windows completely disappear when "minimize" button clicked

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- On Tue, 11/25/08, Paul Johnson <pauljohn32 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Paul Johnson <pauljohn32 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: windows completely disappear when "minimize" button clicked
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 12:21 PM
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Leonard Chatagnier
> <lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> 
> >>
> >> They are wasting your time telling you to remove
> the compiz
> >> package.
> >> Compiz is the window manager that gives desktop
> effects,
> >> but I doubt
> >> you are running it if you have never heard of it. 
> Further,
> >>  It has
> >> NOTHING to do with the problem you see.  The
> windows are
> >> there, you
> >> just need to find them.  Use Alt-TAB.  If you
> start the
> >> window list
> >> applet in the gnome panel, you can find the
> minimized ones.
> >> PJ
> >>
> > Yes, Paul, what you say is true in general. But,
> wasn't the OP asking why his windows disappeared and why
> there were no entries in the panel. Believe it or not compiz
> caused me similar problems. Windows shouldn't disappear
> from the panel unless you closed it out or some other
> program is fiddling with it. I don't use Intrepid yet
> but would like to also know why the window disappeared and
> did not show on the panel.  Can you explain?
> > Leonard Chatagnier
> > lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net
> >
> 
> I think I said in the first post, you need to check if the
> program had
> actually died or been sent a kill signal or if it is just
> floating in
> window manager land.  For that, there are many techniques,
> but i run
> 
> ps aux
> 
> to list everything that's running and I grep for
> specifics, like
> 
> ps aux | grep firefox
> 
> If you don't want to bother with that, you might just
> hit Alt-TAB a
> bunch of times to cycle through all open windows.
> 
> Now, if a program is running and you see it in ps output,
> it is not
> "disappeared", it is just lost to the gnome
> panel.   Sometimes my
> students say "the program disappeared" and
> I've never found one that
> was actually gone.  As I also said in the first post to
> answer this
> OP, the panel's program listing applet may die and so
> it will appear
> to you as though programs are 'gone', but they are
> not.  Or the
> program listing applet may only show programs on the
> current
> workspace, but the window was somehow inadvertently moved
> to a
> different workspace.
> 
> <old_timer_rant>
> Sometimes I think Gnome is a bad thing for Linux users. 
> Unless people
> go through the old-fashioned experience of starting X11
> without a
> pimpy/automagical desktop, they seem to not understand some
> pretty
> important, basic things.  There is a program called the
> "window
> manager" that controls window placement and, if it
> supports
> minimization or "window shading", then it will
> have procedures to
> retrieve windows from that state.  The Gnome experience has
> made
> people so dependent on the all-powerful panel as a
> replacement for
> basic window management skills that I shutter to go into
> the computer
> lab and see the weird things students do.  If you
> administer your own
> system, you might see about installing a true window
> manager like
> Window Maker and studying up on that.  You can run
> "gnome-panel"
> inside there if you want to.  If you go really old school,
> uninstall
> the graphical log in altogether and run startx to bring up
> the X
> server.  You don't learn anything until you break
> something.
> 
> But, then again, you gotta take my advice with caution.  I
> also think
> that cars that actually start on the first time are bad
> because nobody
> can change a starter motor or spark plugs anymore.
> </old_timer_rant>
> 
> pj
> 
Paul, thanks for the extra info and rant. Not sure you answered my question,...why his windows disappeared and why
> there were no entries in the panel.
The OP didn't report back what he did or maybe I missed it.
But no matter; it's not necessary. I'm one of those guys that has changed out several starters and many points and condensers in my early days but don't care to again ever(bad back and age)-:)
Take care and have a great day,
Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net