Debian Bug report logs - #443933
metacity incorrectly positions xterms

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: metacity incorrectly positions xterms

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:32:58 -0700

Package: metacity
Version: 1:2.20.0-1
Severity: normal

Since the recent upgrade to Gnome 2.20, when I start my Gnome session,
all of my xterms end up stacked on top of each other in the top left
corner of each desktop they're supposed to be on.  For some reason,
the session information in the metacity session is not being correctly
honored.

However, and this is the very weird thing, if after logging in I then
kill metacity and let Gnome respawn it, the respawned metacity fixes
the position of all of the windows correctly.

I tried changing the order of metacity in the session to start after
the xterms (currently metacity is order 20 and the xterms are all order
50), but that resulted in weird errors and didn't change anything,
probably because I didn't know what I'm doing.

Please let me know if you need more information.  I'm *very* new to
using Gnome and this is the first non-trivial problem that I've had
with it, so I'm not quite sure what information you need.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages metacity depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0                 1.20.0-1     The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                       2.6.1-5      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                   1.4.10-1     The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libgconf2-4                 2.20.0-1     GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                2.14.1-3     The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                 2.12.0-2     The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                     2:1.0.4-1    X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libmetacity0                1:2.20.0-1   library of lightweight GTK2 based 
ii  libpango1.0-0               1.18.2-1     Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libsm6                      2:1.0.3-1+b1 X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notification0    0.9-1        library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6                    2:1.0.3-7    X11 client-side library
ii  libxcursor1                 1:1.1.9-1    X cursor management library
ii  libxext6                    1:1.0.3-2    X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxinerama1                1:1.0.2-1    X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxrandr2                  2:1.2.2-1    X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                 1:0.9.4-1    X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  metacity-common             1:2.20.0-1   Shared files of lightweight GTK2 b

metacity recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 443933@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <443933@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: metacity window position also affected by font changes

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:51:08 -0700

Package: metacity
Version: 1:2.20.0-1
Followup-For: Bug #443933

Not sure if this helps track this down, but I've also discovered that each
time I change fonts (using System -> Preferences -> Appearance), all of
my windows are resized and stacked in the top left of each desktop again.
As before, killing metacity and letting it respawn fixes all the window
positioning and sizes.

This may indicate that the problem isn't with metacity.  I'm not sure.
I'm a bit lost when it comes to figuring out what does what inside Gnome.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages metacity depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0                 1.20.0-1     The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                       2.6.1-5      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                   1.4.10-1     The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libgconf2-4                 2.20.0-1     GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                2.14.1-3     The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                 2.12.0-2     The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                     2:1.0.4-1    X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libmetacity0                1:2.20.0-1   library of lightweight GTK2 based 
ii  libpango1.0-0               1.18.2-1     Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libsm6                      2:1.0.3-1+b1 X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notification0    0.9-1        library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6                    2:1.0.3-7    X11 client-side library
ii  libxcursor1                 1:1.1.9-1    X cursor management library
ii  libxext6                    1:1.0.3-2    X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxinerama1                1:1.0.2-1    X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxrandr2                  2:1.2.2-1    X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                 1:0.9.4-1    X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  metacity-common             1:2.20.0-1   Shared files of lightweight GTK2 b

metacity recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information

Message #15 received at 443933@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org>

To: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>, 443933@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#443933: metacity window position also affected by font changes

Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:50:20 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

Le lundi 24 septembre 2007 à 19:51 -0700, Russ Allbery a écrit :
> Package: metacity
> Version: 1:2.20.0-1
> Followup-For: Bug #443933
> 
> Not sure if this helps track this down, but I've also discovered that each
> time I change fonts (using System -> Preferences -> Appearance), all of
> my windows are resized and stacked in the top left of each desktop again.
> As before, killing metacity and letting it respawn fixes all the window
> positioning and sizes.

Does it happen for all windows, or only those which have been resized?
E.g. what happens to your many xterm windows, for which the size isn't
controlled by GNOME preferences?

> This may indicate that the problem isn't with metacity.  I'm not sure.
> I'm a bit lost when it comes to figuring out what does what inside Gnome.

Unless you are using some external helper like devilspie, the only thing
dealing with window positioning on a GNOME desktop is metacity.

Apart from the window positioning (which looks like no positioning at
all), is metacity working properly? Moving windows, titlebar menus,
switching workspaces…

Thanks,
-- 
 .''`.           Josselin Mouette        /\./\
: :' :           josselin.mouette@ens-lyon.org
`. `'                        joss@debian.org
  `-  Debian GNU/Linux -- The power of freedom

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #20 received at 443933@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: 443933@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#443933: metacity window position also affected by font changes

Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:23:46 -0700

Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org> writes:

>> Not sure if this helps track this down, but I've also discovered that
>> each time I change fonts (using System -> Preferences -> Appearance),
>> all of my windows are resized and stacked in the top left of each
>> desktop again.  As before, killing metacity and letting it respawn
>> fixes all the window positioning and sizes.

