No way to 'unmaximise' window

[ukch]

When maximising a window using this plugin, the window icons disappear, which means that for most applications it is now impossible to unmaximise or otherwise resize the window.

One option (I don't know if this is possible) would be to add window icons to the right of the menu bar. This is what Firefox (which has its own built-in method of hiding the title bar) does.

[ukch]

Here's a screenshot of Firefox's native behaviour:

[wilfm]

You should be able to use the keyboard shortcuts to resize windows:

It should also be possible to resize the window by dragging on the panel to move the window.

The firefox interface is customizable -most programs don't allow this and also patching every program would be painful. I did suggest the windows buttons extension at gnome shell extensions, but I don't think this has been updated since 3.8. Which version of gnome she'll are you using?

[ukch]

Thanks for the advice - I wasn't aware that I could drag the panel like that. Now if only I could double-click the panel to unmaximise the current window... That looks like a cool extension too, but shame it's so out of date (I'm using 3.14, by the way).

[zazy]

You can also try this: keep the ALT key pressed and click with your mouse anywhere on the maximized window. The cursor will become a "fist grabbing the window". Now move the mouse and the window will restore its previous size. I prefer this method because it will not force you to take away your hand from the mouse.

[ukch]

@zazy that doesn't seem to work for me (although I remember using it in the past). Any idea where that alt-drag behaviour is set?

[zazy]

@ukch You can see which is the modifier for your mouse using dconf-editor (you can launch it from a terminal or from Alt+F2 -> dconf-editor -> (press enter). Expand the tree on the left side so that you can reach the org -> gnome -> desktop -> wm -> preferences schema. On the right side, now, search for the key "mouse-button-modifier". Here you can set the mouse modifier for window click actions. Mine is set to "<Alt>" (without quotes) .

P.S.: You need the dconf-editor package to be installed :) P.P.S.: If you prefer, you can use the gsettings command-line tools. With it you can: see the current setting: gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier

set the Alt key modifier: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier "<Alt>"

[a-m-s]

The default key is not ALT, it's "super", a.k.a. the "windows key".

[zazy]

@a-m-s noone told that ALT is the default key. It's distribution dependent. On a new Suse, for example, there is no value set.

[a-m-s]

@zazy Super been the default in Gnome since 3.5: https://wiki.gnome.org/Design/OS/KeyboardShortcuts

I'm sorry to hear some distributions have broken the defaults.

[warrenguy]

You could use the Window Buttons extension which should do exactly what you suggest: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/426/window-buttons/

However the version on gnome.org is old and doesn't support 3.14. Here's one that does: https://github.com/danielkza/Gnome-Shell-Window-Buttons-Extension

[wilfm]

@warrenguy Wow thanks works here :) ^{Top right of picture}

(For those that don't know) You can install it by downloading the zip from: https://github.com/danielkza/Gnome-Shell-Window-Buttons-Extension/archive/master.zip Then extract the window_buttons@biox.github.com folder in it to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/window_buttons@biox.github.com, restart the shell ((by default Alt+F2, enter r and press enter) and turn on 'Window Buttons' in Gnome Tweak Tool ((settings can also then be adjusted in Tweak tool by clicking the options icon)*

I probably should direct people to this in this extensions description - and if @danielkza (or me (or even integrate some of its functionality back into this one)) could upload the updated extension to https://extensions.gnome.org/ that would be great (probably could also update the README and other stuff, but it works :) - I could also then count this issue as closed.

[ukch]

I can enable it, but it doesn't seem to work for me, even after I log back in (I'm on Debian Sid). Any way I can debug the extension to see if there's any error messages?

[wilfm]

Works happily on Fedora 21 x64 Gnome 3.14 ... Can't access it at the moment but http://stackoverflow.Com/q/14540012 may help there.

[danielkza]

It works for me on Fedora 21 and GNOME 3.14 as @wilfm mentioned. That's where I tested the fixes in. Don't know if there are any others needed, but unless Sid is running a GNOME 3.15 preview it shouldn't be different.

[wilfm]

@ukch If you are running gnome 3.15, you may need to edit the second line in metadata.json to include 3.15 (or whatever your version is) and restart the shell. You can check your version with gnome-shell --version.

[ukch]

Nope. Gnome 3.14.2. It doesn't refuse to switch on or anything, it just silently doesn't do anything.