GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 491436
Clicking Window List button for a partly hidden window minimizes the window instead of raising it
Last modified: 2010-01-14 02:19:06 UTC
Please describe the problem: Normally, clicking a button on the Window List will raise the corresponding window to the top of the Z-order if the window is not already there, and will minimize the window otherwise. But sometimes the window gets minimized when it's partly obscured by another window. Steps to reproduce: 1. Open several windows on the desktop 2. Move them around so they overlap 3. Click the Window List buttons Actual results: Usually it works as designed. Sometimes a window gets minimized when it shouldn't. Expected results: Clicking always raises an obscured window. Does this happen every time? No, just occasionally. Other information: This bug has been around for years, but I could not find it in Bugzilla today, so I am opening it as a new bug.
Unfortunately, this is not really useful since we'd need a good test case to reproduce it. I've never seen this, eg. Could you try to reproduce it and describe the steps you did?
I explored this some more and can reproduce it reliably now. The problem occurs when the window manager is set to allow a window to gain focus without moving to the top of the stack. I have Metacity configured in "mouse" focus mode (so a window gets focus when the mouse goes over it, and loses focus when the mouse goes out). To reproduce the issue, configure the WM this way. Then create two regular windows on the desktop (Gnome Terminal windows, for example) such that they overlap but part of the lower-stacked window is visible. Pass the mouse over the partly hidden window so that it gains the focus. Then click on its entry in the Window List (being careful not to focus either of the windows on the desktop while doing so). Instead of popping to the top of the Z-order, the partly-hidden window gets minimized. It seems that there is some confusion in the code between focus and Z-order.
*** Bug 564694 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Ouch, really late reply. Can you try minimizing the window with a keyboard shortcut (it's alt+f9 by default here, it seems)?
Sure, that works. (I have the minimize bound to Shift-Super_L). But I don't see the relevance.
Chris: relevance is "window manager bug" vs "bug elsewhere" :-)
Vincent, Ah, I see - I had taken it as a given that it's a gnome-panel bug rather than a WM bug. It's present regardless of the running WM (metacity or compiz). I didn't include that in the original report partly because at the time I hadn't tried compiz. Have not tried another WM but could do that if you think it's necessary. But the bug is easy to reproduce, and is 100% reproducable, so it should be straightforward to diagnose (I hope!).
Any progress on this one?
Created attachment 134328 [details] Screenshot showing arrangement of windows to demonstrate bug
I see that this bug is still listed as UNCONFIRMED. I'm guessing you still have not been able to reproduce it. Here are some detailed instructions for doing that. The bug is 100% reproducible. 1) Start with well-defined settings. I used a Fedora 10 x86 LiveCD booted in VirtualBox, but Ubuntu or some other Gnome-based distro should work as well. 2) System->Preferences->Look and Feel->Windows: Check the "Select windows when the mouse moves over them" checkbox. 3) Open two application windows. I used Text Editor (gedit) and Calculator. 4) Position the windows so that one is mostly hidden behind the other, and the mostly-hidden window extends below the window at the top of the z-order. Position the windows as shown in the attached screenshot. 5) Put the mouse pointer in the Text Editor, toward its right edge near the Replace toolbar button. Without clicking, smoothly move the pointer vertically down to bottom Panel. As the pointer passes over the partly-exposed Calculator window, the Calculator gets the focus. 6) Without changing the focus (i.e., don't pass the pointer over the Text Editor window again) click the Calculator button on the Window List. Presumably when a normal user does this, it's because he wants the Calculator to pop to the top of the z-order. But instead the Calculator is minimized. I believe this is happening because the Window List is assuming that since the Calculator has the focus, it must already be at the top of the z-order and the user is clicking the button on the Window List to minimize it. Hopefully this makes it clear!
Ah, I understand now. This is bug 90134 :-) *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 90134 ***