> Does it happen for all windows, or only those which have been resized?
> E.g. what happens to your many xterm windows, for which the size isn't
> controlled by GNOME preferences?

All of them.

> Unless you are using some external helper like devilspie, the only thing
> dealing with window positioning on a GNOME desktop is metacity.

> Apart from the window positioning (which looks like no positioning at
> all), is metacity working properly? Moving windows, titlebar menus,
> switching workspaces…

Yup!  The only thing that doesn't work right is that all of my xterms end
up stacked in the top left corner of each desktop (but are on the correct
desktop) when metacity starts with a fresh session.  Killing metacity and
letting it respawn repositions all the windows correctly, but then any
global change to something like fonts will cause the windows to all
migrate back to a stack in the top left until I kill metacity again.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Message #25 received at 443933@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Shuler <michael@pbandjelly.org>

To: 443933@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#443933: metacity window position also affected by font changes

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:52:58 -0500

Hello,

I just wanted to concur on the top-left window stacking behavior in
current testing metacity_2.22.0-1_i386, although I have not tried to
kill/restart metacity or change it's startup priority.  I am not certain
of previous versions, since I used XFCE for quite a few years, and
recently switched to a default install of Debian Lenny with gnome on one
system.

Saved sessions do not honor placement and stack all windows top-left.
Opening of new applications or windows, of for instance iceweasel, all
stack top-left.  Seems kind of brain-dead.

This window stacking appears to be the standard behavior of metacity
from a bit of research I did [0], and this is the one serious annoyance
I have testing out moving to gnome.

[0] http://chad.glendenin.com/metacity/

-- 
Kind Regards,
Michael Shuler

Message #30 received at 443933@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <443933@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: Re: incorrectly positions xterms

Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:15:23 -0800

Package: metacity
Version: 1:2.28.0-2
Severity: normal

I wanted to give an update on this bug, since the problem has changed
somewhat with the current version of Metacity and GNOME, but hasn't gone
away completely.

The good news is that Metacity now correctly positions xterms at startup
once I log in, including using saved session information.

The remaining problem is that whenever something touches the font
configuration, Metacity repositions and resizes all of those xterms into
a stack on the top left corner and a default size.  (The xterms get
exactly the same window position; there's no tiling at all.)  As before,
killing and restarting Metacity restores the correct window position.

The problem happens during any upgrade as soon as dpkg says:

Processing triggers for fontconfig ...

That's the last thing I'll see before all of my windows are spontaneously
moved and resized.

I suspect this problem is specific to xterm (the stock version from the
xterm package), which probably doesn't provide some glue that GNOME is
expecting.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages metacity depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0                   1.28.0-1   The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                         2.10.1-7   GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                     1.8.8-2    The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcanberra-gtk0              0.22-1     Gtk+ helper for playing widget eve
ii  libcanberra0                  0.22-1     a simple abstract interface for pl
ii  libgconf2-4                   2.28.0-1   GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                  2.22.2-2   The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                   2.18.3-1   The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libgtop2-7                    2.28.0-2   gtop system monitoring library (sh
ii  libice6                       2:1.0.5-1  X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libmetacity-private0          1:2.28.0-2 library for the Metacity window ma
ii  libpango1.0-0                 1.26.0-1   Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libsm6                        2:1.1.1-1  X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notification0      0.10-1     library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6                      2:1.2.2-1  X11 client-side library
ii  libxcomposite1                1:0.4.0-4  X11 Composite extension library
ii  libxcursor1                   1:1.1.9-1  X cursor management library
ii  libxdamage1                   1:1.1.1-4  X11 damaged region extension libra
ii  libxext6                      2:1.0.4-1  X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxfixes3                    1:4.0.3-2  X11 miscellaneous 'fixes' extensio
ii  libxinerama1                  2:1.0.3-2  X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxrandr2                    2:1.3.0-2  X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                   1:0.9.4-2  X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  metacity-common               1:2.28.0-2 shared files for the Metacity wind
ii  zenity                        2.28.0-1   Display graphical dialog boxes fro

Versions of packages metacity recommends:
ii  gnome-session [x-session-mana 2.28.0-4   The GNOME Session Manager

Versions of packages metacity suggests:
ii  gnome-control-center          1:2.28.1-1 utilities to configure the GNOME d
ii  gnome-themes                  2.28.1-1   official themes for the GNOME desk
pn  xdg-user-dirs                 <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information

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