Does not respect "Static Workspaces" setting

[kylebakerio]

(1) Issue/Bug Description:
When I open gnome tweaks and select 'static workspaces', it works for a while. Something, at some point, causes it to get ignored. When I change this setting in gnome-tweaks at first, it seems to work. Later, it stops working, but in gnome tweaks it will still show it as checked--it will just have a different number of selected static workspaces than I had selected (e.g., will show the '6' it has dynamically expanded to instead of the '4' I had selected, but still show 'static' as checked).

(2) Steps to reproduce (if you know):
Haven't figured it out exactly yet, but I will report back when I isolate 1 or more things that definitely cause this setting to stop being acknowledged

(3) Expected behavior:
As described above. Workspace number should respect gnome-tweaks setting.

(4) Distribution (run cat /etc/os-release):
20.10

(5) Gnome Shell version:
3.38.3

(6) Pop Shell version (run apt policy pop-shell or provide the latest commit if building locally):

$ apt policy pop-shell
pop-shell:
  Installed: 1.1.0~1614198608~20.10~b8d6f19
  Candidate: 1.1.0~1614198608~20.10~b8d6f19
  Version table:
 *** 1.1.0~1614198608~20.10~b8d6f19 1001
       1001 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76/pop/ubuntu groovy/main amd64 Packages
       1001 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76/pop/ubuntu groovy/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

(7) Where was Pop Shell installed from:
Running fresh 20.10, have seen this behavior from basically since fresh install a week ago.

(8) Monitor Setup (2 x 1080p, 4K, Primary(Horizontal), Secondary(Vertical), etc):
3 x 1080p, two vertical, one horizontal.

(9) Other Installed/Enabled Extensions:
gnome-tweaks, not much else, try not to mess with gnome too much.

(10) Other Notes:
I assume that on something like waking up or rebooting, pop-shell is not checking whether static is indicated or not, and it's basically a 'race condition' without a check. unchecking/checking 'static' in gnome-tweaks fixes it until the next time I trigger the bug.

[kylebakerio]

I have figured out when I see this issue.

When I have multiple workspaces (e.g., 4) and multiple screens (e.g., 3), and windows spread throughout, and then disconnect my external screens (e.g., to go plug my laptop into the projector to watch a show at night, or to move my computer to sit on the bed to work for a while away from the desk, or to put my computer in a case to bring on the train, etc.)--when disconnecting the external monitors, I then find I have more than 4 workspaces, and that new workspaces are created on the fly (as if the 'static workspaces' option was not checked in gnome-tweaks).

The workaround is to then open gnome tweaks, set it to 4 again, and apply. Then all is well until the removing of screens is repeated.

I have pop's tiling mode enabled, haven't tried without tiling.

[tartley]

This is one of a bunch of issues that sound like dupes to me. I think perhaps this issue should be closed as a dupe of the best populated one, #917 .

If you care about this issue, please go and upvote (thumbs up) that one too, so we can at consolidate our votes to show that a whole bunch of people care about this family of issues.