Hi all!
Using the default Gnome desktop on Centos-6, I keep having difficulty getting the mouse pointer to lineup exactly on the edge/corner of a window when I want to resize the window. It seems that you have to have it on a line exactly one pixel in width, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to do (who, me? getting old? nah!)
Wondering if there is a gnome setting somewhere among the myriad settings that could be used to configure the accuracy with which the mouse pointer must be placed so one can grab edges of things. I've dug thru the settings in the Gnome configuration editor, but so far nothing leaps out at me.
Can anyone offer advice?
thanks!
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 09:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
Hi all!
Using the default Gnome desktop on Centos-6, I keep having difficulty getting the mouse pointer to lineup exactly on the edge/corner of a window when I want to resize the window. It seems that you have to have it on a line exactly one pixel in width, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to do (who, me? getting old? nah!)
I'm also getting old, but I don't have the problem on C-6 at all.
Wondering if there is a gnome setting somewhere among the myriad settings that could be used to configure the accuracy with which the mouse pointer must be placed so one can grab edges of things. I've dug thru the settings in the Gnome configuration editor, but so far nothing leaps out at me.
Can anyone offer advice?
Have you gone into System->Preferences->Mouse and changed some of the doohickeys there? I don't recall anything related to your problem, but it may be related to Acceleration or Sensitivity? I've set my Sensitivity to about 1/3rd off of low and acceleration to mid-range. There's an alternative if, like me, you prefer KB anyway - <Alt>-<F8>. It's drawback is it's not as fine-grained though. But for me it's really faster anyway.
thanks!
HTH, Bill
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 02:34:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 09:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
Hi all!
Using the default Gnome desktop on Centos-6, I keep having difficulty getting the mouse pointer to lineup exactly on the edge/corner of a window when I want to resize the window. It seems that you have to have it on a line exactly one pixel in width, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to do (who, me? getting old? nah!)
I'm also getting old, but I don't have the problem on C-6 at all.
Wondering if there is a gnome setting somewhere among the myriad settings that could be used to configure the accuracy with which the mouse pointer must be placed so one can grab edges of things. I've dug thru the settings in the Gnome configuration editor, but so far nothing leaps out at me.
Can anyone offer advice?
Have you gone into System->Preferences->Mouse and changed some of the doohickeys there? I don't recall anything related to your problem, but it may be related to Acceleration or Sensitivity? I've set my Sensitivity to about 1/3rd off of low and acceleration to mid-range. There's an alternative if, like me, you prefer KB anyway - <Alt>-<F8>. It's drawback is it's not as fine-grained though. But for me it's really faster anyway.
Bill:
Thanks for the reply.
I've got acceleration all the way to the slow end, sensitivity all the way to the low end, drag and drop threshold all the way to the small end, and I've tried them all at other settings, too, to no avail.
trying to grab the edge of a window feels like the grabbable region is only one pixel (or maybe one "mickey") wide and it's still hard nto place the pointer right on it. I may be getting old, but I don't have any palsy/tremor problems.
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 15:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 02:34:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 09:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
Hi all!
Using the default Gnome desktop on Centos-6, I keep having difficulty getting the mouse pointer to lineup exactly on the edge/corner of a window when I want to resize the window. It seems that you have to have it on a line exactly one pixel in width, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to do (who, me? getting old? nah!)
<snip>
Wondering if there is a gnome setting somewhere among the myriad settings that could be used to configure the accuracy with which the mouse pointer must be placed so one can grab edges of things. I've dug thru the settings in the Gnome configuration editor, but so far nothing leaps out at me.
Can anyone offer advice?
Have you gone into System->Preferences->Mouse and changed some of the
<snip>
Thanks for the reply.
I've got acceleration all the way to the slow end, sensitivity all the way to the low end, drag and drop threshold all the way to the small end, and I've tried them all at other settings, too, to no avail.
trying to grab the edge of a window feels like the grabbable region is only one pixel (or maybe one "mickey") wide and it's still hard nto place the pointer right on it. I may be getting old, but I don't have any palsy/tremor problems.
Well, that's the limit of my offerings. I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
I recall some folks mentioning something like "gnome-config" or similar and I figure that'll be my next attempt. I looked to see if there was anything in the drop-downs from "System" to see if anything else jumped out. I didn't see anything about border widths. There's a "Desktop Effects" that I don't know if that has any effect on your problem: System->Preferences->Desktop Effects. Has some text in it about 3D hardware acelleration.
You know wht? I'm thinking it's something to do with the mouse driver. Usb mouse? ISTR some "jerkiness" in that human interface stuff in the past.
One other (likely?) difference that may be making my unit better behaved. I have gpm installed so that I can C&P on text-based standard terminals (console tty). I've noticed that when X or Gnome starts up it seems aware.
