Window control buttons disappear when a semi-maximized window is maximized

[Jonathan Allard]

The window doesn't maximize (take the full screen) and window controls disappear when maximizing a window that has been set to half the screen. Tested applications include firefox, evince and lyx.

Steps:
1. Open application
2. Drag the title bar to a side of the screen. The window will take half the screen
3. Click on the maximize button
=> Window does not maximize
=> Title bar disappears
=> Window minus title bar takes up the whole vertical space
=> Menu bar at the top is not affected, controls do not appear

Temporary fix:
Position the cursor in a top corner of the window as to resize it and to bring back the title bar and controls.

[kernel 3.1.3, Unity 4.24.0-0ubuntu2b1, compiz 0.9.6]

[Phil. V (philip.v)]

I'm not quite able to fully reproduce this. After step 3, my window does indeed fail to maximize, but my title bar remains visible, as do the window controls. Upon clicking maximize again the window does successfully maximize. This is from a unity-3d session, running compiz. I tested this using firefox, thunderbird, and evince. Though I can't fully reproduce this, I am definitely seeing some peculiar behavior when attempting to maximize half-screen windows, so I'll mark this confirmed.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

in my case it does another weird thing, clicking the maximize button on a semi-maximized window brings the window back to its original size

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Could you please make a video of the problem? I tried on two different machines with different GPUs and the problem didn't happen. Thanks for the report.

[Maxim Baele (maxim-baele)]

Could be a duplicate of this one?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/868925

I encounter very similar issues

[Maxim Baele (maxim-baele)]

bug is reproducible on my main laptop, with an nvidia 9400m and I have encountered it on an intel GMA945 chip, too

[Maxim Baele (maxim-baele)]

Bug is not a duplicate of former mentioned bug.. Results look the same for me, though. The procedure to reproduce is the same as described by OP

Which software should I use to screencap?

[Jonathan Allard (joallard)]

I just took a screencast here: http://youtu.be/X3CpvWfhXGM

You can see me using two strategies to maximize the window: Clicking the maximize button, and double-clicking on the title bar.

[Jonathan Allard (joallard)]

I'll also attach the video here for archiving purposes and in case someone wants a clearer view

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

This should be fixed by last compiz release, please check it.

[Jonathan Allard (joallard)]

What version do you mean by last? Still running on compiz 0.9.6 here...

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

I just witnessed this problem on 12.04 beta up to date:
I had a Nautilus window, I semi-maximized to the right-hand side and then clicked the fullscreen button: the window still uses half of the screen but with the title bar integrated in the top-panel, without window buttons available. I can only get rid of the window by right-clicking the home button on the launcher and "quit".
Trying to reproduce the problem, another behaviour appears: with nautilus still, the windows stays the same size after clicking the fullscreen button, but it shifts down a little bit (the size of the title bar). I have to click the fullscreen button again to get it maximized.

I'll let you know if I gather more information on this behaviour.

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

I witnessed the window control buttons disappearing several times, but can't reproduce it consistently.

Anyway, here is a video of related problems with DND maximizing, depicting the following:

1a. Normal dragging behaviour: from windowed to (semi-)maximized or from semi-maximized to semi-maximized
1b. Odd dragging behaviour: dragging from (semi-)maximized to maximized (cluttered, no orange rectangle)

2a. Normal maximize button behaviour: from windowed to maximized
2b. Odd maximize button behaviour: when maximizing from semi-maximized (should be window button, not maximize button)

3a. Normal window size behaviour: when dragging to and from top panel
3b. Odd window size behaviour: when dragging to and from sides (windowed size changes)

[Jonathan Allard (joallard)]

Problem is still present, though in another form in
* Compiz 0.9.7.6 (0u1)
* Unity 5.10.0 (0u6)
* 12.04 Precise Pangolin

Behavior before upgrade
-----------------------
when maximized, window remains the same size, controls and title bar disappear behind top status bar (moves up?)

Behavior after upgrade
----------------------
when maximized, window remains the same size, moves down

[Stéphane Guillou (stephane-guillou)]

Just to follow up, I still experience this on my N310 Samsung netbook, with 12.04 up to date (controls disappearing).
It just happened after working with two semi-maximised apps: LibreOffice on one side, RStudio on the other. For both, when I tried to maximise them, the window control buttons were hidden. The only way I can resize the windows is by using the keyboard shortcuts: ctrl + super + up maximises it, making the buttons reappear.

Can anyone check and confirm this? It would be great to gather some information to fix this bug which has been around for a while.

It is interesting to see that not that many people are affected...

I have intel integrated graphics, I just upgraded from 1 GB of RAM to 2 GB.

[Janne Uusitalo (janne-uusitalo-gmail)]

Trying to maximize a semi-maximized window, I'm able to reproduce three different behaviors with three different apps:

* LibreOffice Calc (1:3.5.4-0ubuntu1.1) — works as expected, window maximizes neatly
* Evince (3.4.0-0ubuntu1.3) — window size stays the same, window moves down
* Firefox (15.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) — window size stays the same, window moves up, hiding controls and title bar behind top panel

This is on a FS Esprimo Mobile U9200 running an up-to-date, 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity version 5.14.0-0ubuntu1 and Compiz version 1:0.9.7.8-0ubuntu1.4.

[Janne Uusitalo (janne-uusitalo-gmail)]

Experimenting further with Firefox, here's what I've learned:

The maximize button of a semimaximized window resizes and vertically repositions the window to the exact size and y-position it had been dragged to before the semimaximization. To be precise, the window only seems to remember the size and y coordinate it was dragged to *first* after the application was started, before the first semimaximization. Any resizing or repositioning after that will not overrule those settings.

I'm now able to consistently reproduce my original problem by:

0) restarting firefox (to erase any exising size and position settings)
1) dragging the window (holding Alt) high enough on the screen to hide its top panel behind unity's
2) (optionally, for full effect) dragging the bottom right corner of the window to the respective corner of the screen
3) semimaximizing the window by dragging it to either side of the screen, again holding Alt (since the panel is unreachable)
4) pressing the maximize window control button

Expected results: a maximized firefox window. Actual results: a window resized and repositioned to the state right before semimaximization, *seemingly* missing its top panel.

[Alex Baggott (alex-baggott)]

As part of the big bug review for 16.04 LTS I have tested this on 15.10 and this test case still produces a bug, albeit with different behaviour. Should this bug be closed and a different one be filed?

-----

Steps to reproduce:

1. Drag a windowed application to the side of the screen, so that it takes up half of the screen;
2. Click the maximise button.

Expected behaviour:

The window maximises.

Actual behaviour:

The window returns to it previous size and position.

-----

In step 2, double clicking the title bar produces the expected behaviour.

[Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)]

In stop 2 the window is not supposed to maximize but to restore. The only problem here is that the "maximize" button should be an "un-maximize" but that's a different bug. Closing.