are computed by rendering engine.
// Based on this we calculate the positions of the tray icons.
Panel *panel = systray.area.panel;
@@ -297,8 +303,21 @@
for (i = 1, l = systray.list_icons; l; i++, l = l->next) {
traywin = (TrayWindow *)l->data;
+ // SAFETY: Validate traywin pointer FIRST, before using it
+ if (!traywin) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: ERROR - NULL traywin in systray list\n");
+ continue;
+ }
+
+ // SAFETY: Validate window handle
+ if (traywin->win == None) {
+ fprintf(stderr, "tint2: ERROR - Invalid window handle in traywin\n");
+ continue;
+ }
+
traywin->y = posy;
traywin->x = posx;
+
if (systray_profile)
fprintf(stderr,
"%s:%d win = %lu (%s), parent = %lu, x = %d, y = %d\n",
@@ -333,9 +352,8 @@
unsigned int width, height, depth;
Window root;
if (!XGetGeometry(server.display, traywin->parent, &root, &xpos, &ypos, &width, &height, &border_width, &depth)) {
- continue;
fprintf(stderr, RED "tint2: Couldn't get geometry of window!" RESET "\n");
- continue;
+ continue;
}
if (width != traywin->width || height != traywin->height || xpos != traywin->x || ypos != traywin->y) {
if (systray_profile)
Unfortunately, from my tests it seems that these fixes don’t actually solve anything…
I don’t have multi monitors, so I’m only testing with Lutris and Steam… it doesn’t happen every time, but once every 5–10 launches the panel still crashes.
Fortunately, the workarounds work perfectly.
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Humm thanks for testing.
It is hard for me to test too as Iam not using any of the applications. I only tested with RDM dragging around RDM window to all virtdesks and displays. It did not crash with the new patch, but other things where happening, i just found out. So back to default tint2.
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