Always on top windows obscure context menus and tooltips

[8765pu]

"Always on top" windows are meant to be on top of other non-transient windows (its peers), but they're also on top of other windows' transient GUI components like context menus and tooltips.

It is not constructive to obscure menus and tooltips with always on top windows any more than it is helpful to obscure the actual mouse cursor with AOT windows. They are short lived. Users can't decide where to place them. They will disappear by themselves when the user is done with them. A hidden tooltip or context menu helps no one.

ubuntu 21.04 gnome wayland
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu65.1
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
DisplayManager: gdm3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 21.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-10-30 (274 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.10 "Groovy Gorilla" - Release amd64 (20201022)
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: gnome-shell 3.38.4-1ubuntu3~21.04.1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=sv_SE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.11.0-25.27-generic 5.11.22
RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 3.38.4-1ubuntu2
Tags: wayland-session hirsute
Uname: Linux 5.11.0-25-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to hirsute on 2021-04-23 (99 days ago)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin lxd plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:

apport-collect 1938596

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

A screen capture, ideally also highlighted with your issue, may have helped explain and thus help us to better understand your issue. I've changed package to gnome-shell based on your last line.

[8765pu (8765pukxbhc876y-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for your suggestions, I will look into it. If there's a particular point that could be made clearer then I'll absolutely submit a screenshot and try and clarify it.

As for ubuntu-bug, I did run it. It guided me to report a bug against an Xorg package. Would you say that that would've been a constructive identification of the affected package, despite running a Wayland session? If so I'll heed your recommendation in the future; if not I will have to continue to dismiss ubuntu-bug as unmaintained.

The page on bug reporting guidelines is also dismissed by default, since it has never been able to properly guide me to the correct package. But I'll try:

Attempt 1: Jump to section 6 ("non-crash bugs") → "use ubuntu-bug" → Xorg — is that correct, despite using Wayland?

Attempt 2: Jump to section 7 ("no particular package") → Follow the link to the "FindRightPackage" page → jump to section 1.6 "Graphical environment" → "The Ubuntu graphical environment is provided by [...] the X Window System (aka X.org)" — really? Despite using Wayland? But okay → "In Ubuntu [...] the no-effects window manager is metacity" — is that really correct? If so I'll change the package to "metacity".

[8765pu (8765pukxbhc876y-deactivatedaccount)]

apport information

[8765pu (8765pukxbhc876y-deactivatedaccount)]

apport information

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report. Please report it to the developers at:

  https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues

and then tell us the new issue ID.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 21.04 (hirsute) reached end-of-life on January 20, 2022.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in.

[8765pu (8765pukxbhc876y-deactivatedaccount)]

Here's an Ubuntu release that was not end of life when this bug was actually reported: Ubuntu 21.04

Thank you for clearly showing what a wasted effort it is to actually report bugs here, regardless of whether the Ubuntu version is current or not at the time of reporting. Why then should I repeat that pointless task?

If anyone is interested in whether the bug actually exists in arbitrary future versions they can — oh I dont know — try it out themselves? But since the most interest anyone has ever shown in the issue is to mark it as "won't fix", as you just did, then why bother? Further proof of the lack of interest is that it takes about 5 seconds to actually confirm this problem by trying it out, instead of asking me to perpetually confirm the bug for every future version until someone actually shows an interest. No thanks.