I am using GNOME in "fall back" mode. It gives me a gnome-panel and I can add a task list to this panel.
In the task list, it shows me an entry for all windows; both on-screen and minimized. If I right-click on this entry, I get a pop-up menu that allows me to select "unminimize". But if I select that entry, nothing happens. I tried installing both Cinnamon and MATE to see if maybe it had something to do with the version of GNOME or of the GNOME tools that these environments pull in. But no matter which version of GNOME that I use, the same thing happens: I can un-minimize just fine, if and only if I use the window manager that comes with GNOME (i.e. metacity, marco, or compiz). But if I switch to "awesome" nothing happens. To make matters even more confusing, if I use "xdotool windowmap", then I can restore the iconified window just fine. Of course, that's a horrible user experience, as you explained in your e-mail as well. I really need some way to trigger this action from the user interface. I wonder what that task-list in the GNOME panel does that is suddenly incompatible with awesome but that works with other window managers? I tried looking at events with "xev". When I minimize the window, it always receives these events: PropertyNotify event, serial 20, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > atom 0x137 (WM_STATE), time 27896361, state PropertyNewValue > UnmapNotify event, serial 20, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > event 0x200088a, window 0x200088a, from_configure NO > PropertyNotify event, serial 20, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > atom 0x109 (_NET_WM_STATE), time 27896361, state PropertyNewValue This happens independent of whether I press Mod-n, whether I minimize from the gnome-panel, or whether I use "xdotool". But when I try to restore the window, the events differ. If I use "xdotool" (or run with a window manager other than awesome), then these are the relevant events that I see: PropertyNotify event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > atom 0x137 (WM_STATE), time 28174332, state PropertyNewValue > MapNotify event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > event 0x200088a, window 0x200088a, override NO > PropertyNotify event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > atom 0x109 (_NET_WM_STATE), time 28174332, state PropertyNewValue > VisibilityNotify event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > state VisibilityUnobscured In the same situation, running awesome and clicking on the task list, I only ever see: PropertyNotify event, serial 21, synthetic NO, window 0x200088a, > atom 0x109 (_NET_WM_STATE), time 28217623, state PropertyNewValue Notice the absence of the change to WM_STATE. Markus