Window List applet is occasionally TEMPORARILY unresponsive
See also my Trisquel submitted issue: wnck-applet crashes randomly since update to 1.26.2 #1385
Setup
OS: Trisquel 11 (installed from scratch, and upgraded)
The default panel settings (Panel Properties: General: Size 44. Panel placed at the bottom) is captured on the screenshots.
On the screenshot, GUI programs are open and listed by the Window List (part of MATE Panel - https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-panel/blob/master/applets/wncklet/window-list.c). Random examples just to visually orient you where they are located:
- Virtual Machine Manager
- Abrowser
- Caja
- Control Center
- LibreOffice-Calc
The second and the third screenshot is just to demonstrate that "Window List" is involved by its title by accessing its About window: 1) Make sure you have at least 3 applets open 2) place the mouse cursor below an applet 3) right-click and select About.
Issue
- Upstream bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libwnck/+bug/470604
- See also: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/window-list-applet-is-occasionally-unresponsive/
Sometimes the window buttons get temporarily unresponsive when I'm clicking on them. I remember that this annoyed me in Trisquel 10, but I have not experienced it in Trisquel 11 so far (so I'm not able to reproduce it).
Potential solutions
Disable thumbnails on hover
Source: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/window-list-applet-is-occasionally-unresponsive/23791/12
- Open a terminal and launch: $ dconf watch /
- Open "Window List Preferences" (see the screenshots in the top to learn how to access it)
- Observe the output from
$ dconf watch /
:
/org/mate/panel/objects/windowlistapplet/prefs/show-window-thumbnails
false
So to set it run:
dconf write /org/mate/panel/objects/windowlistapplet/prefs/show-window-thumbnails false
mate-tweak: Disable the composite manager (default in Trisquel 11)
Source: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/window-list-applet-is-occasionally-unresponsive/23791/7)
Disclaimer: If you are experimenting with these settings, you have to close and re-open the GUI programs to avoid black thumbnails.
- Open a terminal and launch: $ dconf watch /
- Open Trisquel > System > Preferences > Look and Feel > MATE Tweak > Windows: Window manager, set it to "Marco (No compositor)"
- Observe the output from
$ dconf watch /
:
/org/mate/desktop/session/required-components/windowmanager
'marco-no-composite'
/org/mate/marco/general/compositing-manager
false
So to set it run:
dconf write /org/mate/desktop/session/required-components/windowmanager "'marco-no-composite'"
dconf write /org/mate/marco/general/compositing-manager false
mate-window-properties: Disable software compositing window manager (default in Trisquel 11)
Source: https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/window-list-applet-is-occasionally-unresponsive/23791/7
System menu -> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Windows: uncheck "Enable software compositing window manager"
Comparison with Ubuntu MATE
I have not evalated this bug in Ubuntu, because it's random when it occurs and it's not very often. However:
- Trisquel's MATE setup is double-stacked which may cause this bug as suggested here, while Ubuntu MATE is not double-stacked.