Bug#939926: gnome-shell: Window screen and workspace locations forgotten when working with an external monitor

Fri Aug 30 09:47:24 BST 2019

Package: gnome-shell
Version: 3.30.2-9
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

the window placement on my external screen is not remembered when I unplug and suspend my
laptop.

I upgraded from Debian stretch to buster. I'm using a laptop with a plain
Gnome desktop. At home, I use just the laptop, but at work I plug in an external
screen which I set as the primary display (i.e. it gets the menu bar and workspaces).

I leave most of my windows open when I go home; I simply detach the screen and
suspend the laptop. When I come in the next day and re-attach the external screen,
it is correctly positioned and set as the primary display again, but none of the
application windows are placed back in their original position. They are all piled
on top of one another on the laptop screen (now secondary screen).

I typically keep each application on its own workspace. Before the upgrade this used
to work smartly; applications that were running the day before would end up on their
own workspace. After the upgrade, the window position is remembered only when the
laptop has not been suspended in the mean time.

A simple test to replicate:

1. set up laptop with Debian buster and Gnome 3 desktop
2. attach external screen
3. configure external display to be the primary
4. launch an application. Place on primary display.
5. Detach screen.
6. Reattach screen.
7. Observe position of application window.

If between steps 5 and 6 a suspend an wake up the laptop, the observed position of
the application reverts to the laptop rather than the external screen.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-5-rt-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=nl_NL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=nl_NL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=nl_NL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gnome-shell depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend]  0.30.1-2
ii  evolution-data-server                        3.30.5-1
ii  gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0                   0.6.45-2
ii  gir1.2-atspi-2.0                             2.30.0-7
ii  gir1.2-freedesktop                           1.58.3-2
ii  gir1.2-gcr-3                                 3.28.1-1
ii  gir1.2-gdesktopenums-3.0                     3.28.1-1
ii  gir1.2-gdm-1.0                               3.30.2-3
ii  gir1.2-geoclue-2.0                           2.5.2-1
ii  gir1.2-glib-2.0                              1.58.3-2
ii  gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0                    3.28.2-3
ii  gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0                      3.30.2.1-2
ii  gir1.2-gtk-3.0                               3.24.5-1
ii  gir1.2-gweather-3.0                          3.28.2-2
ii  gir1.2-ibus-1.0                              1.5.19-4
ii  gir1.2-mutter-3                              3.30.2-7
ii  gir1.2-nm-1.0                                1.14.6-2
ii  gir1.2-nma-1.0                               1.8.20-1.1
ii  gir1.2-pango-1.0                             1.42.4-7~deb10u1
ii  gir1.2-polkit-1.0                            0.105-25
ii  gir1.2-rsvg-2.0                              2.44.10-2.1
ii  gir1.2-soup-2.4                              2.64.2-2
ii  gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0                        0.99.10-1
ii  gjs                                          1.54.3-1
ii  gnome-backgrounds                            3.30.0-1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                        3.30.2-3
ii  gnome-shell-common                           3.30.2-9
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                    3.28.1-1
ii  libatk-bridge2.0-0                           2.30.0-5
ii  libatk1.0-0                                  2.30.0-2
ii  libc6                                        2.28-10
ii  libcairo2                                    1.16.0-4
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                           0.30-7
ii  libcanberra0                                 0.30-7
ii  libcroco3                                    0.6.12-3
ii  libecal-1.2-19                               3.30.5-1
ii  libedataserver-1.2-23                        3.30.5-1
ii  libgcr-base-3-1                              3.28.1-1
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                           2.38.1+dfsg-1
ii  libgirepository-1.0-1                        1.58.3-2
ii  libgjs0g                                     1.54.3-1
ii  libglib2.0-0                                 2.58.3-2
ii  libglib2.0-bin                               2.58.3-2
ii  libgstreamer1.0-0                            1.14.4-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                                   3.24.5-1
ii  libical3                                     3.0.4-3
ii  libjson-glib-1.0-0                           1.4.4-2
ii  libmutter-3-0                                3.30.2-7
ii  libnm0                                       1.14.6-2
ii  libpango-1.0-0                               1.42.4-7~deb10u1
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0                          1.42.4-7~deb10u1
ii  libpolkit-agent-1-0                          0.105-25
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                        0.105-25
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0                      12.2-4
ii  libpulse0                                    12.2-4
ii  libsecret-1-0                                0.18.7-1
ii  libstartup-notification0                     0.12-6
ii  libsystemd0                                  241-5
ii  libx11-6                                     2:1.6.7-1
ii  libxfixes3                                   1:5.0.3-1
ii  mutter                                       3.30.2-7
ii  python3                                      3.7.3-1

Versions of packages gnome-shell recommends:
ii  bolt                  0.7-2
ii  chrome-gnome-shell    10.1-5
ii  gdm3                  3.30.2-3
ii  gkbd-capplet          3.26.1-1
ii  gnome-control-center  1:3.30.3-1
ii  gnome-user-docs       3.30.2-1
ii  iio-sensor-proxy      2.4-2
ii  switcheroo-control    1.2-2
ii  unzip                 6.0-23

Versions of packages gnome-shell suggests:
ii  gir1.2-telepathyglib-0.12   0.24.1-2
ii  gir1.2-telepathylogger-0.2  0.8.2-3

-- no debconf information