Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 21732
Windows do not open where expected
Last modified: 2005-10-31 17:00:50 EST
Sawfish and sawmill in ALL versions of RHL do not consistently open new windos in a sane manner. For example, using Netscape or Mozilla, or other apps that run full screen windowed, which can open a "new window" that is the same size as the existing one, will not open the new window in the exact same location as the existing window. A bit more explanation: Run netscape, maximize it, and bring up any website with numerous links - Slashdot for example. Now, right click on a link, and choose "open link in new window" (or middleclick). The new window will open maximized like the original netscape window was. Now do it again, with another link, or even the exact same one. A new window will open, etc.. Eventually the new window will not open in the right spot. Instead, it will be sized correctly the same as previous windows, but it will be placed anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 an nch down the screen overtop the gnome panel requiring the user drag it back to the normal "maximized" position. About 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 windows opens up funny like this ALL the time, indicating it might be some off-by-one error in the window placement code or something. Anyway it only seems to happen with saw{fish,mill} WM's in GNOME. It ocurrs in Red Hat 6.2 and 7.0 both with stock gnome, and helix gnome. I'm using stock gnome right now. It is really irritating constantly having to re-place windows that should "just open" in the right spot. I considered it being a window placement config item, but no matter how the options are set it randomly places every 4th window or so and then places 3 correctly. It is 100% reproduceable.
This annoys me too, I see it a lot. Will ask the author of Sawfish about it.
I think this bug was fixed in the latest version (0.34) (there was a problem with one of the smart-placement calculations). I definitely can't reproduce this problem now
Can you try the latest version and see if the bug is still there: http://people.redhat.com/~hp/librep-0.13.3-1.i386.rpm http://people.redhat.com/~hp/rep-gtk-0.15-2.i386.rpm http://people.redhat.com/~hp/rep-gtk-gnome-0.15-2.i386.rpm http://people.redhat.com/~hp/rep-gtk-libglade-0.15-2.i386.rpm http://people.redhat.com/~hp/sawfish-0.34-1.i386.rpm http://people.redhat.com/~hp/sawfish-themer-0.34-1.i386.rpm
Drat. Sorry for not responding earlier HP. The bug still exists in our latest release as of today. This bug is incredibly annoying. I tried the packages above and thought that I had updated the bug report and now find I did not. ;o( Since sawfish is the default WM, I think this bug should be fixed in the next errata as it makes the wm behave so irrationally. I have watched many others get irritated by this bug as well. I think I'm going to just switch to E for now.. If you find a fix though, I'm ready to test it out for you (and then delete E once again..) ;o) I'm currently using sawfish-0.36-7 Thanks.
Filed upstream as http://bugzilla.eazel.com/show_bug.cgi?id=8415 Closing on Red Hat level.
The upstream bug has been marked fixed, for anyone who's curious
According to the sawfish mailing list ( http://lists.eazel.com/pipermail/sawfish/2001-November/002009.html ) this bug has been corrected in the 1.0.1 version ( http://lists.eazel.com/pipermail/sawfish-announce/2001-October/000014.html ) . I have a registered version of RHL 7.1 at the office and a downloaded version of RHL 7.2 in my laptop and in both I get annoyed by this bug. I agree with Mike Harris and think that now should be a good time to make an updated version of sawfish.
This bug is the sole reason for me switching to KDE. All I'm told by people is that it is fixed, or that it is not reproduceable, when it is reproduceable on every install I've ever seen, with both sawfish/sawmill, and enlightenment. And people who I've talked to that do use GNOME that say they can't reproduce it (friends), I have went to their machines and reproduced it in seconds to know it is a problem, just not one they notice or not one they notice in their usage patterns. So, in my case it is CLOSED->USEKDEITHASNONBUGGYWINDOWMANAGER
Mike, stop ranting. I don't care what desktop you use, really. ;-) It is not a motivational factor for me. We'll upgrade sawfish in the next release, if it's fixed then excellent.
Sorry.. I didn't mean for it to sound like a rant Havoc. ;o) And I wasn't implying that you should fix it.. or I'd reopen it. ;o) Just expanding on my previous thoughts, and trying to inject some humor. I guess I missed the smileys. ;o) Sorry for giving wrong inflection there. Please save me from KDE! C++ is evil! ;oP
Please try it again with the latest version from CVS. I've been fixing some bugs that are related to window placement. If you still experience problems, could you please tell me which placement mode you are using (e.g. top-left, best-fit, etc.) and how to reproduce the problem? Also, it is better if you file sawfish bugs in bugzilla.gnome.org -- I'll grab them sooner if they appear there.
I just installed a fresh 7.2 on my test box and thought I'd give GNOME a whirl again. Very nice looking stuff mostly. Much faster than KDE, especially on a 300Mhz machine. Sawfish bug still present in 0.38-11 though. Let me know anything I should try in order to help find a fix, including upgrading to test code, etc.
You could try Sawfish 1.0.1 at ftp://people.redhat.com/hp/gnomehide/ Bug is still wontfix though, I do not code Lisp, and do not plan to learn. ;-)
Ok, update: 1) I am a moron 2) I didn't read what federico said above prior to reopening bug after finding problem still present. 3) I am a moron 4) I went on irc.gnome.org and also a few other places, and got convinced to try newer cvs code. then teg told me to try gnomehide. 5) I am a moron. 6) I upgraded to gnomehide sawfish, librep and rep-gtk-* and the problem is now gone. sawfish works as it should. 7) I am a moron. Sorry for wasting your time reopeing this without doing my homework _first_. I assumed 7.2 had the latest code. Now my excuse list for not using GNOME is empty. Hmm. Darth-bero's not going to like this, he's losing his grip. Closing fixed in sawfish 1.0.1 in rawhide.
LOL, our updates collided. Hehe. Lisp is evil. I don't blame you for not wanting to learn lisp. I wouldn't either. FIxing bug resolution to rawhide.