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Elysium
Asked: 2013-01-17 13:57:57 +0800 CST

How come all my window buttons are right aligned, but chrome buttons are on the left?

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I am wondering why chrome close/maximize buttons are aligned to the left while all the buttons are aligned to the right. The truth is that the chrome buttons are right aligned too when in the chrome settings I tick "use system title bar and borders". But since I dont want the borders, I unticked this option and the buttons got aligned to the other (left-hand) side.

Does anyone know why this is? By the way, I am using cinnamon interface on Ubuntu 12.04.

google-chrome

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Chrome draws its own buttons rather than letting the OS do it. There is a setting that allows it to use native window titlebars, but this isn't the most elegant solution to the problem because you lose the benefit (when windowed) of Chrome not having extra space for the titlebar.

    Chrome guesses which side to put the buttons on based on various Gnome-related settings, but this doesn't always work properly with Ubuntu's Unity interface.

    This article tells how to move them to the desired side. Note that if you sometimes use Gnome-shell rather than Unity, this has the potential to affect how all title bars appear in your Gnome-shell sessions.

    To quote:

    To move window buttons of Google Chrome to the right under Ubuntu 12.10 or older, open the terminal and issue this command:

    gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string ":minimize,maximize,close"
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  2. In the settings from Google Chrome, in Appearance, you have to choose GTK+theme. You also have to enable 'Use system title bar and borders.' To make it work, you have to logout, and login.

    Now you can test it with the Unity Tweak Tool (You can download that program from the Ubuntu Software Center).

    In Unity Tweak Tool, choose Window Controls. Change Alignment from Left to Right, or from Right to Left. The title bar form Google Chrome will change immediately.

    The reason why it works, I guess, is because by default Google Chrome doesn't call the gtk-window-decorator that comes with the Compiz window manager. If you install the CompizConfig Settings Manager (from the Ubuntu Software Center), you will see that the Windows Decoration module uses the program /usr/bin/gtk-window-decorator.

    So, this works problaby only when you're running a default Ubuntu 13.04 setup. That means: the Compiz window manager and a GTK+ enabled theme (Ambiance for example).

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  3. Choose The GTK+ Theme in chrome Just right click on the title bar and choose GTK+ Theme.

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