GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 679158
Multi-monitor: opening new window on second screen with empty first screen jumps to overview
Last modified: 2012-11-23 14:20:23 UTC
Reproduction: - With a two-screen setup, the second screen always shows the same workspace, whilst the first can change workspace. - Change to a new, empty workspace on the first screen whilst a window (e.g., firefox) is open on the second - Whilst using the application on the second screen, make a new window (e.g., Ctrl+N in firefox) - Observe that as a user you are thrown into the overview mode, which is unexpected, disorientating and disruptive. Expected behaviour: - New windows should not trigger the overview in this scenario. The shell should just be happy that the first monitor's workspace remains empty whilst the new window appears on the second monitor.
Thanks for reporting this bug. When making a new window (e.g. Ctrl-N in firefox), the new window should be created on the monitor which contain the mouse pointer. I think it is a duplicate of bug #556696 because: - I tested the scenario twice with the mouse pointer either on the (firefox) second screen or on the (empty) first screen. With the patch from bug #556696, I cannot trigger the bug. - Firefox tends to open its new window maximized: if your first Firefox window occupy a big proportion of your second screen (more than 80%?), then the new window will be maximized. That is a condition to trigger bug #556696. - bug #556696 would explain the bug when your mouse pointer is on the (empty) first screen: the window would be created maximized on the empty first screen and then quickly moved away on the second monitor (it might be fast enough so that it is not noticeable, especially with overview mode animation). Since the last window from the workspace disappears, it would trigger the overview mode. With the fix from bug #556696, windows are not jumping from a monitor to another, therefore no windows disappear from the first screen and the overview mode is not triggered. I will test this a bit further.
I tried without Bug #556696's patch and I could reproduce the overview mode bug. I couldn't with the patch. So I am marking it as duplicate. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 556696 ***