unity-compiz develops focus problems and sends input to minimized windows when 'Keep previews of minimized windows' is enabled

[Rocko]

Binary package hint: unity

Recently unity-compiz has been getting itself into a state on my PC where it loses track of windows, with the following symptoms:

a) Without being prompted, it decides that a particular window is 'always on top'. If you click on another application, the original window stays on top.

b) Even if you minimize this window, input is still sent to it when the mouse is over the location where the window last was seen.

So if for instance the window mistakenly 'always on top' is gnome-terminal and there is a firefox window open, if I minimize gnome-terminal so that only firefox is showing, when I move the mouse over the section of firefox that was formerly covered by gnome-terminal, the mouse cursor turns into a 'typing input' cursor, and I can't click on links etc in firefox, and that part of firefox becomes unusable. It doesn't have to be firefox - for instance, I had the problem in apport and I couldn't click on the 'Send' button because the input was being sent to the minimized window.

If the window 'always on top' is nautilus and it is minimized, when I move the cursor over its former location in say firefox and press the right mouse button, I get the nautilus popup menu.

Closing the 'always on top' window makes the problem go away but then compiz often mysteriously chooses another window to be 'always on top'.

This has been happening more and more frequently. I am also using the unity desktop more heavily now by opening more windows at once.

I have been running a natty VM in VirtualBox at the same time as running natty in the host (where I am seeing the issue) in case that makes a difference.

Any suggestions on how to debug this further?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.8.6-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 1bd8e90541d49b96c13cbfcc9baf103b
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,compiztoolbox,dbus,staticswitcher,place,session,mousepoll,resize,vpswitch,move,wall,snap,gnomecompat,regex,thumbnail,extrawm,animation,workarounds,fade,expo,scale,unityshell]
Date: Tue Apr 12 08:57:38 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100224.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-11 (0 days ago)

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

unity-compiz also seems to have particular trouble with thunderbird. Right now I can't have both firefox and thunderbird un-minimized at the same time, or I see the global menu for one but the other one gets displayed; clicking on the displayed window makes the other one appear and the global menu swaps over as well.

I think this happened when I confused it by writing a new message in Thunderbird. unity-compiz thinks the two windows are the same but knows that two windows are open, so that eg when you click on the thunderbird icon in unity-launcher and the 'window chooser panel' comes up it only shows one window to choose from. Normally it would show both.

Or perhaps it gets confused because firefox and thunderbird are both mozilla applications?

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I just checked and the problem with Thunderbird doesn't always happen - just when compiz decides Thunderbird is 'always on top'. So that's another symptom of this bug.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Here's a screenshot where compiz has decided Firefox is 'always on top'. unity-launcher shows that I have selected gnome-terminal, which should be displayed at the top left of the screen but isn't. 'Terminal' is displayed in the global menu bar, though.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

In this screenshot, the firefox window from the last screenshot is still 'always on top' and I have opened another firefox window. unity-launcher shows that there are two firefox windows open. I have double-clicked on the firefox icon, which opens the 'chooser'. It should be showing both firefox windows for me to choose from, but it only shows one.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Perhaps its a BAMF problem? Often some time after this happens unity will completely freeze and I have to restart gdm from a tty console. Here's an .xsession-errors file from one of those times. It shows lots of critical errors from BAMF.

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

It's also possible for compiz to lose two separate application window at once (so that they behave like they are 'always on top'). I currently have both Thunderbird and gnome-terminal behaving like this.

When a window gets in this state and you minimize it, compiz doesn't draw it any more but unity-launcher still indicates it is the window with foucs (via the arrow to the right of the application icon).

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

I think I've tracked this to the compiz setting 'Utilities / Workarounds / Keep previews of minimized windows'. With this set, when you minimize a window unity-launcher indicates that it still has focus and popup dialogs or windows often appear behind the main window.

[Sam Spilsbury (smspillaz)]

Right. That option uses a lot of hacks to work correctly.

On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 8:11 AM, Rocko <email address hidden> wrote:
> I think I've tracked this to the compiz setting 'Utilities / Workarounds
> / Keep previews of minimized windows'. With this set, when you minimize
> a window unity-launcher indicates that it still has focus and popup
> dialogs or windows often appear behind the main window.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Unity
> Bugs, which is subscribed to unity.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/758253
>
> Title:
>  unity-compiz develops focus problems and sends input to minimized
>  windows
>
> Status in Unity:
>  New
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
>  New
>
> Bug description:
>  Binary package hint: unity
>
>  Recently unity-compiz has been getting itself into a state on my PC
>  where it loses track of windows, with the following symptoms:
>
>  a) Without being prompted, it decides that a particular window is
>  'always on top'. If you click on another application, the original
>  window stays on top.
>
>  b) Even if you minimize this window, input is still sent to it when
>  the mouse is over the location where the window last was seen.
>
>  So if for instance the window mistakenly 'always on top' is gnome-
>  terminal and there is a firefox window open, if I minimize gnome-
>  terminal so that only firefox is showing, when I move the mouse over
>  the section of firefox that was formerly covered by gnome-terminal,
>  the mouse cursor turns into a 'typing input' cursor, and I can't click
>  on links etc in firefox, and that part of firefox becomes unusable. It
>  doesn't have to be firefox - for instance, I had the problem in apport
>  and I couldn't click on the 'Send' button because the input was being
>  sent to the minimized window.
>
>  If the window 'always on top' is nautilus and it is minimized, when I
>  move the cursor over its former location in say firefox and press the
>  right mouse button, I get the nautilus popup menu.
>
>  Closing the 'always on top' window makes the problem go away but then
>  compiz often mysteriously chooses another window to be 'always on
>  top'.
>
>  This has been happening more and more frequently. I am also using the
>  unity desktop more heavily now by opening more windows at once.
>
>  I have been running a natty VM in VirtualBox at the same time as
>  running natty in the host (where I am seeing the issue) in case that
>  makes a difference.
>
>  Any suggestions on how to debug this further?
>
>  ProblemType: Bug
>  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
>  Package: unity 3.8.6-0ubuntu1
>  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
>  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
>  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
>  Architecture: amd64
>  CheckboxSubmission: 1bd8e90541d49b96c13cbfcc9baf103b
>  CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
>  CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,compiztoolbox,dbus,staticswitcher,place,session,mousepoll,resize,vpswitch,move,wall,snap,gnomecompat,regex,thumbnail,extrawm,animation,workarounds,fade,expo,scale,unityshell]
>  Date: Tue Apr 12 08:57:38 2011
>  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu ...

