GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 707378
Large windows are maximized automatically on start; breaks with multihead
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:45:22 UTC
For some reason, if I close a large window (occupying 80-90% of the screen space) and open the app again, the window is maximized on start. Tested with gedit, virt-manager and other windows. This is very inconvenient if I want to have a very small window by the side of the screen (like IM window) and the rest of the screen occupied by something else (browser, code editor, etc). Every time I open the app, it's maximized and I have to demaximize it and adjust the window size. See gedit-pidgin.webm video. Is there a reason for this behavior, or is it a bug? Also, with two monitors with different resolutions, the problem is even worse. The height of any window can't be resized to be larger than the smallest monitor available. If the window is larger, its height is not remembered and it's shrunk on the next startup. Window width doesn't seem to be affected. Also, the auto-maximizing compares the smallest screen available, not the current screen. So if I have very small built-in screen and a very large external monitor, if I enlarge the window on the external monitor just slightly, it often starts maximized the next time. I have to demaximize it again every time. See dual-head.webm video. If I disable my built-in screen, the height problem is fixed, but auto-maximizing persists. See single-monitor.webm video. This has been originally reported as: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=994469 gnome-shell-3.8.4-2.fc19.x86_64
Created attachment 253967 [details] gedit-pidgin.webm
dual-head.webm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEpQnbHstVk single-monitor.webm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SG05A-I3SQ Note: I have tested all of this also in a profile with no gnome-shell extensions. No improvement.
One and a half year later, this bug is still very much present. And it's even worse, because my external screen has a higher resolution now, while the main (laptop) screen is still the same. So even though the gedit window occupies less than a half of the screen on my external monitor, after closing and reopening, it maximizes over the whole screen. gnome-shell-3.14.3-1.fc21.x86_64
Created attachment 294442 [details] gedit on single head The same example from GNOME 3.14. If I close the gedit window and start again, it starts maximized. I need to shrink it by ~20% first, then close it, and after reopening it restores its previous size, instead of maximizing itself.
Created attachment 294443 [details] multihead problem on GNOME 3.14 This is an example of multihead problem on GNOME 3.14. If I close that gedit window and reopen again, it maximizes over the whole right screen. That doesn't happen with single head, but happens on multi head. I believe the reason is that the size of that gedit window is roughly the same as the size of the left monitor, and gnome-shell doesn't care properly on which screen I'm launching that window. It compares against both (or maybe just the left, or laptop screen), and thinks it should maximize the window because it's "close to maximum size".
Created attachment 294444 [details] multihead problem on GNOME 3.14 (2nd example) The same example as above, but this time the gedit window is horizontal, so you can easily see it's almost the same size as the left screen. Again, if I close it and reopen it, it maximizes on the right screen.
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