You might want to try installing gpm, have it start up on boot and see if that helps. Not a true solution, but may be a work around until the true solution is found.
HTH, Bill
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 07:07:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 15:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 02:34:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 09:17 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
Hi all!
Using the default Gnome desktop on Centos-6, I keep having difficulty getting the mouse pointer to lineup exactly on the edge/corner of a window when I want to resize the window. It seems that you have to have it on a line exactly one pixel in width, and I'm finding it increasingly hard to do (who, me? getting old? nah!)
<snip>
Wondering if there is a gnome setting somewhere among the myriad settings that could be used to configure the accuracy with which the mouse pointer must be placed so one can grab edges of things. I've dug thru the settings in the Gnome configuration editor, but so far nothing leaps out at me.
Can anyone offer advice?
Have you gone into System->Preferences->Mouse and changed some of the
<snip>
Thanks for the reply.
I've got acceleration all the way to the slow end, sensitivity all the way to the low end, drag and drop threshold all the way to the small end, and I've tried them all at other settings, too, to no avail.
trying to grab the edge of a window feels like the grabbable region is only one pixel (or maybe one "mickey") wide and it's still hard nto place the pointer right on it. I may be getting old, but I don't have any palsy/tremor problems.
Well, that's the limit of my offerings. I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
in C6 it's in SYSTEM | PREFERENCES | WINDOWS there's a slider titled "interval before raising".
I recall some folks mentioning something like "gnome-config" or similar and I figure that'll be my next attempt. I looked to see if there was anything in the drop-downs from "System" to see if anything else jumped out. I didn't see anything about border widths. There's a "Desktop Effects" that I don't know if that has any effect on your problem: System->Preferences->Desktop Effects. Has some text in it about 3D hardware acelleration.
You know wht? I'm thinking it's something to do with the mouse driver. Usb mouse? ISTR some "jerkiness" in that human interface stuff in the past.
One other (likely?) difference that may be making my unit better behaved. I have gpm installed so that I can C&P on text-based standard terminals (console tty). I've noticed that when X or Gnome starts up it seems aware.
You might want to try installing gpm, have it start up on boot and see if that helps. Not a true solution, but may be a work around until the true solution is found.
HTH, Bill
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 19:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 07:07:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
<snip>
Well, that's the limit of my offerings. I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
in C6 it's in SYSTEM | PREFERENCES | WINDOWS there's a slider titled "interval before raising".
LoL! I just found it while trying to find out where another distasteful C6.6 update effect was started.
<snip>
In a nutshell, after I would terminate Firefox as part of my normal log off process, there would be another instance of Firefox left hanging around with a ppid of 1 (so it's daemonized", or as I prefer "demonized" ;-)) and using all the CPU it could get (97%-99% of a 6 core AMD in my desktop) while no Firefox windows were open. Figuring it might be saving stuff I checked back many minutes later on many days and cycles and it was always there. Moreover, when normally using Firefox I'd seen 103%, 104% CPU usage etc.
I commented out the entries that start it in Xclients and made a patch. If I see no ill effects I'll leave it in place, otherwise back to digging as to why it's there.
I'll tell ya, those folks keep going the way they are and every Windows box on the planet will be able to run circles around many of these Linux distros.
Bill
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 05:12:48PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 19:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Fri, Jan 09, 2015 at 07:07:38PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
<snip>
Well, that's the limit of my offerings. I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
in C6 it's in SYSTEM | PREFERENCES | WINDOWS there's a slider titled "interval before raising".
LoL! I just found it while trying to find out where another distasteful C6.6 update effect was started.
<snip>
In a nutshell, after I would terminate Firefox as part of my normal log off process, there would be another instance of Firefox left hanging around with a ppid of 1 (so it's daemonized", or as I prefer "demonized" ;-)) and using all the CPU it could get (97%-99% of a 6 core AMD in my desktop) while no Firefox windows were open. Figuring it might be saving stuff I checked back many minutes later on many days and cycles and it was always there. Moreover, when normally using Firefox I'd seen 103%, 104% CPU usage etc.
I commonly also find a "stray" firefox running after stopping firefox, and it isn't using a window either. it's a nuisance because, when there's a firefox update and it wants to restart the browser, it can't because there's that darn "stray" one hanging around.
like you, I have no idea where it comes from or why it's there, nor what it's doing, either.
I commented out the entries that start it in Xclients and made a patch. If I see no ill effects I'll leave it in place, otherwise back to digging as to why it's there.
please let me know how it goes, I may want to investigate doing the same.
I'll tell ya, those folks keep going the way they are and every Windows box on the planet will be able to run circles around many of these Linux distros.
Bill
Thanks!
