Bug#443933: incorrectly positions xterms

[Russ Allbery]

Package: metacity
Version: 1:2.28.0-2
Severity: normal

I wanted to give an update on this bug, since the problem has changed
somewhat with the current version of Metacity and GNOME, but hasn't gone
away completely.

The good news is that Metacity now correctly positions xterms at startup
once I log in, including using saved session information.

The remaining problem is that whenever something touches the font
configuration, Metacity repositions and resizes all of those xterms into
a stack on the top left corner and a default size.  (The xterms get
exactly the same window position; there's no tiling at all.)  As before,
killing and restarting Metacity restores the correct window position.

The problem happens during any upgrade as soon as dpkg says:

Processing triggers for fontconfig ...

That's the last thing I'll see before all of my windows are spontaneously
moved and resized.

I suspect this problem is specific to xterm (the stock version from the
xterm package), which probably doesn't provide some glue that GNOME is
expecting.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.30-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages metacity depends on:
ii  libatk1.0-0                   1.28.0-1   The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                         2.10.1-7   GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2                     1.8.8-2    The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcanberra-gtk0              0.22-1     Gtk+ helper for playing widget eve
ii  libcanberra0                  0.22-1     a simple abstract interface for pl
ii  libgconf2-4                   2.28.0-1   GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                  2.22.2-2   The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                   2.18.3-1   The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libgtop2-7                    2.28.0-2   gtop system monitoring library (sh
ii  libice6                       2:1.0.5-1  X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libmetacity-private0          1:2.28.0-2 library for the Metacity window ma
ii  libpango1.0-0                 1.26.0-1   Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libsm6                        2:1.1.1-1  X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notification0      0.10-1     library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6                      2:1.2.2-1  X11 client-side library
ii  libxcomposite1                1:0.4.0-4  X11 Composite extension library
ii  libxcursor1                   1:1.1.9-1  X cursor management library
ii  libxdamage1                   1:1.1.1-4  X11 damaged region extension libra
ii  libxext6                      2:1.0.4-1  X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxfixes3                    1:4.0.3-2  X11 miscellaneous 'fixes' extensio
ii  libxinerama1                  2:1.0.3-2  X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxrandr2                    2:1.3.0-2  X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1                   1:0.9.4-2  X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  metacity-common               1:2.28.0-2 shared files for the Metacity wind
ii  zenity                        2.28.0-1   Display graphical dialog boxes fro

Versions of packages metacity recommends:
ii  gnome-session [x-session-mana 2.28.0-4   The GNOME Session Manager

Versions of packages metacity suggests:
ii  gnome-control-center          1:2.28.1-1 utilities to configure the GNOME d
ii  gnome-themes                  2.28.1-1   official themes for the GNOME desk
pn  xdg-user-dirs                 <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information