untraceable serious bug in metacity 3.18

This bug happens in both vbox and all of my physical computer.

I guess that when I hide or close a certain window, metacity has a possiblity to "hide all window".

You need to come up with steps how to reproduce this...

Hi, I am unable to trace the bug but it happens every day.

BTW, I recompile metacity 3.14 (vivid) and run it under xenial, it works well for half a month and never appear this bug til now ~~

You did say that it is reproducible in vbox. Can you give steps that I should follow to at least get a chance to reproduce this?

Something like this:
- download current daily iso
- install it
- install applications x, y and z
- open a, z, y, x
- try closing them
- repeat?

But please verify that it is really reproducible on clean install (in vbox). I am running ubuntu 16.04 from start and have not seen this bug. But I will try to reproduce this in vbox after you will post at least possible steps that could lead to this bug.

It's still very random and hard to catch.

But recently I found that if I plugin/plugout external Screen Monitor by HDMI/VGA/..

This bug is more possible to reproducible, but still not every time.

Only "close a window" may get stuck in this bug, it seems that all of other windows are 100% transparent because their menubar can still popup menu.

I found out the reason, but I don't know how to reproduce the bug.

Sometimes, metacity failed to recognize depth layer of "nautilus/nemo-background" and normal window, see the following ->

When I get trapped into this bug described above, running "killalll nautilus" under tty1 (Ctrl+F1), then all window except nautilus background can be seen !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It seems that metacity thinks nautilus background has higher layer than normal windows.

I don't think it's the bug from nautilus, because of the following proof:

1) even replacing nautilus with other similar file explorer like nemo, this bug also happens;

2) when using compiz or older version of metacity, this bug don't happen;

So I think there should be some check of source code that is related with the top-level window covering other window. Don't let nautilus background (nemo -n) cover all normal windows.

Does that happens also when compositing-manager is disabled?

I don't know because I am always under compositing mode. no-compositing is ugly.

@Alberts

also have that issue on a fresh xenial 64 bits , ext4 partition, installed from the mini.iso, and using a gnome-shell session with nvidia-361. This is a pure genuine install (no ppa or else) but share an ext3 /home with wily 32 bits & an other wily 64-> xenial 64 dist-upgraded.

1) with the fresh install : when i have 'midori' (example case) and 'synaptic' (other example) opened on the same workspace. Then if i click on the top left x to close 'synaptic', it is closed as expected, but also the browser (which is not expected). The strangeness: no error popup nor logged. So its difficult to blame a package or an other.

2) with the dist-upgraded xenial, there is no such problem. But it has its own home folder (does not share the /home partition.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Two of my PC are also both with NV card.

@dino99

Yes. I am using "metacity >/tmp/stdout 2>/tmp/stderr" to save the log. When this bug happens, no text generated from those files.

As for "1)" that you said, the browser is not merely closed. To be more precise, its widget become transparent (covered by nautilus background), and the process is still running.

"killing nautilus" or "restarting metacity" will display those widget again.

GNOME Shell does not use metacity... So it might be different bug, or "shared" bug in both - metacity and mutter. Tried to run GNOME Shell session in virtual box, tried few times to open & close midori & synaptic, but for me everything works... :(

Cui, if bug is only with compositing manager then you could try to revert this commit:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/metacity/commit/?id=a9f28dbc26f5211ef08889109db3dc8c7ba76aca
(it might introduce crashes...)

mutter seems indeed a better candidate in my case. But both xenial installations use the same genuine version: one has no problem, the other has that strange issue (as the opened apps was 'linked' when closing one)

@dino99

mutter in xenial has problem switching windows here on my PC. When I open more than 3 windows, Alt+Tab will only switch bewteen two of them. How about you?

@Cui

yes i just decover that issue too (as i never use alt-tab before) :
- open 3 apps
- hit alt tab: a popup propose the 3 opened apps:
  a) if the alt key is released, then the switch is made between the 2nd & 3rd opened apps only. (in fact the last active one & the previous one)
  3) but if alt key IS NOT released, then selecting the app from the popup works, and the switch is done as expected.

