Unity-2D/metacity window placement/move problems in precise

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt]]

I've upgraded oneiric to precise (32 bit). One annoying problem is the window placement/moving policy now. In oneiric this worked (I am using Unity-2D, so metacity, composing manager/effects are enabled) very well. If I open a new window, it will be placed "stacked" on existing window (eg if I open a new terminal (usually I have to open more of them), even if there is lots of "free" space on the workspace. So, I think metacity in oneiric tries to use available 'free' screen space, which is not true for oneiric. Another annoying thing is the window border "resistance". In oneiric, if I move a window, there is need for a little "push more" action to be able to move window when border is at another window's border. It's a great help to align windows in a nice way. In precise, this does not work, or at least it behaves oddly: if I move a window towards another horizontally this _is_ this effect, however not at the border but _before_ it! There is a huge space, probably the same size as the Unity launcher bar, is it possible, that positions are miscalculated? I am using "auto hide" for Unity. There is similar problem vertically however the "gap" is smaller, and I have no idea if there is some relation of the size of the gap and any other thing. It's about half of the height of the top panel, for example.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: metacity 1:2.34.1-1ubuntu9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-21.34-generic-pae 3.2.13
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-21-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Apr 2 09:05:42 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100816.2)
SourcePackage: metacity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-01 (31 days ago)

[LGB [Gábor Lénárt] (lgb)]

Also it seems workspace switcher does not support "wrapping": ie if I am at the first workspace, using "switch to workspace at the left" would cause (in oneiric it works) to the last one and vice versa. This behaviour _is_ enabled, I've just checked gconf settings, but it does not work anyway.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Sam Gweon (gweon)]

Yes, I am so used to the windows resistance. It is quite a downgrade not to have that nice feature.

[Gunnar Skjold (gskjold)]

Also on x64

[m4rce1 (m4rce1)]

Hi, I installed 12.04 some days ago and replaced Unity with Unity 2D. I even removed compiz. Everything works fine except the window placement. Every window opens in the upper left corner at +0+0. After moving a window its new place will not be remembered on reopening.

First of all: Is this a problem of Metacity or Unity 2D?

I did some research and tried to use Devil's Pie to force all windows to be centered in the middle of the screen. Although Devil's Pie performs some of my commands (e.g. (focus), (geometry "400x300")) centering does not work. I tried to move a Nautilus window some pixels towards the center by appling the command (geometry "400x300+100+100") but only the size of the window changed. The x and y offsets are not recognized by Devil's Pie.

Can this be an indicator for the window placement problem?

Any ideas for a workaround?

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My settings under /apps/metacity/general are:

 auto_maximize_windows = true
 action_middle_click_titlebar = lower
 button_layout = close,minimize,maximize:
 auto_raise_delay = 1000
 compositing_manager = true
 workspace_switcher_keyboard_cycle = false
 raise_on_click = true
 compositor_effects = true
 theme = Ambiance
 num_workspaces = 4
 focus_new_windows = smart
 resize_with_right_button = false
 capture_before_unmap = true
 visual_bell_type = frame_flash
 action_right_click_titlebar = menu
 action_double_click_titlebar = toggle_maximize
 focus_mode = click
 reduced_resources = false
 application_based = true
 visual_bell = false
 titlebar_uses_system_font = false
 disable_workarounds = true
 titlebar_font = Ubuntu Bold 11
 audible_bell = true
 auto_raise = true
 mouse_button_modifier = <Alt>
 show_maximized_titlebars = false

[Niko Mikkilä (nmi)]

Looks like a problem in one of the Metacity patches added between oneiric's metacity 2.34.1-1ubuntu4 and precise's 2.34.1-1ubuntu11. If I install oneiric's package, window placement and resistance works just fine.

[Niko Mikkilä (nmi)]

Correction: window edge resistance doesn't work between ordinary windows when using oneiric's Metacity in precise, but smart window placement works.