Invisible Windows

[Liam Proven]

On 28 June 2013 17:19, GaryT <taig at melbpc.org.au> wrote:
> On 29/06/13 00:03, Liam Proven wrote:
>>
>> On 28 June 2013 12:02, GaryT <taig at melbpc.org.au> wrote:
>>>
>>> Using version 10.04 LTS.
>>
>>
>> That's it? That's all you're giving us?
>>
>> What desktop?
>> What model of mouse? What mouse interface?
>> You mention a KVM - what else is connected? Could you temporarily
>> disconnect it?
>
>
> Thanks, Liam.
> The desktop is Gnome. Default desktop IIRC.
>
> The mouse, its interface and/or the KVM are hardly likely to affect the way
> the windows disappear. That mouse going crazy may have caused the damage,
> but I don't REALLY know and in any case I'm treating them as separate
> problems. I had a mouse act like that 2-3 years ago, different computer,
> different version of Ubuntu, most likely also a different mouse.
>
> On that occasion I concluded I'd been hacked and created a completely new
> setup. Everything has been apparently normal since.
>
> Actually I believe that today the random mouse clicks MAY HAVE caused this,
> but again, one cannot be sure.
>
> I'm looking for an answer that reveals the particular panel setting I
> missed, or the option I didn't see...  something, ANYTHING to give me a clue
> how to reset things back to normal.
>
> Questions I thought of later:
> - How would you cause a panel to be hidden permanently?
>   Because I wondered whether maybe the windows were being minimised to
>   a hidden panel... after all it's obvious they still exist!
> - How do you set the default display of a particular panel?
>
> HEY!  just now while checking this out and double checking what I knew and
> didn't know, I began going through the motions again and whereas earlier
> today I had managed to add a "Window Selector" to the panel, this time I
> noticed another option, to add a "Window List". Blow me down, that is the
> answer.  Somehow today the "window List" got taken OFF the panel and just
> now I've managed to add a replacement.
>
> The problem is solved, completely.  Simply by adding a Window List to the
> panel. The NEW question is HOW WOULD YOU REMOVE THE WINDOW LIST?
>
> If I was hacked by a clever programmer, the method might be to remove the
> panel entirely, including its default contents, ie. Desk 1, Desk 2, the
> Garbage Bin and so on. Then create a new panel and add only some of the
> default stuff. That would no doubt require access to the Ubuntu internals
> and could only be done by someone or something a lot bigger than me. Another
> method would be to send the minimised windows to a new location or a panel
> located outside the screen boundary.
>
> Yes...life goes on... today's problem solved and I learnt a little more.
> If you followed this episode closely I hope you did too.

Excellent. This is something I find -- trying to build a detailed
description leads to exploration which leads to identifying the
problem! :¬)

I'd echo the others who said that 10.04 is past it now and it's time
to update. If you don't like Unity, I suggest Xubuntu, which can be
made to look just like GNOME 2.

But one difference is that in GNOME 2 you can lock widgets onto the
panels. You can't in Xfce. I gave a GNOME 2 machine to a friend years
ago -- Ubuntu 7.x -- and by a year later she had managed to
accidentally remove almost every control from every panel, because I
didn't lock them.

I don't know how she did it & I don't know how you did it, but I can
confirm it's entirely possible to do it by accident...


-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
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