Well, the design seems have changed and is not as intuitive as expected.

@Alberts

I am testing the revert of this patch for one day, but it might take several days to better confirm. Currently, nothing wrong happens, in terms of both crashes and window disappearing.

@Alberts

Okay .. It begins to crash after reverting this patch on the newest metacity version.

Metacity crashes up to 4 times today, but doesn't making windows disappearing any more!

Without the reverting of this patch, Metacity never crashes itself, but leading to 3-4 times of window missing every day.

It seems that this patch makes metacity not crash any more but begin to disappear normal widgets other than nautilus background. So I guess it's very likely that "xrender_free_window" cause this issue.

Can you try this:
replace
if (frame) xwindow = meta_frame_get_xwindow (frame);
with
if (frame) xwindow = meta_window_get_xwindow (window);

feedback:
my issue (#11) has been solved by the today's upgrades; so sorry for the spam.

@Alberts

Sorry, after the change:

   if (frame)
     {
- xwindow = meta_frame_get_xwindow (frame);
+ xwindow = meta_window_get_xwindow (window);
     }
   else
     {

It still crashes.

-------------------

Testing report (metacity 3.18.3-1ubuntu2):

1) Hardware: Intel Graphic Card + NV Maxwell Card + Nouveau Driver;

2) Mode: metacity compositing mode;

3) open firefox playing some HTML5 videos or other things that requires 3D acceleration;

This is the report:

1) metacity 3.18.3-1ubuntu2 with a9f28dbc26f5211ef08889109db3dc8c7ba76aca reverting, testing for 2 days:

-> 4 crashes, 0 normal windows missing.

2) metacity 3.18.3-1ubuntu2 (original version, no modification) for 2 days:

-> 0 crashes, 1 normal windows missing.

3) metacity 3.18.3-1ubuntu2 (with:
  - xwindow = meta_frame_get_xwindow (frame);
  + xwindow = meta_window_get_xwindow (window);
) for 2 days:

-> 1 crashes, 0 normal windows missing.

Hi, I have sent a webm recording of this issue.

@dino99
Is this issue same as yours?

@Cui

not the same as yours (even if it was quite similar) as i'm a gnome-shell user (so metacity is not concerned)

note: have your tried with a new .profile ? (in case it is borked)

Can you test this patch?

The attachment "Test" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

Okay, I will test soon.

Recent 2 days I was using "metacity --no-composite", and till now I didn't get a crash or window missing (0 crash and 0 window missing under no-composite mode).

Though "metacity --no-composite" seems to be more stable, but has poor support for gtk3 style such as transparency.

Hi, I am happy to report that there is no window missing at the moment, and compared with the original version, I found out a different phenomenon after applying this test.patch.

As has been said above, previously when I was using metacity original version, there is a small possiblity of window missing.

But now, there is no window missing, instead, there is a small possiblity for the whole desktop to be turned dark slightly and then recover in very short time, approximately 0.1 to 0.5 second. The focus state of windows are correct so this new issue isn't a big deal. And this issue only happenes after adding this patch.

I think this new version would be better than the orignial version, because users can at least work normally without replacing window manager when missing windows.

@Cui

i've also a desktop that "turn black" sometimes; and have discovered it was due to cord'weight acting badly with the hdmi connection, on the top left side of the screen. A simple push made on it and it works again as expected.
Maybe you hit the same problem.

Dmitry, I think you can close this bug with this patch:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/metacity/commit/?h=gnome-3-18&id=04c99abaa2825c0c5f441542da1e698cfcb92f01

Cui, you can not have transparency without compositing manager.

This bug was fixed in the package metacity - 1:3.18.3-1ubuntu3

---------------
metacity (1:3.18.3-1ubuntu3) xenial; urgency=medium

  * Backport upstream change (add_window_back_to_compositor.diff) to fix
    windows getting hidden sometimes (LP: #1538111).

