[Bug]: AlwaysOnTop is not working

[MatthijsBurgh]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a bug report that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Electron Version

v17.0.0-alpha.4

What operating system are you using?

Ubuntu

Operating System Version

Linux 5.16.8-051608-generic #202202101327-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 10 13:36:40 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

What arch are you using?

x64

Last Known Working Electron version

v17.0.0-alpha.3

Expected Behavior

Window stays always on top.
The gnome menu should indicate that "always on top" is set.

Actual Behavior

Window does not stays always on top.
The gnome menu does not indicate that "always on top" is set.

Testcase Gist URL

https://gist.github.com/69c948d4ed20768b71d6332efe61fc77

Additional Information

No response

[ckerr]

Thanks for reporting this and helping to make Electron better!

Because of time constraints, triaging code with third-party dependencies is usually not feasible for a small team like Electron's. Would it be possible for you to make a standalone testcase with only the code necessary to reproduce the issue? Electron Fiddle is a great tool for making small testcases and publishing them as gists that Electron maintainers can use.

If the bug you've found can be tested with a pass/fail test, please make the testcase exit 0 on success or nonzero on failure. The lets Electron's issue bot see what releases are affected by the bug by checking your test against different OSes and Electron versions.

I'm adding the blocked/need-repro label for this reason. After you make a test case, please link to it in a followup comment.

[MatthijsBurgh]

@ckerr I created a testcase: https://gist.github.com/69c948d4ed20768b71d6332efe61fc77

I have updated the url in the main comment.

[MatthijsBurgh]

I have done some more testing. The last working version is v17.0.0-alpha.3. And the first broken version is v17.0.0-alpha.4

[Nantris]

Possibly related, we're seeing no issues with alwaysOnTop in development with 17.0.0 but once packaged the behavior changes and the window is no longer "always on top."

The issue we're seeing in particular is related to having two windows with alwaysOnTop, and showing one of those over the other.

We're seeing this issue with KDE desktop environment.

This worked as intended in 13.6.0 - but no longer works in 17.0.0

[Nantris]

Update: Also works as intended in 16.0.0. I've been trying to find a PR that could potentially be the cause, but so far I can't find it.

16.0.9 also works as expected.

[Nantris]

Confirming our issue originated with 17.0.0-alpha.4.

The previous build, 17.0.0-alpha.3, works as expected, identically to v16, v13, and probably even further back.

Thanks @MatthijsBurgh for your investigative work!

[Nantris]

Release notes for 17.0.0-alpha.4

I don't see anything there that wasn't also updated in 16.x.x - except for upgrading the Chromium version. I sure hope the bug/behavior change isn't in Chromium itself.

[Nantris]

@ckerr could we get the blocked/need-repro tag removed from this? I think all the user-collectable data needed to diagnose this issue is now collected.

[Nantris]

It looks like possibly this is related to us using setAlwaysOnTop before show. Previously this worked, but it no longer seems to. Using show before setAlwaysOnTop seems to be a viable workaround for our situation, but very definitely there has been a behavior change between alpha.3 and alpha.4.

[MatthijsBurgh]

@ckerr friendly ping;)

[MatthijsBurgh]

@ckerr friendly ping;)

[MatthijsBurgh]

@ckerr friendly ping;)

[MatthijsBurgh]

@ckerr a little bit less friendly ping;)

[Nantris]

@ckerr I think this is no longer blocked/need-repro.