Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ubuntu Window Border Thickness

When I use Ubuntu on a high-resolution monitor or on a laptop (which is appx. 100% of the time), I have difficulty clicking the border of a window to resize. Apparently, I'm not alone and this has been a standing issue for years. It seems to me that it would be trivial for them to add a configuration option under "Appearance Preferences"/"Theme"/"Customize..."/"Window Border" for frame/border thickness. But, it doesn't exist yet. However, if you don't mind editing XML, the above bug describes how to make the necessary change (at least for the default, Human, theme; it looks like changing other themes would be similar). Here's the process:

  • Edit the XML config: sudo emacs /usr/share/themes/Human/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml
  • Increase the values for left_width, right_width and bottom_height.
  • Restart the window manager (e.g. by logging out and back in)
I increased the values from "3" to "5".

Update (10/26/10): You'll also want to increase left_titlebar_edge and right_titlebar_edge to the same value. Also, AFAICT it's not possible to change the top/titlebar border. This is a bit of a pain since I frequently try to grab the top border for resizing.

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