 -- Dmitry Shachnev <email address hidden> Wed, 13 Apr 2016 17:31:12 +0300

Cui, can you test this patch? I want to know if this does not re-introduce your bug...

Hate to say this, but the upgrade to 1:3.18.3-1ubuntu3 the otherday has INTRODUCED a similar bug for me on Ubuntu 16.04 64bit in Gnome fallback metacity session: didn't run across this bug before.

Closing any window (or even closing a save as dialogue etc) crashes all windows in the session and falls back to login.

For now, it's probably worth logging into a Gnome fallback Compiz session (or other) if anyone else is experiencing this.

:/

compiz is soo slow without 3D support, such as KVM & virtualbox.

If I have to use compiz, I will use unity instead of gnome-flashback.

marco2 is a branch of old metacity and currently version is stable (including composite-manager), and support GTK3 CDE window. It is a good choice to recompile it with "--enable-gtk3" options. metacity 3.14 is also stable but have poor support for recent CDE window.

Sorry, CDE -> CSD

Anthony and Cui, please test patch in comment #33.

Cui, did you have time to test patch?

Yes, I have been testing the new patch since yesterday. And it still requires another one-or-two day testing to confirm~

Thanks for info! And how it works till now? Any missing window and/or that new problem you mentioned?

No bug at the moment, otherwise I'll report it!

@Alberts

I think this patch is okay because I didn't meet a crash or window missing till now!

Sorry, I met a window missing today with patch "Test... (1021 bytes, text/plain) "

https://launchpad.net/~albertsmuktupavels/+archive/ubuntu/metacity-3-18

Please use above PPA for testing - metacity is updated to current upstream version.

Missing window or windows? It looks like you have this bug quite often - is it really random or maybe it happens when you do something specific - open certain application as example?

--

1. Enable org.gtk.settings.debug enable-inspector-keybinding
2. When you have this bug. Right click on desktop (to make sure it has focus) and hit Control-Shift-I.
3. Click on 'Show all Objects' icon, select NautilusDesktopWindow, then click on 'Show Details' icon.
4. Select properties and then change 'visible' property from TRUE to FALSE.
5. Do you see your windows or they are still hidden?

--

Do you have enabled this:
org.gnome.gnome-flashback desktop-background

If it is enabled then disable (it should be disabled by default in ubuntu). Does that changes something in case if it was enabled?

Thanks, I'll try it tonight!

I am wondering what you changed in your ppa version. The window title looks strange when opening multiple tab-pages and switching among them. (See the image attached ..)

Does it happens always? I can not reproduce it...

In ppa has current upstream version (from gnome-3-18 branch) - will be released as 3.18.4 and it includes big changes to fix performance problems.

Have you seen your previous problems (crash, missing windows) with that version?

"Hardware: Intel Graphic Card + NV Maxwell Card + Nouveau Driver"

Can you tell something more about your nvidia maxwell card? Have you tried to use nvidia proprietary drivers?

Firstly, I didn't meet window missing bug with the ppa version till now, but I'm not sure whether it will happen several days later (Just like what I had said at #43, it took around 4-5 days to produce one window missing ..)

Secondly, as for the new issue (title rendering problem), I can provide the following information:

My Physical PC:

$ lspci | grep NV -i
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 850M] (rev a2)

$ lsmod | grep nou
nouveau 1495040 0
mxm_wmi 16384 1 nouveau
ttm 98304 1 nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 16384 2 i915,nouveau
drm_kms_helper 139264 2 i915,nouveau
drm 360448 11 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
wmi 20480 3 msi_wmi,mxm_wmi,nouveau
video 40960 3 i915,msi_wmi,nouveau

-------------------------------------------------

Open gnome-terminal (or firefox / nautilus / gedit or any other apps that can support multi tab-pages), and confirm that

1、Makeing the window maximized
2、Using Composite Manager

Then, Ctrl + Shift + T to generate a new tab page, then switching it will leave the edge shadow of each charactor in the title unerased, like what I had shown in the above image.

