[Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

tuxolero · 2015-03-12 20:57:36

Hi,

Since the 4.12 update, programs cannot remember their positions correctly any more.
When I reopen a program that normally remembers its position (e.g. Firefox, most Java programs such as Intellij IDEA), it opens a few pixels more to the left than it was when I closed it. This happens even when the old position already was at the left border of the screen. In this case, a part of the program's window is out-of-screen (that's how I noticed it).
Even the XFCE terminal does not open at the correct position after login (when it was part of the session).

I have just tested that the behaviour is theme-independent.

Could this be a window manager bug ?

Thanks,
tuxolero

ToZ · 2015-03-12 22:49:31

I might be wrong here (I've never really looked for/expected/noticed windows opening at the same spot) but as far as I understand, Xfce uses Smart Placement to determine where to place the window (Settings Manager >> Window Manager Tweaks >> Placement). I just had a look at my current 4.12 (Arch Linux) and another 4.11 (Xubuntu 14.04) and they both show the same behaviour.

Which distro are you using?
From which version did you upgrade to 4.12 from?

Have you tried creating another user account and checking the behaviour there to rule out a profile configuration issue?

And finally, what are your placement settings? Does changing the placement settings make a difference?
Also, do you have any margins set (Settings Manager >> Workspaces >> Margins)?

...And some sanity checks:

xfwm4 -V

ps -ef | grep xfwm4

tuxolero · 2015-03-13 00:33:53

I'm using Arch Linux, and I am regularly upgrading, so I upgraded from the the last current version.
I know about smart placement, but when I configure Firefox to "Show windows and tabs from last session on startup", it restores its window position(s). You can see the window(s) pop up according to smart placement and then move themself to the stored position.
And since the upgrade, this "window moving themself" results in the wrong position.
If I don't move the window to the desred position after opening a progem, I can move it out of the screen step-by-step by closing and reopening it.
This means it tries to remember its new position, and on restart it gets shifted again.

I have a few updates about the window opening behaviour:

1)
Once Firefox has reached the left border of the screen, it will not shift further. But Java programs do.

2)
When Firefox had more than one window open, only the first window is shifted. The other ones open correctly.
If you want to test this:
- Configure Firefox accordingly
- Open a link "in a new window"
- Arrange the the windows so their left borders are aligned, but have some distance to the left border of the screen.
- Quit Firefox by pressing Ctrl-Q (not Alt-F4)
- reopen it -> the windows are not aligned any more
- Quit ... reopen .. Quit .........

3)
The XFCE terminal (as part of the XFCE session) will not shift leftwards, but upwards, even into the space occupied by the panel (I have the panel on top of the screen)

xfwm4 -V
This is xfwm4 version 4.12.0 (revision 631bdbe) for Xfce 4.12

Margins in Workspace settings are all set to zero. They were empty, but setting them to zero did not make a difference. Changing placement settings in Window Manager Tweaks >> Placement did not make a difference either.

I have not yet created a new user to start with an empty profile. I'm going to test this on the weekend. But I'd be surprised if that makes a difference:
I'm experiencing the placement problem on 2 PC's at home and 1 PC at work. All running Arch Linux. I think it's very unlikely that all of them have the same kind of corrupted settings left over (although it's not impossible).

Last edited by tuxolero (2015-03-13 07:24:06)

ToZ · 2015-03-13 10:06:05

I'm also using Arch but I build my packages manually from the git tree and don't use the arch packages. There have been a number of recent patches in the git tree since the 4.12 release that affect window placement. Specifically:
- http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/commit/? … e9bae50722
- http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/commit/? … 54b74486e8
- http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/commit/? … 7e962cc612
- http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/commit/? … 5396746e42

Since I can't replicate the issue on my install, I wonder if one of them has fixed the problem.

hjudt · 2015-03-13 21:38:51

Yes, this should be fixed in xfwm4 master.

tuxolero · 2015-03-28 17:04:54

Indeed, it is fixed.

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#1 2015-03-12 20:57:36

[Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

#2 2015-03-12 22:49:31

Re: [Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

#3 2015-03-13 00:33:53

Re: [Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

#4 2015-03-13 10:06:05

Re: [Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

#5 2015-03-13 21:38:51

Re: [Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

#6 2015-03-28 17:04:54

Re: [Solved] 4.12 window positions wrong after program restart

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