Static Application Switcher has no window/background / Cannot figure out what window is selected

[Julien-Charles Lévesque]

There used to be a window containing all the application icons/mipmaps, but on my system it's gone. It looks very odd. I will attach a screenshot of what it looks like.

Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Graphics driver: nvidia binary 331.38 from nvidia-331

Compiz Version: 1:0.9.11+14.04.20140423-0ubuntu1

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS x86_64

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[jotomicron (jotomicron)]

I confirm that I see the same effect.

I suspect this is not regarded as a bug but as a feature, at least for some people, but at least give us the option to enable the background again.

My Graphics Card is an Intel, so it probably has nothing to do with hardware.

[Hans Deragon (deragon)]

It is a bug, since in some circumstances, you cannot tell which window is selected as the border has the same colour as the background. Compiz's static window switcher should provide the following features:

- Optional background window (with transparency would be cool)
- Two coloured border to provide contrast. Colours should be selectable. Default, would be black and red according to me

In an ideal world, all of these options should be part of a theme.

[cdar (cdar07)]

temporary solution:

  apt-get source compiz-plugins
  sudo apt-get build-dep compiz-plugins
  # edit compiz-0.9.11.3+14.04.20141104/plugins/staticswitcher/src/staticswitcher.cpp
  # line 257
  # attr.background_pixel = 0x13579246;
  cd compiz-0.9.11.3+14.04.20141104
  dpkg-buildpackage -b
  cd ..
  sudo dpkg -i compiz-plugins_*.deb
  # restart unity to see changes
  unity

Play with background_pixel (4bytes), last is transparency. To avoid compiling you can search for value 0x13579246 in hex editor (file /usr/lib/compiz/libstaticswitcher.so)

[Stephen M. Webb (bregma)]

Sending bug upstream.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package compiz - 1:0.9.12.2+15.10.20150908-0ubuntu1

---------------
compiz (1:0.9.12.2+15.10.20150908-0ubuntu1) wily; urgency=medium

  [ Stephen M. Webb ]
  * new upstream version 0.9.12.2
  * debian/upstream: added signing key

  [ Andrea Azzarone <email address hidden> ]
  * Build compiz using c++11.
  * Enable building compiz from sources using cmake3.

  [ Artur drozd ]
  * Allow to select background color for switcher and staticswitcher.
    (LP: #1329811)

  [ Eleni Maria Stea ]
  * decoration: fixed warning for parentheses order

  [ Tim Lunn ]
  * Remove unused code that causes a build-dep on gnome-control-center-
    dev (LP: #1481541) (LP: #1481541)

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <[e-mail]> Tue, 08 Sep 2015 11:36:16 +0000