Inconsistencies when windows change their icon

[Ori Avtalion]

Binary package hint: metacity

Using metacity 1:2.25.144-0ubuntu1 in jaunty.

When a window changes its icon, the window list panel applet updates with the new icon, but the icons in the window decoration and the alt+tab window switcher display the old one.

Restarting metacity fixes the inconsistency and displays the same icon everywhere.

There are many ways to reproduce this. Here are a couple, just to confirm it's not specific to applications:

1) Open up a new white canvas image in GIMP. The icon in the window list changes to a white rectangle, but the window decoration stays as the gimp logo. Fill the white canvas with black to see the icon in the window list change. Still no change to the window decoration icon. Kill and run metacity again to see the icon change.

2) Open a chat window in Pidgin. Ask the person to change status to "Away." Notice the window's icon change in the window list, and not in the decoration.

3) Start OpenOffice and open a document. The icon in the window list should change to a document, while the icon in the decorator will be the OpenOffice logo.

[George Lesica (oldmanstan)]

Tested in Jaunty with Gimp.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

I have isolated the bug to a specific revision of metacity and filed a bug upstream.

As to the importance of this bug, it makes pidgin a bit less usable:
I have several chat windows open which several of them has the "online" icon, and one has the "away" icon. I want to send the "away" one a message, so I click alt+tab and look for it, but it shows no window with the away icon. Then I either tab one by one and check the window title, or use the mouse.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

Another effect caused by the bug:
Apps that don't set an icon (such as gitk) will have a "black page" icon in the window decoration and a "generic window" icon in the window list.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

This has been fixed upstream.
Please consider updating the jaunty package

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

Here's the specific fix as a patch to the metacity-2.25.144 package

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

Subscribed ubuntu-main-sponsors.

Some more information:
* The patch is taken from the commit http://svn.gnome.org/viewvc/metacity?view=revision&revision=4191
* It also fixes the problem of windows not resizing when panels are hidden or removed.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

Bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/metacity/+bug/342888 is caused by the same problem.

[Ori Avtalion (salty-horse)]

Fixed by the patch in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/metacity/+bug/341487
Released in metacity 1:2.25.144-0ubuntu2