Notification Issues in Cinnamon 6.4.8: DBus Name Conflict and CSS Positioning Failure

[tmitch120]

Distribution

Mint 22.1

Package version

6.4.8

Graphics hardware in use

Single monitor (HDMI-3, 3840x2160, primary)

Frequency

Always

Bug description

I encountered two issues while trying to customize notification placement to the upper-left corner in Cinnamon 6.4.8:
DBus Name Conflict with org.freedesktop.Notifications:
When attempting to use dunst as an alternative notification daemon, dunst fails to start with the error:

CRITICAL: [dbus_cb_name_lost:1152] Cannot acquire 'org.freedesktop.Notifications': Name is acquired by 'cinnamon' with PID '3105'.

This occurs even after disabling Cinnamon notifications via:
GUI: System Settings > Notifications > Uncheck "Enable notifications"

Command: gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.notifications display-notifications false

The org.freedesktop.Notifications DBus name remains held by the Cinnamon process (e.g., PID 3105, DBus connection :1.167), preventing dunst or other daemons from taking over.

Steps tried without success:
Disabling the notifications@cinnamon.org applet.

Killing the Cinnamon process (kill -9 3105).

Logging out and back in.

This suggests Cinnamon retains the DBus name even when notifications are disabled, which may be a bug or design limitation.

CSS Notification Positioning Ignored:
Attempted to move notifications to the upper-left corner by modifying ~/.cinnamon/configs/cinnamon.css with:
css

#notification {
margin-from-left-edge-of-screen: 20px;
margin-from-top-edge-of-screen: 30px;
/* Also tried: position: absolute; left: 20px; top: 30px; */
}

Notifications remain in the upper-right corner, ignoring CSS changes.

Steps tried:
Cleared cache: rm -rf ~/.cache/cinnamon

Reloaded Cinnamon: cinnamon --replace &

Tested with default Mint-Y theme.

This suggests a possible bug in how Cinnamon 6.4.8 handles notification positioning via CSS.

Steps to reproduce

DBus Issue:
Disable notifications: gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.notifications display-notifications false

Install and run dunst: sudo apt install dunst; dunst &

Observe error in ~/.xsession-errors or terminal: Cannot acquire 'org.freedesktop.Notifications'.

Check DBus ownership: dbus-send --session --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus --type=method_call --print-reply /org/freedesktop/DBus org.freedesktop.DBus.GetNameOwner string:org.freedesktop.Notifications

CSS Issue:
Edit ~/.cinnamon/configs/cinnamon.css to set #notification with margin-from-left-edge-of-screen: 20px; margin-from-top-edge-of-screen: 30px;

Clear cache and reload: rm -rf ~/.cache/cinnamon; cinnamon --replace &

Test notification: notify-send "Test Notification" "This is a test."

Observe notification remains in upper-right corner.

Expected behavior

DBus: Disabling Cinnamon notifications should release the org.freedesktop.Notifications DBus name, allowing alternative daemons like dunst to claim it.

CSS: Notification positioning properties in cinnamon.css (e.g., margin-from-left-edge-of-screen) should move notifications to the specified location (e.g., upper-left).

Additional information

These issues prevent users from customizing notification placement (e.g., to upper-left) using either CSS or alternative daemons.

Workarounds like renaming /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.cinnamon.Notifications.service were considered but not attempted due to risk of system instability.

The issues may be related to changes in Cinnamon 6.4.8’s notification handling or DBus integration.

Request:
Investigate why Cinnamon retains the org.freedesktop.Notifications DBus name when notifications are disabled.

Confirm if CSS notification positioning is supported in 6.4.8 or if there’s a bug overriding properties like margin-from-left-edge-of-screen.

Suggest workarounds or planned fixes for custom notification placement.

Thank you for your work on Cinnamon!