10.04, Java 6 update 24 has removed windows title bars from most windows in desktop

[Tarhawk]

I am a ubuntu novice.
I am running 10.04 LTS on a Lenova laptop. Run´s fine. Yesterday upgraded firefox and upgraded Java 6 from update 20 to update 24 so that I could use the Zotero bibiliographic program in FF. After the upgrade and restart, the windows title bar that includes minimize, maximize and close buttons has disappeared from all windows that I open except google chrome. If I open and app, or FF, or the dvd player, title bar is gone. I have noticed that Java updates have caused similar problems before but none of the prescribed steps seems to have changed my system
I am pretty certain this is related to the Java update. Appreciate the help.

[An Sanct]

Welcome to the forums!

For starters, try to restart metacity, in terminal or Alt+F2 type "metacity"

If that helps, note, that it will only help until the next restart!

So if it helped, set metacity to be the default in terminal execute this "metacity --replace &" without the quotes.

[Tarhawk]

The metacity option did not seem to work. Problem persists in all program windows besides chrome (which is kind of strange too me).

[An Sanct]

My guess is, that chrome has "his own" buttons.

If the metacity clue did not help, try researching other windows decorators you may have (compiz, etc...)

[Krytarik]

Actually, you need to run

metacity --replace
via the Alt+F2 dialog, instead of just "metacity".

[Tarhawk]

I have tried both metacity, and metacity -- replace with no change to my system. An Sact mentioned windows decorator compiz, which I do run. I tried fooling around with some of the compiz settings and could not correct the problem.

[Krytarik]

Weird that those command doesn't work.

Please check "~/.xsession-errors" for error messages.

Also, check if the "Window Decoration" plugin of Compiz is enabled, and reset its options.

If that doesn't help either, try running this command via the Alt+F2 dialog:

gtk-window-decorator --replace

[Tarhawk]

So the first two prescriptions did not change anything. I applied the code and windows title bar with all the buttons returned. Thank You so much for the help. For my own edification I am curious why it worked (as I am a linux novice), was this related to the Java update, is this something I will have to continue dealing with as i update programs in the future? Just Curious, and thanks again for the help.
gtk-window-decorator --replace

[Krytarik]

IMO the issue is completely unrelated to the update of the Java packages, but there may have been another package/s updated at the same time, which may have caused the issue.

Do you see any related error messages in the mentioned log file?

Also, this is not fixed yet, if we don't really fix it, you would have to run those command each time after login.

[Tarhawk]

Do you see any related error messages in the mentioned log file?

I must be doing something wrong, as I am new to linux. I ran the error message code that you provided in the terminal and it denied permission: ¨bash: /home/ben/.xsession-errors: Permission denied¨. that is what it spit out at me. I imagine I was supposed to run the code in the terminal? I appreciate your time and help.

[Krytarik]

Like I said, it's a log file, not a command, simply open it with the text editor.