Window resizing with Terminator in Fluxbox

[Dale Swanson]

My bug seems quite similar to this one:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/terminator/+bug/1201454?comments=all

Terminator 0.98, Xubuntu 16.04, Fluxbox 1.3.5

I have some shortcuts set up in Fluxbox to allow snapping a window to half or quarter of the screen (similar to dragging the window to the edge to have it fill half the screen, but with keys instead of the mouse). When I use these with Terminator the window shrinks to the smallest possible size in a single dimension.

The effect is quite similar to this video from the linked bug report, although generally much faster for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP8I164FasM

For example hitting Ctrl+6 should make the window fill the right half of the screen. It works initially but then immediately shrinks down to a single vertical bar, in an almost animated fashion. Ctrl+8 should cause the window to fill the upper half of the screen, but instead it shrinks to just the title bar, plus loses some horizontal length as well, it also sort of "vibrates" forever in length losing and gaining about an inch (making it difficult to hit the close button). All the numpad shortcuts have similar affects. The exception is Ctrl+5 which maximizes the window fine, even from one of the messed up states.

I've never witnessed this behavior with any other program, and I've been using these shortcuts for years. As noted in this similar bug report (https://answers.launchpad.net/terminator/+question/233133), it does not happen if I have multiple tabs open.

I've fixed it by commenting out the same section as in the original bug report above.
/usr/share/terminator/terminatorlib/window.py:

        dbg('setting geometry hints: (ewidth:%s)(eheight:%s),\
(fwidth:%s)(fheight:%s)' % (extra_width, extra_height,
                            font_width, font_height))
        #self.set_geometry_hints(self, -1, -1, -1, -1, extra_width,
        # extra_height, font_width, font_height, -1.0, -1.0)

I've included the output of -d for opening the window, hitting Ctrl+8 (to fill top half), and then closing the window.

Here is the excerpt from my .fluxbox/keys files which enables the numpad shortcuts:
### TILING WINDOWS ###
#1920 / 2 = 960
#1080 / 2 = 540
Control KP_0 :Minimize
Control KP_1 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 540} {MoveTo 00 00 LowerLeft}
Control KP_2 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 1920 540} {MoveTo 00 00 LowerLeft}
Control KP_3 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 540} {MoveTo 00 00 LowerRight}
Control KP_4 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 1060} {MoveTo 00 00 UpperLeft}
Control KP_5 :Maximize
Control KP_6 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 1060} {MoveTo 00 00 UpperRight}
Control KP_7 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 540} {MoveTo 00 00 UpperLeft}
Control KP_8 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 1920 540} {MoveTo 00 00 UpperLeft}
Control KP_9 :MacroCmd {ResizeTo 958 540} {MoveTo 00 00 UpperRight}

[Stephen Boddy (stephen-j-boddy)]

If you are using 0.98 there should be no need to comment out those lines. Instead you just go into the Preferences pane, Global tab, and under the Behaviour section turn *off* the Window geometry hints (WGH) option.

This is a long standing issue where the window manager and the geometry hinting get into some kind of argument over how big the window should be and the window shrinks. The WGH causes the window to resize in steps equivalent to the font size. Some window managers try to set the window (tiling) or snapping to quarter screen, and these two processes conflict.

[Stephen Boddy (stephen-j-boddy)]

Oh, and I should point out that this very symptom is documented and highlighted in the fine manual. :-)