Minimized apps dissapear

[Duncan]

Bob Stia posted on Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:10:47 -0400 as excerpted:

> Hello KDE3 people,
> 
> I posted this on openSUSE KDE and did not get one single response. So I
> am going to try here for a broader user group.
>  
>  I'm running KDE3 on openSUSE 11.3. A strange thing has popped up on my
>  desktop. If I minimize an application it does not show up in the
>  taskbar. It
> just dissapears. I have 4 virtual desktops which I can choose from  on
> the
>  taskbar.
>  
>  I have been trying things in Personal Settings but don't know if that
>  caused
> it. I have been going over settings for hours without any luck at
> finding the
>  solution.  The app is not closing because if I mouse-over a window
>  (pager) in
> the task bar it shows the app name on that desktop. But opening the
> corresponding desktop it does not show the opened app. This condition
> happens whether the taskbar shows permanently or hidden.
>  
>  Ideas, solutions?

I probably don't have to tell you that kde3's going to be getting tougher 
and tougher to find support for... especially on the kde lists, since kde 
itself dropped kde3 support over a year ago, now (despite the very visible 
pledge by asegio as a kde spokesperson that support would remain available 
as long as there were users... not from kde, it hasn't!).  The active 
support lists/forums/etc are going to be the ones for your distro, 
assuming it's still supported (I don't know the status of openSuSE 11.3 vs 
other versions, maybe it's an LTS with support for quite some time yet, 
maybe not), and/or the ones for the continuing kde3 project, I forgot what 
it's calling itself now, but it's in the process of a rename to reflect 
the fact of the fork off of the last official kde3 version...

But that isn't to say that you're totally out of luck, here, just that it 
might not be sufficient, and it's likely to continue to get worse as the 
distance in time from supported status lengthens.  With that as a 
disclaimer, plus this, I'm running kde4 now and have been for over a year 
now, so this is from memory...

What happens if you use the keyboard app-switching shortcut (normally alt-
tab)?  That has always (kde3 and kde4) worked to bring minimized apps back 
up, for me.  In fact, I've been running without a taskbar for years, 
probably since kde 3.4 at least, and definitely in 3.5 before 4.x, and 
have used alt-tab switching, or the window list (which I had set to IIRC 
middle-click on the desktop, plus had a window-list icon on one of my 
panels, in kde3), in place of a taskbar.

Of course, the next question then is what about the window list, noting 
that as I recall from kde3, both it and the alt-tabbing can be configured 
to only switch apps on the same desktop, or among all on all desktops, 
depending on how you have prefs set.

Either of those should let you switch to it, if indeed it's simply 
minimized.

A couple other possibilities (that apply to both later kde3.5 and kde4):

Perhaps you have (somehow) configured window transparency to 90+% 
transparent (10-% opacity), and the window's not actually minimized, but 
simply transparent enough you're not seeing it.  I don't know how it might 
have happened, unless perhaps you have someone that might have played a 
prank on you...

Similarly, check the window rules (special window/app settings, in the 
window menu for an app, or IIRC in kcontrol as well).  Check at least for 
three things: transparency, force-minimize (forced minimized would mean it 
won't come back to normal even if you switch to it, as the force minimize 
would immediately force it back minimized... which almost sound like it 
might be what's happening, actually), and also for strange forced-
position, that would perhaps put the app off-screen (if you have a 
1920x1080 monitor with top-left at 0,0, and the window rule forces it to 
position top left at say 0, 1200...).

Hopefully one of those suggestions will help...

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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