Not a helpful or appropiate error message displayed

[Laura Czajkowski]

Binary package hint: metacity

running compiz --replace as trying to debug an issue with lucid Beta 2 and I get the following output -

Window manager warning: last_user_time (1271002643) is greater than comparison timestamp (799652). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around...
Window manager warning: 0x4600028 (Social bro) appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 1271002643. Working around...
Window manager warning: Received a _NET_WM_MOVERESIZE message for 0x4600028 (Social bro); these messages lack timestamps and therefore suck.

while the error output is helpful surely a user seeing "these messages lack timestamps and therefore suck." is not at all helpful and should have a more appropriate error message displayed

[Sebastian Geiger (lanoxx)]

I aggree in that this message should at least state which client is responsible for this error. Like this it is impossible to debug and find out what is causing this issue.

[Sebastian Geiger (lanoxx)]

I didn't notice before but the small string "(Social bro)" is actually the file name. I would suggest to make the buffer for this string bigger so the whole program name is visible and additionally also show the filename of the application.

I am also seeing a lot of these message in ~/.xsession-errors

Window manager warning: Buggy client sent a _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW message with a timestamp of 0 for 0x2c000d1 (Mozilla Fi)
Window manager warning: meta_window_activate called by a pager with a 0 timestamp; the pager needs to be fixed.

[Pushpendra Kumar (pushpi-gangwar)]

Hi I am not sure if this problem is same as mine. Recently I installed the Ubuntu 17.10 and it broke my second screen.

Below are the logs:

Aug 16 21:24:11 PUSHPI-PC org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1232]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (1024272) is greater than comparison timestamp (1024271). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around...

Second monitor is some "TG" a Korean monitor and I am connecting it to my Notebook VGA port.

[What If (whatif987)]

I am also seeing this under Ubuntu 17.10
Using System76 Kudu Laptop, (named 'galactica' in below syslogd snippet)

Gnome suddenly fell apart, it dropped to a console window, and I had to hard reboot w/ the power button.

My syslogd had:

Jan 26 00:38:04 galactica org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1431]: Window manager warning: 0x2a00001 (Wolf attac) appears to be one of the offen
ding windows with a timestamp of 33630142. Working around...
Jan 26 00:38:04 galactica org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1431]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (33630203) is greater than comparison
timestamp (33630193). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW
. Trying to work around...
Jan 26 00:38:04 galactica org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1431]: Window manager warning: 0x2a00001 (Wolf attac) appears to be one of the offen
ding windows with a timestamp of 33630203. Working around...

[strangedata (rcteigao)]

I'm running Ubuntu 17.10 with XOrg (Wayland was impossibly laggy).

Every few seconds the window manager will stop updating. Just the mouse keeps on moving, but videos playing will continue.

If I wait a half a minute, it will resume. If I switch to ctrl+alt+f1 and log again, it resumes too.

In the log I see:

Feb 2 14:08:17 fc993847 org.gnome.Shell.desktop[17388]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (332294169) is greater than comparison timestamp (332288825). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around...
Feb 2 14:08:17 fc993847 org.gnome.Shell.desktop[17388]: Window manager warning: 0x4000045 ((39) Why A) appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 332294169. Working around...
Feb 2 14:09:06 fc993847 org.gnome.Shell.desktop[17388]: Window manager warning: last_user_time (332347345) is greater than comparison timestamp (332338937). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around...
Feb 2 14:09:06 fc993847 org.gnome.Shell.desktop[17388]: Window manager warning: 0x4000045 ((39) Why A) appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 332347345. Working around...

The name of the offending window varies with whatever I'm focused at the time, doesn't matter what it is.

[strangedata (rcteigao)]

uname -a
Linux fc993847 4.13.0-32-generic #35-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jan 25 09:13:46 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Alberts Muktupāvels (muktupavels)]

strangedata, you should report that for gnome-shell, this bug is for metacity which is not used by gnome shell session.

[Clinton H (49studebaker)]

1) Ubuntu 19.10.
2) GNOME Shell 3.34.1

Dec 25 9:45:34 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: W578 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 30108510. Working around...
Dec 25 9:45:34 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: W578 appears to be one of the offending windows with a timestamp of 30108510. Working around...
Dec 25 9:45:34 PM gnome-shell: Window manager warning: last_user_time (30108510) is greater than comparison timestamp (30108508). This most likely represents a buggy client sending inaccurate timestamps in messages such as _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW. Trying to work around...