GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 646287
Big modal dialogs impossible to use on low-resolution screen
Last modified: 2014-04-26 14:29:53 UTC
Created attachment 184749 [details] Screenshot with a large modal dialog cut off by the bottom of the screen As requested on a comment, reporting here a problem I commented about at http://lwn.net/Articles/433585/: "The EeePC 701 has a very small screen (800x480 according to xdpyinfo), and a lot of dialog boxes are taller than that (or in the case of disk utility, wider too). One frequently has to alt-drag and resize dialog boxes to be able to see their bottom parts. One place where Gnome 3 is better is that it by default has a single space-wasting horizontal bar, instead of two. But one place where it is much worse is that modal dialogs seem to be "stuck" to some place in the screen and unmovable (and their top is not even near the top of the screen, there is a lot of vertical space wasted). So, if a modal dialog is too tall, the only way you can change things on the lower part of it is by blindly using the keyboard." As an example of this problem, I am attaching a screenshot of me attempting to add the ICP-Brasil certificate found at https://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/certs/pending/#ICP-Brasil. When adding a new certificate by clicking on the link on that page, Firefox 4 opens a modal dialog, where I click on a button to open another modal dialog (shown in the screenshot) to see the certificate details. I cannot verify it is the correct certificate because the dialog box is cut off just above the certificate hash, and I cannot move it. I am currently playing with Fedora 15 Alpha with gnome-shell-2.91.92-3.fc15.i686.
I think the intention is that we constrain small modal dialogs to the monitor, but as soon as a window is larger than the monitor in either direction, you should be allowed to move it freely. Have you tried clicking the window while holding down Super (the windows key) - does that let you move it ?
(In reply to comment #1) > I think the intention is that we constrain small modal dialogs to the monitor, > but as soon as a window is larger than the monitor in either direction, you > should be allowed to move it freely. > > Have you tried clicking the window while holding down Super (the windows key) - > does that let you move it ? I tried with Alt (alt-dragging), which is the way I usually move all the non-modal dialogs. This does not move the modal dialog (the pointer becomes the "drag" closed hand, but the dialog does not move). I now tried with the "windows" key (this is an EeePC, it is some sort of house - but it is the key which makes the "applications" view show, as if you touched the top-left hot corner of the screen). This does not move the modal dialog, it does not even change the mouse pointer, and on releasing the key the view zooms out to the list of open windows (as usual for this key). Alt-F7 changes the mouse pointer to the same closed hand as alt-dragging. Neither the keyboard nor the mouse can move the modal dialog in this mode. Finally, Alt-F8 in this modal dialog completely confuses gnome-shell. For instance, Alt-F8, Right Arrow, Right Arrow turns the whole window into a single vertical line (!). This deserves a screenshot, and I will attach one. Alt-F8, Down Arrow, Down Arrow makes the whole window slide down a bit (around the height of a title bar), making things even worse. And so on.
Created attachment 184830 [details] Alt-F8, Right, Right
I was checking old bugs to do a bit of triaging, and Matthias solution works fine: I can move anything anywhere using Super + left mouse button pressed like before with alt, including modals. I've tested on 3.6.x Cesar, can you still reproduce? Note the pointer is not changed until the left mouse button is pressed, at which point it transforms to a "hand" cursor.
Please note you can change the key to Alt through gnome-tweak-tool or the by editing the org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences/mouse-button-modifier key.
I can still reproduce, same thing as my original report. But it seems to be still using Gnome 3.4 (to be more exact, gnome-shell-3.4.1-5.fc17.i686). The Firefox version, in case it makes any difference, is firefox-15.0-1.fc17.i686. And the movement key is still Alt, not Super; I tested both with a gnome-terminal (Alt+left drag gives me the hand cursor and moves the window, Super+left drag does nothing and shows the Activities when released). I did not try the function keys this time. I plan on trying Fedora 18 on it when (and if) the Fedora 18 Beta is released.
(In reply to comment #6) > And the movement key is still Alt, not Super; To be exact, it is whatever modifier gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier returns; the default used to be Alt and was changed to Super at some point.
Closing this bug report as no further information has been provided. Please feel free to reopen this bug if you can provide the information asked for. Thanks!