I have tested that,

1、without composite manager, this issue (edge of each title charactor is unerased) doesn't happen, even when the window is maximized.

2、If the window is not maximized, this issue also doesn't happen, even when Composite Manager is enabled.

3、this issue doesn't happen inside my created virtualbox, even if this virtualbox runs on my current metacity session, with composite manager enabled.

Hi, I met window missing just now, based on ppa version.

But when I use Ctrl + Shift + I to debug, I found out that the debug window is also unable to display.

Luckily, I was using nemo, so I switch to tty1 and run:

    DISPLAY=:0 gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons false

Then switching back to desktop, all windows came back. So it is definitely the background cover all windows.

If I execute "gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-flashback desktop-background true", then it will also cover all windows, which is similar to this issue but this issue is cause by nautilus/nemo covering other windows.

@Alberts

Hi, I strongly recommend to fix "edge shadow unerased" issue from 3.18.4 version, and upgrade metacity in xenial repository to 3.18.4. Because current 3.18.3-1ubuntu3 version is very easy to crash, though no window missing.

I can not reproduce your problem... Tried to reproduce:
- with my main PC, nvidia card (both proprietary and nouveau )
- with my laptop, intel card
- in virtualbox

:(

Can you post somewhere and/or send me /var/log/Xorg.0.log file?

See recording of 3.18.4

I am currently under buggy state (nautilus + metacity 3.18.4), temperary using "DISPLAY=:0 gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false" to show other window now.

from "not show desktop icon" to "show desktop icon"

/var/log/Xorg.0.log ->

[ 35975.896] (II) modeset(0): EDID vendor "CMN", prod id 5568
[ 35975.896] (II) modeset(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
[ 35975.896] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x0.0 151.60 1920 2010 2070 2220 1080 1086 1095 1138 -hsync -vsync (68.3 kHz eP)
[ 36169.344] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[ 36171.511] (II) AIGLX: Resuming AIGLX clients after VT switch
[ 36171.515] (II) modeset(0): EDID vendor "CMN", prod id 5568
[ 36171.515] (II) modeset(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
[ 36171.515] (II) modeset(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x0.0 151.60 1920 2010 2070 2220 1080 1086 1095 1138 -hsync -vsync (68.3 kHz eP)

----------------------

All logs (>= 36169.344) are logs switching "org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons"

If you are still in that state, can you try to get output of:
- xprop -root; Proabably you can do it with DISPLAY=:0 xprop -root and/or typing in hidden terminal window
- xprop and click on nautilus desktop window; You will need to type xprop in invisible terminal, then click on desktop, then hide window to get output.

output under buggy state and "show-desktop-icons == true"

Have you changed org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode? What do you use? click, sloppy or mouse?

click

I was experiecing bug 1573478, seems to be fixed in 1:3.18.4-0ubuntu0.1

 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/metacity/+bug/1573478

:)

Anthony, can you comment on that bug and mark it as verification-done then please?

3.18.3+git20160418-1ubuntu3 - This version contains all of these bugs:

1) the shadow of Charactors from Window title unerased;

2) Window missing bug;

3) /usr/bin/metacity Process Crash (I thought it doesn't crash before, but I think I am wrong because I met two crashes of this version)

4) When resizing a newly-launched window, it is not as fluent as I think for the first 2 to 3 second. (Actually it is not an isse that ONLY happen in 3.18.3+git20160418-1ubuntu3, but 3.18.3, 3.18.2, ..)

===========================

"apt-get source marco" and recompiling it with "--with-gtk=3.0"

1) No shadow from window title;

2) no crash;

3) no window missing;

4) resizing is very very smooth and quick, in addiction, seems to cost lower memory.

