compiz - May 2011 - Need help with auto-titlebar on unmaximized window with Compiz/Ubuntu 11.04/Unity

re, all.

Here's a bug filed against Google Chrome for the same problem:
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=80856 and here's some
forum users complaining about the same problem, and regrettably their
solution is to stop using Ubuntu's Unity mode:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1742354.

I work for VMware and for our Unity mode (which has the unfortunate name as
Ubuntu's new Unity mode), where we show individual guest Virtual Machine
windows in the Linux host environment as individual windows, we use
undecorated windows, similar to how Wine shows Windows applications in X
without having to be inside the full Windows desktop container. The problem
I'm trying to figure out a solution for is that when our user maximizes the
guest window and then unmaximizes it in Ubuntu 11.04's default Unity desktop
environment, Compiz is putting a titlebar onto our window just like it puts
one on Google Chrome.

Can you guys please help me understand why Compiz is doing this, if it's
something that Compiz is doing on its own or if it's Ubuntu's Unity
stuff,
and how I can keep this from happening?

Thanks very much!!!

-- 
 -[ Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper    //  http://movingparts.net ]-
 -[ KDE PIM Developer         //  http://www.kde.org  ]-
 -[ bash fun -> :(){ :|:&};:  //  Numbers 6:22-26 ]-
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On Friday 06 May 2011 18:24:37 vr at movingparts.net
wrote:
> re, all.
> 
> Here's a bug filed against Google Chrome for the same problem:
> http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=80856 and here's
some
> Can you guys please help me understand why Compiz is doing this, if
it's
> something that Compiz is doing on its own or if it's Ubuntu's Unity
stuff,
> and how I can keep this from happening?
I dare to answer even if I am not a Compiz dev :-)
While the Compiz/Unity behavior is most likely a bug, the real issue in the
cases of Wine,
Chromium and now Vmware is that they are using Client Side Windowdecorations
(CSD).
CSD is a broken concept and there is no way to guarantee that the window
managers do not
add a window decoration. A window manager is always allowed to reparent the
window
and for some window managers it is even required (e.g. some tiling window
managers). In
fact I have been thinking about deliberately breaking KWin's support for the
legacy support of
requesting no decoration (as used by Chromium).

You can find an extensive summary about all the issues with CSD on [1]. My
recommendation
to you is to rethink the approach and work together with the window manager
developers on
what your requirements really are (e.g. why do you need no decoration) and how
you can
get what you need. A proper place for such a discussion is most likely the
wm-spec mailing
list [2].

Kind Regards
Martin Gr??lin
KWin Maintainer

[1]:
http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2010/05/open-letter-the-issues-with-client-side-
window-decorations/ 
[2]: http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/wm-spec-list
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