Firefox misbehaves with the metacity's move_to_* features

[Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu Lam]

Binary package hint: firefox

The bug appears on Ubuntu 8.04.1, with the following two default packages:
- firefox version 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3 and
- metacity 1:2.22.0-0ubuntu4 (Gnome's window manager).

One "hidden" feature of metacity is you can bind to a keyboard shortcut a move_to_w function which move the focused window to the West side of the screen. This feature do what is expected, with the exception of firefox windows.

To reproduce the bug, please follow these steps:

1. Start a Gnome session; metacity is used as the default window manager.

2. Bind the move-to-west feature to the Control+Alt+O key with:
gconftool-2 --type=string --set /apps/metacity/window_keybindings/move_to_side_w '<Control><Alt>O'

3. Launch any window, e.g. a Gnome-terminal, focus the window and type Control+Alt+O to check that the window will move to the west side of the screen.

4. Launch firefox, focus its window. Type Control+Alt+O. The window first goes to the west side as expected, but it immediately goes back to its initial position (which is unexpected).

This must be a bug from firefox and not metacity. To check it, follow these steps:

5. In order to suspend the firefox process, run:
killall -STOP firefox
The content of the firefox window is no more refreshed, as expected.

6. Focus the firefox window and type Control+Alt+O. The window goes to the west side as expected.

7. Now, let's wake the firefox process up:
killall -CONT firefox
Now, the firefox window goes back to its initial position by itself.

As I didn't try to trigger the bug on vanilla gnome and firefox programs, I am reporting the bug to this ubuntu launchpad. The bug is eventually to be reported upstream.

[Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu Lam (kdntl)]

I forgot to mention the bug is not triggered when using the move-to-west feature of icewm (icewm 1.2.33-1ubuntu2) as the window manager. The move-to-west feature of icewm is bound to Ctrl+Alt+6 (the [6] key on the numeric pad on the right of the keyboard).

It does not necessarily means that metacity is faulty. Nonetheless, it shows that icewm and metacity use different ways to move windows.

[Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu Lam (kdntl)]

The bug can also be triggered with xchat-2.8.4-0ubuntu7 windows (xchat is an IRC client), so it might actually be a metacity issue.

[Josh Triplett (joshtriplett)]

[Marking unconfirmed because I haven't tested with trunk.]

The metacity window manager can have keyboard shortcuts for moving the
current window to the edge of the screen. You can bind these with
gconf; for instance, the following command will bind Ctrl-Alt-r to
move the current window to the right edge of the screen:

gconftool-2 --type=string --set /apps/metacity/window_keybindings/move_to_side_e '<Control><Alt>r'

This works fine with most windows, but Firefox windows immediately
move back to their original position.

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.0/+bug/269809
for another report of this issue.

- Josh Triplett

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

 Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Josh Triplett (joshtriplett)]

I can confirm that this bug still exists with latest Debian unstable, at least.

Package versions:

iceweasel 3.0.5-1
metacity 1:2.22.0-2

[Josh Triplett (joshtriplett)]

Marking as NEW based on confirmation by someone running a trunk build.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Does this bug still happen in Ubuntu

[Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu Lam (kdntl)]

Yes, the bug is still triggered on up-to-date ubuntu

firefox 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
metacity 1:2.24.0-0ubuntu1

[Khanh-Dang Nguyen Thu Lam (kdntl)]

This bug is fixed by the following patch against metacity-2.27.0 (the current version in ubuntu karmic).

I added the metacity's maintainer to this bug's subscribers list.

[Josh Triplett (joshtriplett)]

Ping? This bug still exists in current Firefox 4.0b2.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Can someone test this in Maverick to see if it still happens with the new Metacity?

[Josh Triplett (joshtriplett)]

And still in current 7.0a2.

[dino99 (9d9)]

This is no more a supported version