Not compliant with gnome/metacity about ardesia HOT 22 CLOSED

If you are using gnome2 I suggest to disable the metacity compositor and use 
the compiz composite manager until the issue will be fixed.

Can be that will not take actions to fix this problem because we want give a 
greater priority to the Gnome3/Mutter support. Can be that this will 
automatically closed with the work to fix the issue 34

[deleted comment]

This could be a metacity bug!

I confirm the problem with metacity. In addition to not being able to access 
ardesia's menu, drawing does not work: drawn lines do not appear. After 
switching virtual desktops forth and back, the drawn lines *may* appear, with 
some luck.

Using compiz is *no option*, since this is hardware that cannot run compiz. 
Please don't think that this is something exceptional: This is a school with 
>200 computers. Schools cannot afford the latest techology, they will *always* 
be stuck with hardware one or two generations old.

Linux has been known since it's beginning to perform well on old hardware. It's 
very sad to see that this is no longer true.

We'd *love* to use ardesia at our school, but it fails. Sad.

The problem still exists. In order to use Ardesia add the xcompmgr composite 
manager to the x session.  Lxde desktop with xcompmgr is the best choice for 
old hardware with no accelerated hardware. I invite you to try the WiildOs 
operating system that is developed to support the teaching 
http://code.google.com/p/ardesia/wiki/WiildOs.

with xcompmgr, ardesia suffers from the same problems as with metacity: menu is 
not accessible. Thanks for the suggestion, though. If there's anything else I 
can try to get ardesia working with metacity (or xcompmgr), please let me know.

This bug might be invalid. In order to see if the problem is related to 
metacity try to run gnome with metacity, ardesia and different composite 
manager and see if it is working. Pleade don't use panels, unity or some 
programs that can steal the focus.
Once that you have seen the behaviour add programs in order to see where is the 
problem.
If it is not working try to replace metacity with openbox. If in the first 
Ardesia does not work and in the second yes then the bug is for sure in or with 
metacity.
Anyway I think that gnome2 belong to e past and then I give a greater priority 
to solve problems with gnome3 (issue 34)  

> In order to see if the problem is related to metacity try to run gnome with 
> metacity, ardesia and different composite manager and see if it is working.

I did that (comment 8), the problem persists with metacity, ardesia and 
xcompmgr.

> Please don't use panels, unity or some programs that can steal the focus.

That I didn't, I was running Unity-2d. I will try running ardesia on bare bone 
metacity and come back to you.

> Anyway I think that gnome2 belong to e past and then I give a greater 
priority to 
> solve problems with gnome3 (issue 34).

I don't subscribe to this point of view. There's a lot of "oldish" (you 
wouldn't have called it like that in the former linux days, just because it's 
ten years old...) hardware around. That's especially true for educational 
institutions running on low budget, which is sort of the native field for 
ardesia.

Seems that the issue is related to the metacity window manager. I confirm that 
changing the compositor manager (e.g. xcompmgr) the problem still remain.

The commit 256 fix the issue in my computer.

Please if you are using gnome, test it with Ardesia and give me feedback. I'm 
intereset to see if Ardesia work with mutter and gnome-shell also.

The commit 256 comment:
- Better handling of focus, shape and window stack
- Metacity compliant
- Gnome Classic compliant
- Unity compliant
- Could be compliant with gnome-shell
  (I can not test it, gnone shell crash at startup on my laptop)
- Close issue 37
- Could be compliant with mutter
  (I can not test it, mutter crash at startup on my laptop)
  Could close issue 34

I confirm that the problem is (almost, see below) fixed in the latest svn 
revision 2857, tested on my home box. I'm looking forward to trying this at 
school. We appreciate your work, thank you very much!

There is one issue left:
After choosing the "Insert Text" tool, buttons in the side panel cannot be 
reached any more. Thus, the "Insert Text" tool can never be stopped. I can 
continue creating annotations, but I cannot chose another tool or exit ardesia.
Is this a left-over bug?

Yes it is a left over bug that occurs with metacity only. I'll try to fix it in 
the next days.

Has been fixed the left-bug also

I confirm that "Insert Text" now can be stopped by choosing another tool from 
the ardesia sidebar. Thank you!

However, I see the following disturbing effect:
- When starting ardesia, after having set the project name, my whole screen 
turns light grey for app. 1 sec, then reappears together with the ardesia 
sidebar.
- When choosing "Insert Text", my whole screen turns light grey until I click 
somewhere on screen, then screen reappears. It turns grey every time I move the 
mouse pointer over the ardesia sidebar and back to screen, as long as "Insert 
Text" tool is selected.

I'll see if is possible avoid or minimize the initial flickering.
This is not a metacity issue but a common minor problem.

When using the "Insert Text" tool it's not a flickering, but the screen turns 
grey and stays like this until I click anywhere.