Problems with the window flashing and going away

Support Graphics & Display
1

Hi, I’m a Java programmer by trade and at work use a Windows PC but my wife and I recently took the leap and I installed Manjaro on my home laptop and my wife’s laptop. You guys have been great to fix all of my other problems so I’m down to this one.

The easiest way to to reproduce this is:

  1. For my wife to open a window on her laptop such that the window doesn’t cover the entire screen.
  2. Then she moves the cursor outside of the window so that it is on the background.
  3. Then use 2 fingers to move the cursor up and down over the background and the window that the cursor isn’t on flashes and shortly disappears.

Now I know this isn’t something that one would normally want to do and it was found by accident but since it is a problem we were hoping to get it fixed.

Any ideas?

2

Are you using KDE?

When you say “disappears” does that mean the window is closed or does it get minimized?

You could check the gestures in the KDE settings (in case you are using KDE)

3

Please run the following command on your wife’s laptop and post the output here. Ensure that the pasted text is correctly formatted as code by either highlighting it and selecting the </> button at the top of the text input area, or by typing 3 backticks ``` on blank lines before and after the pasted inxi output:

inxi -zv8
4

If you are using KDE Plasma, then moving the cursor over the task manager entry preview of an open and non-minimized application will highlight the application’s window and hide all other windows.

The effect can be enabled or disabled by right-clicking a task manager entry and choosing “Configure icons-only task manager”. In the settings applet that will come up then, the second checkbox from the top reads “Hide other windows while hovering over previews”.

You can activate or deactivate it. Normally it comes activated by default in a freshly created user account, but as of Plasma 6.4, it’ll be deactivated by default because it was discovered that the flashing effect can trigger seizures in people afflicted with epilepsy.

5

She is using Manjaro Xfce. When I say the window disappears. I mean, for instance, if she has a browser only open and it doesn’t take up the entire screen. Then she scrolls with 2 fingers, the browser disappears from the screen and it is no longer in the panel like it is an open app. Then scroll again with 2 fingers and the browser reappears and is back in the bottom like it is an open app.

6

You didn’t say to run it as super user so I didn’t, and here is the output:

