The main window is not maximized in Ubuntu 24.04

Hello all,

I recently updated my OS to Ubuntu 24.04 from Ubuntu 18.04 and also upgraded to the latest version of OVITO (3.11.3).

However, I’ve encountered an issue where the main window is not maximized by default when OVITO is opened. In the previous versions I used on Ubuntu 18.04 (including OVITO 2.9.0 and 3.1.2), I think the main window was maximized by default. I’ve looked through the options but wasn’t able to find a setting to adjust the window size or the initial state.

I think in earlier versions, the OVITO config file was located at ~/.config/Ovito/Ovito.conf. However, it seems that this config file is no longer effective in the latest version since I found some self-defined combinations of modifiers are no longer present.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

I just ran some quick tests on Manjaro (a different Linux distribution), and there, storing the window’s maximized state is working as expected. When you close the window while it’s maximized, this key:

mainwindow\maximized=true

is set in .config/Ovito/Ovito.conf. The next time I open OVITO, the maximized window state is restored.

I’m currently installing Ubuntu 24 to run some tests there.

I just ran a quick test on Ubuntu 24 LTS, and after starting OVITO for the first time, a configuration file is created in ~/.config/Ovito/Ovito.conf.

Inside this file, the mainwindow\maximized=true key-value pair is present, correctly storing the maximized state.

Here are two possible reasons why the configuration might not be stored correctly on your system:

  • Permissions: Do you have the correct read and write permissions for the .config and .config/Ovito directories?
  • Environment Variable: Have you set the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable? If so, OVITO may be storing its configuration in a different location.

Hello,

Thank you very much for your reply and the quick test!

I deleted the previous ~/.config/Ovito/Ovito.conf file and started the program from the terminal. I found a new Ovito.conf file was created in the same location. After starting the program and maximizing the window, I found the value mainwindow\maximized=true in the config file. However, when I restart OVITO, the window is still not maximized.

Since a new config file was generated, I think I have the correct read and write permissions. When I ran echo $XDG_CONFIG_HOME in the terminal, the output was empty.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I’m running Ubuntu in a VM, so there may be differences in drivers or libraries that explain this behavior.

We’ve updated the window restore behavior in the upcoming OVITO 3.12 release. Hopefully, these changes will resolve the issue for you. Please let us know if the problem persists.

Hello,

Thank you for the information!

I also tried switching between the Xorg display and the Wayland display, but it seems the issue still exists.

I will try the new release later and update the situation here.