windows maximize to full screen and bottom hides behind the panel

Question

I have one monitor above another. I would like to have a panel at the top of the bottom monitor and another at the bottom of the top monitor.

Putting the panels in place works as expected. However, when the panels are on the edge of a screen that butts up against another screen, space is not reserved for the panel when maximizing windows. So, if I try and maximize Firefox, I can't see the "addons" bar at the bottom.

I have tested this in both kubuntu and xubuntu with similar results. I found a bug for KDE that describes the problem and a comment says:

panels in between monitors are not supported, and this is a limitation in the freedesktop specification for reserving space for things like panels.

There is another forum posts that talks some about this:

http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=102303

Is there any way to get the limitation in the specification addressed and/or are there any workarounds to make the applications maximize without being behind the panels?

Solution 1

how about this:

Settings Manager -> Panel -> Display -> Uncheck "Don't reserve space on borders"

Solution 2

Easy fix in Xubuntu 12.04 (you didn't say which edition you're using):

Right-click on the panel, select Properties (make sure it's panel properties rather than one of the launchers or applets on the panel_), then click the Appearance tab. Opacity should be set to 100.

If panels are set to "vanish" when not mousing over them, then open windows will go right over the "invisible" panel. Use the settings screen to keep the panel visible.

Solution 3

In ubuntu, you can reserve space for your panels with xprop, using the _NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL property (the reserved space is called strut). The idea is to get the ID of your panel window with xwininfo, and feed it together with the desired coordinates into xprop -set. If this answer seems to work for you, you can check out my blogpost for a detailed how-to and more info on using xprop.

Comments

[Randy Syring]

Thanks for the input, but I don't think you fully grasp the problem.

[Admin]

this is the correct answer, helped me :)