Ubuntu – How to prevent launcher from influencing window placement

11.10unitywindow-manager

As I understand it, in Ubuntu 11.04 setting the AutoHide setting on Compiz Config – Unity (see here) not only hid the launcher but prevented the launcher from influencing window placement.

However, since updating to Ubuntu 11.10 when I open a new window it gets indented the space of the launcher. I just want new windows to open flush left. This is annoying, because I like to have two windows on my large screen, one taking up the left half of the screen and the other taking up the right half of the screen. Indenting causes them to overlap.

How can I stop Ubuntu 11.10 thinking that the launcher takes up desktop space when placing windows?

The following screen shot shows what I'm talking about. I've just opened chromium and the window is indented by the width of the launcher.

enter image description here

Best Answer

If you want all your windows to be initially placed in the top left corner, the follow settings in ccsm > Place Windows makes it work for me: in the fixed window placement tab, add an entry for Windows with fixed positions and set the type to any, x to -1, y to 48 and untick keep in workarea. It's quite a hack and the window is 1px off screen (which you'll hardly notice).

I usually use the ccsm Grid plugin to place my windows, since I normally want them side-by-side anyway i.e. Alt-Kp-4 for left tile, Alt-Kp-6 for right tile etc. Grid ignores the launcher if set to auto-hide.

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