My windows on my Xubuntu are not acting right. The minimize/maximize/close buttons are not there at the top right. I still have the "File Edit..." etc but I can't grab and move the window. Under the menu Settings -> Window Manager nothing happens which makes me think the Window Manager is dead or sick.

I reinstalled a scattershot of XFCE packages but the problem is still there. I didn't make any recent changes to anything close to these settings so....

What packages can I reinstall? or where can I look to see what controls my window behavior?

Do you have xfwm4 installed?

Yes, I'm pretty sure I do. I just installed the freshest Xubuntu about 3 weeks ago and it has worked fine until this morning.

Try entering "xfwm4" in a terminal.

I get:

(xfwm:5420): gtk warning** cannot open display;

but I was in another terminal (ctrl-alt-f4). I will try it here but I have to close the browser... I can only have one window open at a time right now!!!

"warning - another window manager is already running"

when typed here in tty7

I did it. I typed:

xfwm4 --replace

and everything is working. But did that just replace for this session? I'd like it to work all the time,of course,so I am going to log out/in and see if that still works. What did that do?

Okay, it still works after re-booting.

Just for my own education,what did that do to type xfwm4 --replace?

It stopped the existing window manager (I have no idea what it could have been, since you say you had no window borders) and started xfwm4 (Xfce's window manager).

not only did I not have windows controls but I also had only one desktop; and any system window was 'always on top'

I had been poking around with the various systme setting control applications before it all went west

good fix - thanks

oops

no does not survive either re-boot or log off/on

re-installed xubuntu and still does this - no windows controls after a re-start unless xfwm4 --replace is issued as a command

it does NOT complete

ctrl - c and the windows go back to no controls

kill the window (file- quit) and all remains good until next re-boot

these are the errors if I issue xfwm4 --replace as root and ctrl-c so I can copy the text ! :

pete@pete-desktop:~$ sudo xfwm4 --replace
[sudo] password for pete:

(xfwm4:5103): GLib-WARNING **: (/build/buildd/glib2.0-2.32.3/./glib/gerror.c:390):g_error_new_valist: runtime check failed: (domain != 0)

(xfwm4:5103): xfwm4-WARNING **: Failed to connect to session manager: Failed to connect to the session manager: SESSION_MANAGER environment variable not defined
^Cg_dbus_connection_real_closed: Remote peer vanished with error: Underlying GIOStream returned 0 bytes on an async read (g-io-error-quark, 0). Exiting.
pete@pete-desktop:~$

this has the final bit


bingo ! not only do I get my windows back but skype behaves again (it had decided to always open instead of opening to task bar)