Thursday, December 10, 2009

Maximus and Chromium

I know I said I wasn't supporting Ubuntu Netbook Remix on the site for Karmic but this fix is pretty important so I'll bend the rules a bit.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix users are installing Chromium and finding that maximus doesn't work properly. Chromium instances are not being created or launching maximized.

chrome_title
- Chromium by default uses a slick interface that doesn't use a title bar (compact boarders). This is what is inhibiting maximus. To fix this you need to tell Chromium to use system title bar and borders.

Click the wrench and select Options.
wrench_options
- in the options menu under the Personal Stuff tab
- check the Use system title bar and borders box

Due to the Mini's screen size you may not be able to see the option on the bottom of the window. It's directly below the Use GTK Theme button. You may not be able to see it but you should be able to click it. Depending on your personal setup you should be able to move the window by using you mouse while holding the alt key. Try turning off compiz or disabling y-constraint.

This also works for Google Chrome, but big boys and girls use Chromium. Now we just have to bug the Chromium developers to show netbooks some love and allow for the Options menu to be properly resized and moved when used on a small screen.


Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
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3 comments:

Unknown said...

On 9.04 "user system title bar..." adds an extra title bar to the top. I submitted a bug, it looks like things are different for 9.10, but they didn't make the changes they said they would.

I also submitted another bug, which they think is not a problem. Full screen does not allow browsing, even with gnome's full screen mode. This, plus a scrolling bug and the frustrating triple click omnibar select are really making chrome a pain right now on Linux.

I'm a huge Chrome fan and I've been using it since it came out in both windows and Linux. Kind of Ironic that now they are in Beta(on Linux) and there are more bugs then in Alpha.

Unknown said...

i use ctrl-L to select the omnibar.

melipone said...

Adding the system menu bar takes up more screen real estate, so I would prefer not to have this enabled and use the chromium controls which are integrated into the tab bar. By adding the -start-maximized command to my chromium launcher I don't have to re-maximize each time either.

Also, users might find it quicker to use tab and the up/down arrows to select the option, rather than messing around with the y axis controls. :)

Thanks for not totally abandoning the UNR, once again another excellent article for the site.