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Accepted
Tom Granot
Asked: 2017-03-09 13:02:07 +0800 CST

Application switcher disappears behind windows

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Title says it all.

Instead of popping out in front of all the open windows, the task switcher is stuck in the back. At first, I thought it just didn't work - and then I closed some of the windows, I saw it was just kinda stuck in the back.

Screenshot of switcher behind an application window in Ubuntu 16.04

EDIT 07.12.2017: Tried the fixes in the comments and answer below, no cigar.

16.04

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I solved it by using CompizConfig Settings Manager. Go to Window Management and enable Application Switcher. By doing so I got a popup telling me that there were conflicting bindings with another plugin. Click Resolve conflicts, and set x anyway on the following dialogs.

    • 4

  2. I don't know the cause - but a reboot fixed it for me. I'm sure lighter-weight solutions must be possible.

    Looking forward to someone providing a better answer.

    • 1

  3. I've seen this issue several times, including just this morning.

    Based on the discussion here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1860967, I tried unity --replace from the command line.

    The good news is that it fixed the issue; the bad news is it's only a bit less drastic than logging out or rebooting; it immediately killed almost all my GUI apps (only gedit and the terminal window remained).

    Incidentally, there was a somewhat nonsensical message in the terminal: WARNING: This is for compatibility with other desktop interfaces please use unity without --replace.

    I have no idea what that means, or what we should type instead. But this command did put my task switcher back on top.

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