Window resizing & snapping options

[Feathers McGraw]

Hi all,

I installed Kubuntu 12.04 a few months ago and really like it, I haven't used my windows partition in ages. Learning to use it has been a lot of fun, despite some initial frustrations!

However, there's one thing left that I have been unable to find a solution for. I feel like it should be simple to fix, but I can't find an option anywhere in the settings.

When I drag and a window to the left or right of the screen and push it against the edge, it snaps to that half of the screen. I use this a lot, and think it is a great feature, but I sometimes miss the target slightly when I'm in a rush and end up with a window that only covers a top quarter of the screen, or the right/left third.

This is never what I intend... is there a way to turn off some of the options so that if I push a window into any location on the left edge, it will always snap to the left half of the screen, and never snap to any other location?

Many thanks in advance,

Feathers


Additional information:
KDE version 4.8.5
Graphics card: AMD ATI Mobility Radeon 5470
fglrx driver enabled (open source driver causes overheating)

[SteveRiley]

Looks like there's a configuration setting you can change for this:

https://projects.kde.org/projects/kd...d85f8cc57d5f5e

But you'll need to edit a text file. By default, the setting ElectricBorderCornerRatio is set to 0.25 -- which means that if your cursor is in either the top or bottom 25% of your screen, the edge snap will trigger a small window rather than tile to entire half screen.

Please open file ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc and add the following line in the [Windows] section:

ElectricBorderCornerRatio=0

Log out and log back in to KDE. Notice any change?

[Feathers McGraw]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for the reply.

I have tried that but it had no noticeable effect, I am still getting quarter-screen sized windows

Feathers

[Snowhog]

Can you take a screen shot and post?

[Feathers McGraw]

Hi Snowhog,

A screen shot of what, exactly? The windows after resizing?

Feathers

[Snowhog]

Your desktop after the resizing issue you are describing.

[Feathers McGraw]

Here you go:

[Snowhog]

Okay. Now, given the desktop screen shot, would you please describe what you did to get this?

1. You launched Chromium. What size was it? Where on the screen was it? What did you do to get it to be/look how it is in the screen shot?
2. You launched Konsole. What size was it? Where on the screen was it? What did you do to get it to be/look how it is in the screen shot?

[Feathers McGraw]

1. Chromium launched full screen, and I dragged it to somewhere in the bottom quarter of the left screen edge, causing it to snap to the bottom left quarter.

2. Konsole launched half-screen size, on the right side of the screen, and I dragged it to somewhere in the top quarter of the right screen edge, causing it to snap to the top right quarter.


Thanks,
Feathers

[Snowhog]

Looks like there's a configuration setting you can change for this:

https://projects.kde.org/projects/kd...d85f8cc57d5f5e

But you'll need to edit a text file. By default, the setting ElectricBorderCornerRatio is set to 0.25 -- which means that if your cursor is in either the top or bottom 25% of your screen, the edge snap will trigger a small window rather than tile to entire half screen.

Please open file ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc and add the following line to the end:

ElectricBorderCornerRatio=0.1

Log out and log back in to KDE. Notice any change?

Change this setting to 0.

ElectricBorderCornerRatio=0

Log out and back in. Test it on a full-screen window. It works. I just tested.

If you move the four-sided pointer directly into the exact corner positions, then the full-screen window will be quarter-size in that corner. But if you move the four-sided pointer to any other location on the left or right screen edge, then the window will be half-screen on that screen edge.

[Feathers McGraw]

Snowhog,

I just tried that, but unfortunately the problem persists.

Could I have edited the file incorrectly?

I inserted the line under the "windows" heading

Feathers

[Snowhog]

Well, that is where it goes, and where I put mine, as per Steve's instructions.

You might need to clear your users cache. Hmm.

[Feathers McGraw]

Snowhog,

Sorry for being unclear, I did put it as the last line, which happens to be under the Windows header, after a setting "IgnoreFocusStealingClasses=kio_uiserver".

When I restart and re-open the file, it has been automatically sorted so that ElectricBorderCornerRatio is now directly underneath Windows, before IgnoreFocusStealingClasses ... is this normal?

How do I clear my users cache?

Feathers

[SteveRiley]

KDE version 4.8.5

I suspect you need a newer version of KDE. According to KDE bug 308993, configuring this feature via editing the text file was working as of KDE 4.9.2. That bug report also shows that KDE 4.11 will receive a GUI option for setting this.

Change this setting to 0.

ElectricBorderCornerRatio=0

Log out and back in. Test it on a full-screen window. It works. I just tested.

Cool, thanks for testing 0. When I was reading the code, I couldn't determine for sure if that would result in a divide-by-zero error, heh. (Update: fixed my earlier post to suggest 0 rather 0.1.)

Sorry for being unclear, I did put it as the last line, which happens to be under the Windows header, after a setting "IgnoreFocusStealingClasses=kio_uiserver".

When I restart and re-open the file, it has been automatically sorted so that ElectricBorderCornerRatio is now directly underneath Windows, before IgnoreFocusStealingClasses ... is this normal?

This setting should indeed be in the [Windows] section. I should have been clearer about that in the beginning. KWin will frequently reorder items within each section of kwinrc; nothing to be concerned with here. (Update: added this detail to my earlier post.)

How do I clear my users cache?

Not necessary, as KWin always reads from kwinrc and not a cache. My suspicion is that your version of KDE is too old. Enable the backports repository and upgrade to the newest KDE.

[Feathers McGraw]

Thanks you both for your time helping with this, I really appreciate it. I've seen posts from both of you on other threads and forums in response to questions from other people that have helped me a great deal, too...so thanks again!


I've enabled the backport and am currently updating. 96 upgraded...fingers crossed it doesn't break everything

Feathers