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Perhaps we should remove this option from ccsm since it makes the unity desktop just about unusable?

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

closed the unity bug as this is clearly caused by a compiz plugin which is not enabled by default.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

FYI, this affects Ubuntu Classic too.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

I am using distro-packaged Compiz 0.9.4 on up-to-date Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 and the distro-packaged proprietary driver. I am running Ubuntu's "Classic" desktop (i.e., not Unity).

Enabling the "Keep previews of minimized windows" option in the Workarounds plugin breaks minimizing. When this option is enabled, minimizing a window will usually result in it merely becoming invisible while still having focus and still being the same size as it was before. For example, moving the mouse around the desktop will result in the pointer icon changing in accordance with the widgets in the invisible window, and clicking on the desktop will actually result in a click on the invisible window. Repeated maximizing/minimizing of different windows tends to make the problem go away temporarily.

The bug also affects the Unity environment.

Reported in the Ubuntu bug tracker at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/758253

One solution would be to simply remove this option from the UI until this issue is resolved.

[Sam Spilsbury (smspillaz)]

This option in workarounds is a hack and currently unsupported.

On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 9:12 PM, Omer Akram <email address hidden> wrote:
> ** Changed in: compiz (Ubuntu)
>       Status: Confirmed => Triaged
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Unity
> Bugs, which is subscribed to unity in Ubuntu.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/758253
>
> Title:
>  unity-compiz develops focus problems and sends input to minimized
>  windows when 'Keep previews of minimized windows' is enabled
>
> Status in Compiz:
>  New
> Status in Unity:
>  Invalid
> Status in “compiz” package in Ubuntu:
>  Triaged
> Status in “unity” package in Ubuntu:
>  Invalid
>
> Bug description:
>  Binary package hint: unity
>
>  Recently unity-compiz has been getting itself into a state on my PC
>  where it loses track of windows, with the following symptoms:
>
>  a) Without being prompted, it decides that a particular window is
>  'always on top'. If you click on another application, the original
>  window stays on top.
>
>  b) Even if you minimize this window, input is still sent to it when
>  the mouse is over the location where the window last was seen.
>
>  So if for instance the window mistakenly 'always on top' is gnome-
>  terminal and there is a firefox window open, if I minimize gnome-
>  terminal so that only firefox is showing, when I move the mouse over
>  the section of firefox that was formerly covered by gnome-terminal,
>  the mouse cursor turns into a 'typing input' cursor, and I can't click
>  on links etc in firefox, and that part of firefox becomes unusable. It
>  doesn't have to be firefox - for instance, I had the problem in apport
>  and I couldn't click on the 'Send' button because the input was being
>  sent to the minimized window.
>
>  If the window 'always on top' is nautilus and it is minimized, when I
>  move the cursor over its former location in say firefox and press the
>  right mouse button, I get the nautilus popup menu.
>
>  Closing the 'always on top' window makes the problem go away but then
>  compiz often mysteriously chooses another window to be 'always on
>  top'.
>
>  This has been happening more and more frequently. I am also using the
>  unity desktop more heavily now by opening more windows at once.
>
>  I have been running a natty VM in VirtualBox at the same time as
>  running natty in the host (where I am seeing the issue) in case that
>  makes a difference.
>
>  Any suggestions on how to debug this further?
>
>  ProblemType: Bug
>  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
>  Package: unity 3.8.6-0ubuntu1
>  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
>  Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
>  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
>  Architecture: amd64
>  CheckboxSubmission: 1bd8e90541d49b96c13cbfcc9baf103b
>  CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
>  CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,compiztoolbox,dbus,staticswitcher,place,session,mousepoll,resize,vpswitch,move,wall,snap,gnomecompat,regex,thumbnail,extrawm,animation,workarounds,fade,expo,scale,unityshell]
>  Date: Tue Apr 12 08:57:38 2011
>  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20100224.1)
>  Proc...

[Xavier (xpucel)]

Just for information this 'Keep preview of minimized windows' option causes another problem : if I have several terminal windows and minimize one, then clicking on the terminal launcher icon does not show the minimized window in the scale view, only the other ones.

A workaround is to switch to another workspace and click the launcher icon to restore the minimized terminal.

This bug happens with or without 'Scale addons'

[MC Return (mc-return)]

Can somebody still reproduce this ?

[Eleni Maria Stea (hikiko)]

Since this bug report is too old and is related to a plugin that is not enabled by default on the desktop I ll change the bug status to Won't Fix. In any case, if you experience the same issue in one of the supported Ubuntu releases, feel free to re-open the bug and update the description, so that we add it in our TODO list.