Due to marco depending on serveral mate package, you could try this version that build gtk3 directly, and compare the differences with metacity 3.18.4, considering the above 4 issues.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ghostplant/testing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get source gmarco

Another bug (let's call it Issue-5) that metacity 3.18 has while marco (no matter gtk2/grk3) doesn't has, is that some window is lacking rendering by metacity once it is launched from gnome-panel. Gedit always lack rendering. See the image which is using metacity 3.18.[any].

Replacing with marco and you can see those windows never lackes rendering (their body view)

@Alberts Muktupāvels

Hi, metacity (as well as marco from mate) have same issue about displaying non-alphabet title, for example:

mkdir -p ~/中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中
firefox ~/中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中

when firefox is not maximized, the titlebar region only displays around half of the text.

when executing "compiz --replace"

most of the text will be fully displayed in titlebar region.

I can not reproduce your problems... Have you tried to use proprietary driver?

Hi, after upgrading to metacity 3.18.4-0ubuntu0.1.

It will never crash. But window-missing issue still exists. I think window-missing issue only happens on NVDIA Card and using nouveau driver.

Proprietary driver is a little complex to install due to dual Video Card.

And I don't think the key point is nouveau because marco/metacity3.14/compiz don't have window missing issue.

As for current metacity 3.18.4-0ubuntu0.1, window title shadow unerased when switching Tab-page still exists (#46), though it is not a serious problem. And non-alphabet title displayment problem(#67) has been fixed!

Then please try to use Intel only mode. Or if you have access to other nvidia card - can you reproduce your problems?

I still think that this might be problem with nouveau and just because other window managers works does not mean that this is metacity problem. Even if it is bug in metacity it is / will be hard to fix if I can not reproduce it. :( I even asked friend if he has laptop with same card...

Do you have this problem also with Metacity 3.16? If so it might be related to changes that was needed to add invisible borders.

Marco has no invisible borders so it does not have all changes that are in metacity. If they will ever add invisible borders then most likely you will have same problem.

@Alberts,

Hi, do you know why GUI applications (such as gnome-terminal/gedit) can't be resized when metacity is under "no-composite" mode? Can you fix it?

Just disabled compositing-manager and I can resize gnome-terminal and gedit in my GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session on Ubuntu 16.04 with all updated installed. Note that border is only 1px big at least with Ambiance. So you need to place your cursor on that 1px border to get resize cursor. This is reason why invisible borders was added. Or you don't get resize cursor even on titlebar where this size is bigger?

Do you still have missing windows and/or titlebar problem? Have you tried intel only mode?

Still have most of the above issues.

marco Package in Ubuntu Yakkety is using Gtk3 by default, and it works well.

You did not answer my questions...
1) You can not resize gedit and/or gnome-terminal even using titlebar where resize area is bigger?
2) What theme are you using? Default - Ambiance?
3) Have you tried Intel only mode? It is important to understand if it is or is not problem with nouveau...

1) I can resize gedit/.. at the left/right/bottom edge of the window, but resizing is hard because 1px edge is too thing to catch. And I cannot resize them via the top edge of the window.

2) I am using Ambiance, without composit manager.

3) I have tried on serveral laptop (DELL/Acer/..) and all of them are hard to resize a window.

1) So this is not problem and/or can be considered as won't fix. When using Metacity without compositing manager there is no way to add extra "space" for resize cursor area. Your only option is to search for theme that has bigger borders. I am quite surprised that you wrote that Marco works well... Marco has this 1px resize problem with / or without compositing manager.

2) You can try to modify theme - changing borders from 1px to bigger size or just use theme that has bigger borders.

3) This was not about resize problem. This question was about missing / not visible windows. Did you try Intel only mode? Did you see this problem on other laptops you just mentioned?

1) running Marco without composit manager is easy to resize window on all edges of a window (including top/bottom/left/width), and it seems the border to resize is about 3px - 5px.

