Ubuntu Alt-Right click to resize
I recently moved my laptop from a Gentoo Linux distribution to Ubuntu. This was mainly that the rebuild time was very slow and updating my laptop, with gentoo, would take hours if not days. I decided to move to a binary distribution and chose Ubuntu. There was no real reason I chose Ubuntu over any other though.
Most of the setup was easy, the only issue I found was that Ubuntu uses Alt-Middle Mouse to resize the windows. I have used xfce for years and I just couldn’t get used to this change in Ubuntu.
I did alot of searching and could not find out how to change it.
…. some hours later …
Well I finally managed to get Ubuntu to resize with Alt-Right Click (button3).
By default Ubuntu resizes with Alt-Middle Mouse Button, my laptop mouse has a very small middle mouse button. I use xfce on my other linux boxes and I wanted all the Window Managers to function the same.
I tried installing the CompizConfig Settings Manager. I then disabled the Window Menu which was using Alt-Button 3 and went to the resize window setting and made that Alt-Button3. This seemed to be ok, until I tested it. The Alt-Button 3 was still showing the Window Menu.
I tried disabling the Window Menu totally, but the settings simply wouldnt stay.
After a bit of searching I found this.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compizconfig-settings-manager/+bug/146736
where it says:
open ccsm, go to Preferences, and if gconf is selected as a back-end, then make sure that the checkbox “Enable integration into the desktop environment” is unchecked.
Now you change change the bindings.
I’m not 100% what the “Enable integration into the desktop environment” checkbox provides, but everything seems to work ok with this checkbox disabled.
Also see http://wiki.compiz.org/CCSM#Backends_and_Integration
This workaround only works when you have the visual affects no though. If you turn off the visual affect then compiz isnt controlling the right click any more and it goes straight back to opening the Window Menu.
I’m still trying to get the window manager to resize on right click without the visual effects being enabled. If anyone know, please let me know.
May 13th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
This issue has been fixed by a user-submitted patch under Ubuntu bug #207065 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/207065). I can confirm that the patch fixes the Compiz “desktop integration” problem with respect to the “/apps/metacity/general/resize_with_right_button” Metacity gconf setting on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (compiz 0.8.4-0ubuntu15 and compizconfig-backend-gconf 0.8.4-0ubuntu2 [+patch]).
I had problems cloning from the git repository using the instructions in bug #207065, so I followed the direction in comment #29 (by the submitter of the patch) and used “apt-get source compizconfig-backend gconf” instead as the first step, after which all the other steps in comment #25.
Hope this helps somebody. This ranks fairly high on the search results for “ubuntu compiz right click resize window,” which is why I’m leaving this breadcrumb here for others to follow.
I think I’ve been waiting about four years for this bug to get fixed. Now I can finally use Compiz comfortably on an everyday basis. Yay!
May 13th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Er, should say “apt-get source compizconfig-backend-gconf”. Oops.
June 13th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
gconf-editor -> apps -> metacity -> general -> ‘resize_with_right_button’
to get the behavior without compiz.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:28 am
@teifi: Thank you very much …
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:14 am
@teifi: Thanks!
Why did it take an hour or more to find this? One thing is that they changed a very common UI default, but why is it so hard to find and change the setting?
April 5th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
GOD! Thank you SO MUCH!!! I was trying to figure out some workaround to this problem for more than an year. thanks! 😀
June 7th, 2011 at 12:23 am
As a follow-on breadcrumb:
“Enable integration into the desktop environment” must still be disabled in ubuntu 11.04 (compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2), otherwise changing the window resize mouse binding has no effect.
When I unchecked this, it prevented me from using “window focus on mouse over”, which I use _a_lot_.
compiz really is an unmanageable mish mash of interacting configs 8-(
thanks for the tip though!