Re: Randomly Disappearing Windows

[Mario Domenech Goulart <mario inf ufrgs br>]

Hello Pat

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:35:38 -0500 Pat Regan <thehead patshead com> wrote:

> I am completely at a loss as to how to debug this.  I thought for sure
> you were on the right track after I read the link you sent me, since I
> know I lose windows when  mplayer used to crash.  This time I was able
> to make wine crash so I could lose a window :).  Hopefully I can use
> that to repeat it again.

I'm gonna write some things I'd do in your case, hoping to help you to
find out what the problem is.

I would:

1. Run xwininfo against the window that eventually disappears to get its
   window ID.

2. Wait for it to disappear.

3. When it disappears, run sawfish-client and try to find some
   information about it (check the X log file, e.g. .xsession-errors, to
   see if there is something strange there.)

4. Try to bring the window back to the screen if it still exists. :-)


Example:

$ sawfish-client 
sawfish 1.3, Copyright (C) 1999-2000 John Harper
sawfish comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the file COPYING

Enter `,help' to list commands.
user> (get-window-by-id 0x1200003)
#<window 1200003>

PS: 0x1200003 (the window ID) is one of the information xwininfo can
give you.

If you get a window as the return value of `get-window-by-id', you can
try some functions to see if you make it appear again (e.g.,
uniconify-window, raise-window, set-input-focus, unshade-window)

If you don't get a window and the process is still running, well... So
there's a bug somewhere. :-)


Best wishes,
Mario