2) modify theme will only work for CSD window. Apps such as gnome-terminal is still hard to resize

3) Metacity with composit manager still have window-missing problem on all of my NV-Card laptops, but other Card such as Intel/ATI don't have this issue. Lastest Marco (no matter compiled with GTK2/GTK3) still works well on all kinds of Video Card, and never have window missing problem.

1) I am downloading ubuntu mate iso - will install in VirtualBox to see that myself, but unless I have missed something Marco can be resized only using border... Are you sure that Metacity and Marco use same theme? Post output:
- gsettings get org.gnome.metacity theme
- gsettings get org.mate.Marco.general theme

2) You could copy Ambinace theme to your home directory and edit Ambiance/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml. Change left_width, right_width and bottom_height from 1 to 3.

3) Does all NV-Card laptops have same nvidia card? If not post all models.

1) both of the output is 'Ambiance', and I figure out the differences: with Ambiance theme ->

metacity have 1px-border to resize for left/right/bottom, 0px-border to resize for top;
Marco have 1px-border to resize for left/right/bottom, 3px-border to resize for top;

So it seems that Marco is more comfortable to do resizing operation, and do you know how to modify Ambiance theme to make metacity able to resize on top edge?

2) It works for left/right/bottom edges.

3) GTX 850M/(Others will be posted some days later because I am unavailable to those laptop at the moment.)

On Mon, Jun 27, 2016 at 2:06 PM, Cui Wei <email address hidden> wrote:

> 1) both of the output is 'Ambiance', and I figure out the differences:
> with Ambiance theme ->
>
> metacity have 1px-border to resize for left/right/bottom, 0px-border to
> resize for top;
> Marco have 1px-border to resize for left/right/bottom, 3px-border to
> resize for top;
>

So only bug here is that without compositing manager you can not resize
using titlebar (corners still can be for resizing)... I will fix this, just
need find commit when I introduced this regression. Please open new bug for
this.

So it seems that Marco is more comfortable to do resizing operation, and
> do you know how to modify Ambiance theme to make metacity able to resize
> on top edge?
>

Only true if Metacity used without compositing manager and only because of
bug. Otherwise Metacity and Marco works same without compositing manager
and Metacity works better with compositing manager because you have extra
invisible resize area - so you can have nice 1px border, but resize area is
11px...

This NV Card (with Nouveau driver) also has window missing issue.

#lsmod | grep NV
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 620 OEM] (rev a1)

Can you test Metacity from my PPA? It might fix titlebar bug.

This may be related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/metacity/+bug/1614050 , which is about wrong window depth ordering. The original bug described (all windows closed) already turned out as "all windows hidden" here. It seems the desktop (featuring a background image) may pop in front of all other windows.

The bug linked here describes an almost similiar situation, where the desktop icons appear in front of all windows, this has likely the same reason except the desktop background itself is transparent in this case.

While this bug don't happen very often to me, it behaves exactly as described.

Some clarifications:

-It is not linked to Nvidia graphics, but happens on Intel too.

-It is definetely about graphical window depth order. The "hidden" applications can be focused and work as expected. They even change the mouse cursor according to their actions. They are just obscured by the nautlilus or nemo desktop.

-If nautilus or nemo is killed, all other applications reappear, until nautlilus or nemo is run again, in which case they are obscured again. This can be repeated reliable after the bug once triggered.

-If metacity is restarted, the bug is gone until it is triggered again by unknown reason. Trigger is likely the apperance of a new window (I had the bug triggered on the failing appearance of some delete verification request dialog).

@dronus

check with some genuine config, to know if that still exist:
- purge compiz
- purge metacity
- set default theme (adwaita for ubuntu, does not know for others) via the tweak tool

- reinstall compiz (only the default ubuntu choice; no ccsm nor other plugins which are mainly not maintained since ages)
- reinstall metacity

- then logout and reboot;

note: set to "incomplete" as its not your report, and the OP has not answered to #83

At this point only valid bug here might be / is problem when all windows are hidden under desktop (?) window... I doubt that this is problem with configuration.