Ubuntu window manager problem
in [UK Linux]
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From: Simon Brooke on 21 May 2010 15:01 I've got a problem with the window manager on Ubuntu, and it's driving me potty. Essentially, one window grabs the mouse pointer and won't let go of it. The window which apparently has the focus has the text insertion cursor, but mouse events still go - only - to this one window which something in the system thinks is the correct window. The mouse pointer still moves correctly, so it does not seem to be anything wrong with hardware. I didn't have this problem in 9.04. I didn't have it when I first upgraded to 9.10, and, indeed, I didn't have it at all until about three weeks ago. At that point it started, and after a bit of pratting around I thought the simplest solution was to upgrade to 10.04, but that has made no difference. Mine is a pretty vanilla-flavour Ubuntu install; I have nothing running which is not part of the standard distribution. Because the mouse is stuck to a single window, when any application at all is open I can no longer access either the task bar or the panel, so I can only launch other applications by using <alt>-F2... This is beginning to remind me of NextStep. When it works it looks very pretty, but when it breaks, the configuration is so inscrutable that you cannot find what you need to fix it. Does anyone have any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is to reformat and reinstall from scratch. But it's stupidly frustrating, and it makes the ambition of making Ubuntu an operating system for the masses something of a joke. After all, if I with twenty five years of UNIX experience can't even make it work on my own desktop, what hope has the chap on the Clapham omnibus? -- ;; Semper in faecibus sumus, sole profundam variat
From: Darren Salt on 21 May 2010 20:30 I demand that Simon Brooke may or may not have written... > I've got a problem with the window manager on Ubuntu, and it's driving me > potty. "The window manager". Which one would that be? (Probably the one which they use by default with GNOME, but I don't consider it safe to make that assumption.) [snip] -- | Darren Salt | linux at youmustbejoking | nr. Ashington, | Toon | using Debian GNU/Linux | or ds ,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | back! | Let's keep the pound sterling Volcanoes are just the Earth's equivalent of core dumps.
From: Simon Brooke on 22 May 2010 06:38 On Sat, 22 May 2010 01:30:53 +0100, Darren Salt wrote: > I demand that Simon Brooke may or may not have written... > >> I've got a problem with the window manager on Ubuntu, and it's driving >> me potty. > > "The window manager". Which one would that be? > > (Probably the one which they use by default with GNOME, but I don't > consider it safe to make that assumption.) I'm assuming the same... Hang on... simon(a)gododdin:~$ dpkg -l | grep window ii compiz 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15 OpenGL window and compositing manager ii compiz-core 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15 OpenGL window and compositing manager ii compiz-gnome 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15 OpenGL window and compositing manager - GNOM ii compiz-plugins 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15 OpenGL window and compositing manager - plug ii libdecoration0 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15 Compiz window decoration library ii libgnome-window-settings1 1:2.30.1-0ubuntu1 Utility library for getting window manager s ii libmetacity-private0 1:2.30.1-0ubuntu1 library for the Metacity window manager ii metacity 1:2.30.1-0ubuntu1 lightweight GTK+ window manager ii metacity-common 1:2.30.1-0ubuntu1 shared files for the Metacity window manager So both metacity and compiz are installed simon(a)gododdin:~$ ps auxww | grep metacity simon 7561 0.0 0.0 3320 804 pts/0 S+ 11:18 0:00 grep -- color=auto metacity Metacity doesn't appear to be running (unless it runs under a different name) simon(a)gododdin:~$ ps auxww | grep compiz simon 5118 1.4 0.8 31772 22732 ? S 08:07 2:47 /usr/bin/ compiz simon 5204 0.0 0.0 1828 492 ? Ss 08:07 0:00 /bin/sh - c /usr/bin/compiz-decorator simon 7568 0.0 0.0 3324 876 pts/0 S+ 11:19 0:00 grep -- color=auto compiz Compiz does appear to be running. So I think one can assume that Compiz is the window manager. The graphics card is a Radeon HD 3850 and the X server is currently the proprietary FGLRX; but changing the X server makes no difference to the window switching problem. Frustratingly, the problem is not manifesting itself this morning - despite the fact that I have installed no software and changed no configuration settings, just logged out and logged in again. -- ;; Semper in faecibus sumus, sole profundam variat
From: Tony Houghton on 22 May 2010 13:26 In <85pqgrFt1iU1(a)mid.individual.net>, Simon Brooke <stillyet+nntp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > On Sat, 22 May 2010 01:30:53 +0100, Darren Salt wrote: > >> I demand that Simon Brooke may or may not have written... >> >>> I've got a problem with the window manager on Ubuntu, and it's driving >>> me potty. >> >> "The window manager". Which one would that be? >> >> (Probably the one which they use by default with GNOME, but I don't >> consider it safe to make that assumption.) > > I'm assuming the same... Hang on... [Snip] > Compiz does appear to be running. So I think one can assume that Compiz > is the window manager. > > The graphics card is a Radeon HD 3850 and the X server is currently the > proprietary FGLRX; but changing the X server makes no difference to the > window switching problem. > > Frustratingly, the problem is not manifesting itself this morning - > despite the fact that I have installed no software and changed no > configuration settings, just logged out and logged in again. If you have "Desktop effects" enabled Ubuntu uses compiz, disabled it uses metacity. If you look in compiz's full settings manager (ccsm) you'll see it has a gazillion options, so one of them could be accidentally causing the problem, but good luck finding which one! As a last resort, instead of reinstalling try creating a new user and copy your data and any crucial non-desktop settings into it. If you want to keep your old user name use the Live CD to swap the directories over and change the UIDs. If you can't fix compiz and don't like metacity I recommend xfwm4. -- TH * http://www.realh.co.uk
From: Ian on 22 May 2010 16:19
On 22 May, 18:26, Tony Houghton <h...(a)realh.co.uk> wrote: > If you have "Desktop effects" enabled Ubuntu uses compiz, disabled it > uses metacity. I have desktop effects running but to move the maximise/minimise/close buttons I edit the metacity settings. Just saying. Ian |