Fred
On Sun, 2015-01-11 at 17:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 05:12:48PM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 19:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
<snip>
In a nutshell, after I would terminate Firefox as part of my normal log off process, there would be another instance of Firefox left hanging around with a ppid of 1 (so it's daemonized", or as I prefer "demonized" ;-)) and using all the CPU it could get (97%-99% of a 6 core AMD in my desktop) while no Firefox windows were open. Figuring it might be saving stuff I checked back many minutes later on many days and cycles and it was always there. Moreover, when normally using Firefox I'd seen 103%, 104% CPU usage etc.
I commonly also find a "stray" firefox running after stopping firefox, and it isn't using a window either. it's a nuisance because, when there's a firefox update and it wants to restart the browser, it can't because there's that darn "stray" one hanging around.
like you, I have no idea where it comes from or why it's there, nor what it's doing, either.
I commented out the entries that start it in Xclients and made a patch. If I see no ill effects I'll leave it in place, otherwise back to digging as to why it's there.
please let me know how it goes, I may want to investigate doing the same.
After my first restart of X, things are working well but I did see an abrt of a gnome pkg-something manager. No other ill results thus far. I ignored the abort because, based on the results of my bug filing on the X window crash (when moving between run levels 3 and 5) so far, there's no benefit to investigating and reporting it.
The patch is small so I'll attach it in case anyone else wants to give it a go right now.
<snip>
Bill
On Sun, 2015-01-11 at 17:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
<snip>
please let me know how it goes, I may want to investigate doing the same.
I sent a post with a patch, but forget to mention good results and mentioned on the abort.
Using top, Firefox CPU utilization has dropped back into normal ranges with my activity, number of open tabs, number of java stuff started, ...
Seems to hover in the 7% - 30% range and I'm having fewer "interminable delays" when refreshing, switching work spaces, etc.
<snip>
Bill
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 08:44:11AM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Sun, 2015-01-11 at 17:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
<snip>
please let me know how it goes, I may want to investigate doing the same.
I sent a post with a patch, but forget to mention good results and mentioned on the abort.
Using top, Firefox CPU utilization has dropped back into normal ranges with my activity, number of open tabs, number of java stuff started, ...
Seems to hover in the 7% - 30% range and I'm having fewer "interminable delays" when refreshing, switching work spaces, etc.
Bill:
Thanks! I saw it, will be giving it a try in the near future.
On Mon, 2015-01-12 at 08:57 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 08:44:11AM -0500, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Sun, 2015-01-11 at 17:42 -0500, Fred Smith wrote:
<snip>
please let me know how it goes, I may want to investigate doing the same.
I sent a post with a patch, but forget to mention good results and mentioned on the abort.
Using top, Firefox CPU utilization has dropped back into normal ranges with my activity, number of open tabs, number of java stuff started, ...
Seems to hover in the 7% - 30% range and I'm having fewer "interminable delays" when refreshing, switching work spaces, etc.
BTW, for Fred et al, plugin-containers is another hog. Don't know the cause and haven't found a good sustainable solution. Turning off plugins seems to help, reducing open windows in FF or tabs, ... But nothing seems permanent. there.
ATM top has 109.8% CPU and I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary, which often doesn't have this level of CPU usage but also often has this level.
Label me stumped. Bill
On 01/09/2015 06:07 PM, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
I presume you're talking about panels with "Autohide" set. If you have the GUI gconf-editor installed, it's under apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay. You can also set it from the command line:
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay 500
(The default is 300, unit is milliseconds).
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 21:02 -0600, Robert Nichols wrote:
On 01/09/2015 06:07 PM, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
I'm still trying to find the thing I used back in C5(?) that raised the panels when the mouse hovered over it for X seconds. With C6 I can't find it anymore and it switches way too fast.
I presume you're talking about panels with "Autohide" set. If you have the GUI gconf-editor installed, it's under apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay. You can also set it from the command line:
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay 500(The default is 300, unit is milliseconds).
Thanks! My terminalogy was likely not correct. I was refering to the ... "windows" for applications, which I've been calling "panels" (because they are within my virtual windows).
The ... task bar(?) works just fine with autohide. As Fred correctly divined, it was in one of the drop-downs under preferences. But I'll bet you know the CL for that too. Since I'm an old CLI guy that prefers that method, I'll be hunting starting from your hint.
Thanks for taking the time! It helps a lot.
Bill
On 01/11/2015 04:19 PM, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 21:02 -0600, Robert Nichols wrote:
I presume you're talking about panels with "Autohide" set. If you have the GUI gconf-editor installed, it's under apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay. You can also set it from the command line:
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay 500(The default is 300, unit is milliseconds).
Thanks! My terminalogy was likely not correct. I was refering to the ... "windows" for applications, which I've been calling "panels" (because they are within my virtual windows).
Oh. I've always kept auto-raise turned off. I frequently have multiple overlapping windows open, and sometimes raising the one I'm typing into would hide something I need to see. (Yes, the part I'm typing into is visible.)
