Untimely window moving

[visnaly]

Hello everybody.

I'm new here, and as a Mint user I'm glad to be part of its community.

As indicated in the topic, I'm facing a trouble with windows that sometimes "move on their own".
I mean that when I click anywhere on a window (to bring it to the foreground), it starts to follow my mouse's moves.
Then, I have to click again in order to drop it, and finally, I have to put it back on its original location.

It happens very often, especially while I select gedit and the shell alternatly, and it makes me sick...
I've noticed the same trouble with other applications but it seems to be less frequent.

I'm using 32 bits Linux Mint 13 Maya with XFCE.
Please let me know if you need further information.

I've been using Linux for a quite long time but I'm not that savvy about it.
Thank you for your help !

PS: Sorry for my english, I'm french. Please try to speak as simply as you can in your answers.

[Bruce McL]

Settings: Window Manager Tweaks: Placement:
Minimum size of windows to trigger smart placement:

Slide all the way to Large

That should fix the problem. If not, try this:

Settings: Window Manager: Advanced

turn off "Snap windows to screen border"
turn off "Snap windows to other windows"

[visnaly]

Thank you Bruce McL. I'll try this and i'll keep you informed.

[visnaly]

It seems that it's not working. Do you have an other idea ? Or someone else ?

[jjaythomas]

Also try the...

settings>window manager tweaks accessibility tab
&
the 'focus tab under both settings>window manager and the focus tab in settings>window manager tweaks.

J.Jay
P.S. also make sure 'Thunar' not 'nautilus configs not messing with!

[visnaly]

Ok I think the problem was in the Accessibility tab in Window Manager Tweaks.
I've change "Key use to grab and move windows" from "Alt" to "None".
I often use "Alt+Tab" to switch window and I think its maybe connected.
I will see if the problem happens again.
Thank you .

I haven't understand what you mean by:

also make sure 'Thunar' not 'nautilus configs not messing with!

[jjaythomas]

haven't understand what you mean by:

jjaythomas wrote:also make sure 'Thunar' not 'nautilus configs not messing with!

You'll no if if happening (see in variou other post on thix 'Xfce' mint forum. Because nautilus likes to take over xfwm4 and in Gnome does the functions that xfdesktop takes care of in Xfce, Its in Xfce-Mint by default (other distro also )

P.S. personally if you use 'synaptic' and note what it also deleates I tend to uninstall 'nautilus and/or nautilus-data.

J.Jay

Edit be careful nautilus-data MAY also give added functions in other apps/programs.

[yerc]

Ok I think the problem was in the Accessibility tab in Window Manager Tweaks.
I've change "Key use to grab and move windows" from "Alt" to "None".
I often use "Alt+Tab" to switch window and I think its maybe connected.
I will see if the problem happens again.

I'm having this problem too. It resembles a click and drag mouse action even if I have not clicked the button yet.
For this reason, I assume it has something to do with mouse settings, but going to mouse settings, I have not been able to find anything related.

I will try your way and hope it works for me too.

UPDATE 20 OCT 2012:
Changing "Key use to grab and move windows" from "Alt" to "None" did not fix the problem, for me at least.

Does anybody know of a fix?

[visnaly]

Changing "Key use to grab and move windows" from "Alt" to "None" did not fix the problem, for me at least.

I was wrong. It didn't work for me either.

jjaythomas I don't understand what you say. Sorry my english is not really good. Also I don't have nautilus installed.

[yerc]

Changing "Key use to grab and move windows" from "Alt" to "None" did not fix the problem, for me at least.

I was wrong. It didn't work for me either.

jjaythomas I don't understand what you say. Sorry my english is not really good. Also I don't have nautilus installed.

this is a confirmed bug in xfmw4.
it was supposed to have been fixed in xfwm4_4.8.3-1ubuntu1.1_i386.deb.
i installed the package from ubuntu repos, but the problem remains.
i'm not at my linux pc atm and so i can't point you to where i found the information.
but do a search in ubuntu forum or google it and you will find the issue...

[jjaythomas]

this is a confirmed bug in xfmw4.
it was supposed to have been fixed in xfwm4_4.8.3-1ubuntu1.1_i386.deb.
i installed the package from ubuntu repos, but the problem remains.
i'm not at my linux pc atm and so i can't point you to where i found the information.
but do a search in ubuntu forum or google it and you will find the issue...

Sorry, maybe that's why never seen personally 'I use the 64Bit version'.

jjaythomas I don't understand what you say. Sorry my english is not really good. Also I don't have nautilus installed.

Meant not just nautilus sometimes nautilus-data or other (usually Gnome) apps cause xfwm4 (window manager of Xfce) to stop working.
Easiest way to check is see if GUI from 'settings>window manager' will open.

J.Jay

[yerc]

those wanting to know about this bug may visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfwm4/+bug/1001936.

i advised in my previous post that xfwm4_4.8.3-1ubuntu1.1_i386.deb from ubuntu was supposed to have the fix, but did not solve the problem for me. i have since updated to xfwm4_4.10.0-2ubuntu1 from package manager.
the problem still comes, but it does so once in a while i.e. no longer as often as before.
as i'm doing this post, it happened again.

on a side note, i have never had the same problem in Carolina Puppy which has xfce4.10, but without gtk3 (i think).

@jjay.
you mentioned you use 64 bit version which is maybe why you are unaffected.
if there's any difference for the xfwm4 and gtk3 (the 2 culprits) between 32bit and 64bit mint xfce, i would not know.
the ubuntu bug tracker does not seem to discriminate, so all i can say is you are one lucky guy for not encountering this problem (did you not really?)

[jjaythomas]

Have you also checked?

setting>window manager 'focus tab'

J.Jay

[yerc]

Have you also checked?

setting>window manager 'focus tab'

i'm not prepared to change anything in wm focus tab at the moment.

at least we now know that it is a bug in xfwm4 when gtk3 is used. since the bug still affects me despite a fix already made available, i'm filing a bug report.