gnome-initial-setup doesn't get centered if Desktop Icons NG is loaded in a Wayland session

[Daniel van Vugt]

[ Impact ]

New windows don't get centered if Desktop Icons NG is loaded.

With vanilla GNOME, if an app window is too large for tiling (larger than a quarter of the screen) then it will be centered by default. But this doesn't happen when DING is loaded, probably because DING is incorrectly treated as an app window.

The scope of this bug has now been reduced to only cover gnome-initial-setup.

[ Test Plan ]

1. Log into a Wayland session.
2. Run: sudo apt install gnome-initial-setup
3. Run: /usr/libexec/gnome-initial-setup --existing-user
4. Verify: The window is centered.

[ Where problems could occur ]

Anywhere in window placement when a new window opens.

[ Other Info ]

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This also explains why gnome-initial-setup is not centered on some screens.

[Sergio Costas (rastersoft-gmail)]

Sorry for the delay. Yes, it is because of that. In Gnome 46 is a new API that allows to mark a window as "desktop window" and should fix it, and I want to use it, but I'm waiting for 24.04 to go out because it would be a big change, and I don't want to risk a LTS.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I feel like that work is something we do want in LTS. There's still 3 weeks before feature freeze and months to fix any bugs thereafter.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also since we know what the problem is, a fix could be patched into mutter to accommodate even the older version of DING.

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/2016013

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Fedora as a patch from Florian to do that, I think we should include that too

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Cool, though it's not a complete solution for all apps:

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/mutter/blob/main/f/0001-place-Always-center-initial-setup-fedora-welcome.patch

I think it should be easy to write a complete solution that just ignores DESKTOP windows in the placement rules. Assuming DING is now correctly flagged as DESKTOP in Mutter 46..?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package mutter - 46.2-1ubuntu2

---------------
mutter (46.2-1ubuntu2) oracular; urgency=medium

  [ Marco Trevisan ]
  * Add place-Always-center-initial-setup.patch to always center the
    initial setup window (LP: #2016013)

  [ Daniel van Vugt ]
  * Add backends-Handle-null-views-instead-of-creating-dummy-view.patch
    to prevent "clutter_frame_clock_notify_presented: code should not be
    reached" log spam in some Nvidia Wayland sessions (LP: #1967707)
  * Add backends-Restore-support-for-X11-cursor-themes.patch to restore
    support for X11 cursor themes, which was lost in Mutter 46.0
    (LP: #2062377, LP: #2063869)

 -- Daniel van Vugt <email address hidden> Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:26:37 +0800

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello Daniel, or anyone else affected,

Accepted mutter into noble-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mutter/46.2-1ubuntu0.24.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-noble to verification-done-noble. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-noble. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Verified fixed in 46.2-1ubuntu0.24.04.1 using the test plan in the bug description.