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.34-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.1.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64
    root=UUID=a28b855e-5b0c-4606-9b64-017f29a5d7fc rw quiet splash apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.48 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0
    with: xfce4-panel tools: xfce4-screensaver vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Laptop 14-ep0xxx v: Type1ProductConfigId
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 8B2B v: 49.16 serial: <superuser required>
    part-nu: 7G878UA#ABA uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: F.06
    date: 10/19/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 41.5/41.5 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 12.9 min: 11.2 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion
    serial: <filter> status: full cycles: 58
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 16 GiB available: 15.34 GiB used: 4.62 GiB (30.1%)
  Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
  Array-1: capacity: 64 GiB slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
    max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: Bottom-slot 1(left) type: DDR4 detail: synchronous size: 8 GiB
    speed: 3200 MT/s volts: curr: 1 width (bits): data: 64 total: 64
    manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M471A1K43EB1-CWE serial: <filter>
  Device-2: Bottom-slot 2(right) type: DDR4 detail: synchronous size: 8 GiB
    speed: 3200 MT/s volts: curr: 1 width (bits): data: 64 total: 64
    manufacturer: Samsung part-no: M471A1K43EB1-CWE serial: <filter>
PCI Slots:
  Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U bits: 64 type: MST AMCP
    arch: Raptor Lake level: v3 note: check built: 2022+ process: Intel 7 (10nm)
    family: 6 model-id: 0xBA (186) stepping: 3 microcode: 0x4128
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 4 cores: 10 threads: 12 mt: 2 tpc: 2
    st: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 928 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB, 2x48 KiB; i-2x32
    KiB, 8x64 KiB L2: 6.5 MiB desc: 2x1.2 MiB, 2x2 MiB L3: 12 MiB
    desc: 1x12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 400 min/max: 400/5000:3700 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 400 2: 400 3: 400 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 400
    8: 400 9: 400 10: 400 11: 400 12: 400 bogomips: 62688
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_lbr arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx_vnni bmi1 bmi2
    bts clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8
    de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority
    flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni hfi ht hwp hwp_act_window
    hwp_epp hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ibt ida intel_pt
    invpcid lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe movdir64b movdiri
    msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
    pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdpid rdrand rdseed
    rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep serialize sha_ni smap smep smx split_lock_detect
    ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc
    tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq umip user_shstk vaes vme vmx
    vnmi vpclmulqdq vpid waitpkg x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves
    xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling mitigation: Clear Register File
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB:
    conditional; PBRSB-eIBRS: SW sequence; BHI: BHI_DIS_S
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel alternate: xe arch: Xe process: Intel 7 (10nm)
    built: 2022+ ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:a7a1 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Luxvisions Innotech HP True Vision HD Camera driver: uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 3-2:2
    chip-ID: 30c9:008e class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.18 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0
    note: <missing: xdpyinfo/xrandr>
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x0b0e built: 2022 res: 1920x1080
    dpi: 158 gamma: 1.2 chroma: red: x: 0.592 y: 0.349 green: x: 0.329 y: 0.557
    blue: x: 0.153 y: 0.118 white: x: 0.314 y: 0.329
    size: 309x174mm (12.17x6.85") diag: 355mm (14") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  EDID-Warnings: 1: parse_edid: unknown flag 3 2: parse_edid: unknown tag
    112
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris platforms: device: 0 drv: iris
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: iris surfaceless: drv: iris x11: drv: iris
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 25.1.4-arch1.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (RPL-U)
    device-ID: 8086:a7a1 memory: 14.98 GiB unified: yes
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings x11: xprop
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl alternate: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs,
    snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51ca class-ID: 0401
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.34-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.4.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8852BE PCIe 802.11ax Wireless Network
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtw89_8852be v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:b852
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth Radio driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 1.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 3-10:3 chip-ID: 0bda:b85c
    class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 4 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 79.59 GiB (16.7%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD PC
    SN740 SDDPNQD-512G-2006 size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: HPS1 temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 476.64 GiB size: 468.09 GiB (98.21%)
    used: 79.59 GiB (17.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
    label: N/A uuid: a28b855e-5b0c-4606-9b64-017f29a5d7fc
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 320 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: N/A
    uuid: 764C-23A5
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 20 Gb/s (2.33 GiB/s) lanes: 2 mode: 3.2 gen-2x2 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-2:2 info: Luxvisions Innotech HP True Vision HD Camera
    type: video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 3 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 30c9:008e class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 3-10:3 info: Realtek Bluetooth Radio type: bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 1.0 speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 power: 500mA chip-ID: 0bda:b85c class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 10 Gb/s (1.16 GiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-2x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 1343 pm: pacman pkgs: 1324 libs: 387 tools: pamac pm: flatpak
    pkgs: 8 pm: snap pkgs: 11
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://mirrors2.manjaro.org/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://mirrors.manjaro.org/repo/stable/$repo/$arch
Processes:
  CPU top: 5 of 298
  1: cpu: 4.6% command: telegram-desktop pid: 4461 mem: 1391.5 MiB (8.8%)
  2: cpu: 1.9% command: Xorg pid: 994 mem: 129.5 MiB (0.8%)
  3: cpu: 1.5% command: brave pid: 43394 mem: 301.1 MiB (1.9%)
  4: cpu: 1.2% command: brave pid: 43354 mem: 463.7 MiB (2.9%)
  5: cpu: 1.2% command: brave pid: 43839 mem: 361.9 MiB (2.3%)
  Memory top: 5 of 298
  1: mem: 1391.5 MiB (8.8%) command: telegram-desktop pid: 4461 cpu: 4.6%
  2: mem: 463.7 MiB (2.9%) command: brave pid: 43354 cpu: 1.2%
  3: mem: 361.9 MiB (2.3%) command: brave pid: 43839 cpu: 1.2%
  4: mem: 316.1 MiB (2.0%) command: soffice.bin pid: 57802 cpu: 0.2%
  5: mem: 301.1 MiB (1.9%) command: brave pid: 43394 cpu: 1.5%
Info:
  Processes: 298 Power: uptime: 2d 23h 58m states: freeze,mem,disk
    suspend: s2idle avail: deep wakeups: 3 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown,
    reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 6.12 GiB
    services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager Init: systemd v: 257
    default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 15.1.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: xfce4-terminal
    inxi: 3.3.38
7

My laptop and my wife’s are both Xfce, with the same version and both are HP laptops. The thing is, what I have described is the behavior on her laptop but on mine the window isn’t affected and the 2 finger scrolling is ignored so it performs the behavior I would expect. Thank you for your help.

8

Got it.

I think what is happening is that she has two workspaces and by scrolling on the desktop she moves between the workspaces. In the settings there should be something called “workspaces” where you can reduce the amount of workspaces to 1.
See https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/workspaces for the documentation.

There might be a way of keeping the workspaces and deactivate the scrolling, but I don’t know how that works.
There is a setting in the “Window Manager Tweeks” in the tab called workspaces or similar. (See https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=141601).

2 Likes
9

That was exactly the problem. I had 1 workspace defined and she had 2. When I changed my laptop to have 2 workspaces I was able to recreate her problem. Then we went to her laptop and changed her setting to 1 workspace and viola, it solved the problem. Thank you so much.

2 Likes
10

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