The ... task bar(?) works just fine with autohide. As Fred correctly divined, it was in one of the drop-downs under preferences. But I'll bet you know the CL for that too. Since I'm an old CLI guy that prefers that method, I'll be hunting starting from your hint.
In Gnome they're called "panels." Right-click in one and you'll see, "Add to Panel," "Delete This Panel," etc. No, I don't know the CLI path for the window auto-raise delay. Heck, I only found the one I posted by searching for it in the gconf-editor GUI. I don't use that stuff anywhere near often enough to remember it, just that it's in there, somewhere.
On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 07:49:02PM -0600, Robert Nichols wrote:
On 01/11/2015 04:19 PM, Bill Maltby (C4B) wrote:
On Fri, 2015-01-09 at 21:02 -0600, Robert Nichols wrote:
I presume you're talking about panels with "Autohide" set. If you have the GUI gconf-editor installed, it's under apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay. You can also set it from the command line:
gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/panel/global/panel_show_delay 500(The default is 300, unit is milliseconds).
Thanks! My terminalogy was likely not correct. I was refering to the ... "windows" for applications, which I've been calling "panels" (because they are within my virtual windows).
Oh. I've always kept auto-raise turned off. I frequently have multiple overlapping windows open, and sometimes raising the one I'm typing into would hide something I need to see. (Yes, the part I'm typing into is visible.)
I've traditionally done that, too. but 2 or 3 years ago I decided to try it, with a 1 second delay, and found I (mostly) like it. Odd.
<snip>
On 2015-01-09, Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us wrote:
--- SNIP ---
trying to grab the edge of a window feels like the grabbable region is only one pixel (or maybe one "mickey") wide and it's still hard nto place the pointer right on it. I may be getting old, but I don't have any palsy/tremor problems.
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:12:14AM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
On 2015-01-09, Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us wrote:
--- SNIP ---
trying to grab the edge of a window feels like the grabbable region is only one pixel (or maybe one "mickey") wide and it's still hard nto place the pointer right on it. I may be getting old, but I don't have any palsy/tremor problems.
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
Which makes me wonder how one modifies a theme... there must be a special toolkit for it somewhere... ??
Am 10.01.2015 um 01:56 schrieb Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us:
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:12:14AM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
Which makes me wonder how one modifies a theme... there must be a special toolkit for it somewhere... ??
System -> Preferences -> Appearance
-- LF
On 2015-01-10, Leon Fauster leonfauster@googlemail.com wrote:
Am 10.01.2015 um 01:56 schrieb Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us:
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:12:14AM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
Which makes me wonder how one modifies a theme... there must be a special toolkit for it somewhere... ??
System -> Preferences -> Appearance
I think Fred is talking about modifying a theme in the sense of customising it.
To Fred: I'm not aware of a toolkit for the purpose. People just hack the gtkrc or xml files which comprise a theme. There are lots of examples under /usr/share/themes/.
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 01:12:27PM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
On 2015-01-10, Leon Fauster leonfauster@googlemail.com wrote:
Am 10.01.2015 um 01:56 schrieb Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us:
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:12:14AM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
Which makes me wonder how one modifies a theme... there must be a special toolkit for it somewhere... ??
System -> Preferences -> Appearance
I think Fred is talking about modifying a theme in the sense of customising it.
To Fred: I'm not aware of a toolkit for the purpose. People just hack the gtkrc or xml files which comprise a theme. There are lots of examples under /usr/share/themes/.
ah, thanks!
I found the way, as described above, to choose a different border style, which solves my immediate problem, But I'll go take a look at your suggestion, too.
thanks!
On 2015-01-10, Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us wrote:
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 01:12:27PM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
On 2015-01-10, Leon Fauster leonfauster@googlemail.com wrote:
Am 10.01.2015 um 01:56 schrieb Fred Smith fredex@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us:
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 12:12:14AM +0000, Liam O'Toole wrote:
Have you tried different window manager themes? Some of them have larger grab areas.
Which makes me wonder how one modifies a theme... there must be a special toolkit for it somewhere... ??
System -> Preferences -> Appearance
I think Fred is talking about modifying a theme in the sense of customising it.
To Fred: I'm not aware of a toolkit for the purpose. People just hack the gtkrc or xml files which comprise a theme. There are lots of examples under /usr/share/themes/.
ah, thanks!
I found the way, as described above, to choose a different border style, which solves my immediate problem, But I'll go take a look at your suggestion, too.
thanks!
I forgot to mention the "begin resize" keyboard shortcut, which is Alt-F8 by default. If you press that key combination, and then move the mouse towards a window edge or corner, the window will be resized in the corresponding direction. No need to find the narrow window border with your mouse.
-
Bill Maltby (C4B) -
Fred Smith -
Leon Fauster -
Liam O'Toole -
Robert Nichols