vertical maximize when double clicking on titlebar

[Piet Vanraad]

Binary package hint: gnome

The menu System/Preferences/Windows opens a dialog which has an option to set the double click behaviour for when one double clicks in the window title. Setting this to Maximise vertically does not work correctly. The window is still being maximised in all directions.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.
 We have instructions on debugging some types of problems. http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures
At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Piet Vanraad (piet-vanraad)]

Make sure that in System/Preferences/Windows the dialog is set as in the screenshot. You get in System by clicking on the third menu at the top of your screen (next to applications and locations). Preferences is the first submenu, windows is the last menu from within preferences.

Open a application window, say firefox. Make sure it is only part of the screen, so it may not be maximized. Double click on the titelbar, assuming you have used firefox, then the titlebar is where the text is "Your homepage's title - Mozilla Firefox".

If it was working correct, then it should only maximise in the vertical direction, that means that the titlebar is now at the top of your screen and the statusbar in now at the bottom of your screen. Instead I get a full maximise, so it also gets maximized in the horizontal direction.

This is an irritating but, especially on widescreen monitors.

BTW, the dialog has the name gnome-window-properties (seen from the output of ps aux).

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

with which applications are you facing this issue? with all of them or only with a couple? there's a known firefox bug about not maximizing correctly, assigning this for now to gnome-control-center.

[Piet Vanraad (piet-vanraad)]

I'm having the problem with all applications. I also have this on the laptop of my wife, she does not use it, but I changed the option, just to test it. Both computers are standard installs. Both are up to date.

So it does not depend on applications or specific computer.

The feature should work as I can set a hotkey for it. I configured it using the left windows key, called "Super L" in the screenshot. In the attached screenshot you see three applications. On the left is firefox, it is vertical maximised using the left window key. In the middle you see the dialogue to configure window preferences, the arrow is where you set the double click on title bar option. On the right you see the dialogue to configure the hot keys, an ellipse is drawn around the option to maximise vertically. The dialog on the right is also vertical maximised.

It is helpful that one can set a hotkey for it, but I would prefer to use the mouse. And the option is settable, it used to work (don't know at what time it stopped working) and it works in other window managers. It is clearly a bug and a regression..

[michal kralik (ceecko)]

The same happens to me.
"Maximize vertically/horizontally" behaves the same as "Maximize" option.
Affects all applications.

Ubuntu 8.10
compiz 0.7.8

[David Egan Evans (sinuhe)]

Ubuntu 8.10 (AMD64), with or without compiz, on t61p.

It is not that Maximize Vertically behaves as Maximize, but that
gnome-window-properties seems to ignore the Maximize Vertically selection. For instance, change to Roll up, and then try and change back to Maximize Vertically: you will remain with Roll up as previously with Maximize (which is the Ubuntu/Gnome default).

[Jim Hunziker (landtuna)]

I can confirm David's report on my system. The preference for "Titlebar Action" seems to stay on whatever was picked before "Maximize Vertically" or "Maximize Horizontally". Those two options just don't seem to take.

I'm not using Compiz, and I have two screens that are of different resolutions, in case that's part of the problem.

[Jim Hunziker (landtuna)]

WORKAROUND:

I figured out the problem. When you change the preference in the Window Preferences dialog, it puts "toggle_maximize_vert" in the gconf setting /apps/metacity/general/action_double_click_titlebar. This is wrong. It should put "toggle_maximize_vertically". If I manually enter that string into gconf-editor, vertical maximization works as it should.

[Jim Hunziker (landtuna)]

One more link. Here's Gentoo's patch for this bug:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=185653&action=diff

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you try if that's still an issue in jaunty?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the indicated change is in the jaunty version closing the bug, you can reopen if you still get the issue after upgrading

[David Egan Evans (sinuhe)]

   could you try if that's still an issue in jaunty?

Jaunty appears to work fine after an upgrade from Intrepid.

[Ben (ben2talk)]

ystem/Preferences/Windows dialogue is set to 'maximise vertically' on double click titlebar.

doing 'metacity --replace' brings correct behaviour, the windows maximise only vertically. Doing 'compiz --replace' makes windows maximise normally - not vertically.

CCSM - in 'General Compiz Options' I can set the shortcut for 'toggle Maximise Window Vertically' - Super-V now does the job, but double clicking still maximises normally. I can find no other relevant settings in CCSM.

Loading up 'Ubuntu Tweak' and checking the 'Window Manager Settings' shows Titlebar double-click action as 'Maximise Vertically' - Middle click set to lower, right click set to Menu, and wheel action set to roll up.

gconf-editor - action_double_click_titlebar set to toggle_maximize_vertically
Altering this to 'toggle_maximise_horizontally' does not change the behaviour, though 'toggle_shade' is working fine...

It appears that toggle_maximize_vertically set in gconf is ignored when compiz is running.

(I recently upgraded to Natty - and had no issues before the upgrade. Perhaps this is an issue caused by a non-clean installation).

[Ben (ben2talk)]

I'm using Natty - I never had this problem before upgrading from Maverick.
This problem exists with my HP desktop AND my wife's ASUS laptop.

[Jesse Barnes (jbarnes-virtuousgeek)]

This happens in 12.04 too. It now looks like the string "toggle-maximize-vertically" is being put into gconf. The dashes should be underscores though; correcting it to "toggle_maximize_vertically" makes things work as expected.