This sounds vaguely similar to bug 217454. The error window in sane is somewhat minimally decorated. In particular, the error window stays behind other windows.
Here is my metacity info: -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable APT prefers testing APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-20050221 Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) Versions of packages metacity depends on: ii gconf2 2.10.1-2 GNOME configuration database syste ii libatk1.0-0 1.10.1-2 The ATK accessibility toolkit ii libc6 2.3.5-6 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an ii libgconf2-4 2.10.1-2 GNOME configuration database syste ii libglib2.0-0 2.8.0-1 The GLib library of C routines ii libgtk2.0-0 2.6.10-1 The GTK+ graphical user interface ii libice6 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 Inter-Client Exchange library ii libmetacity0 1:2.10.3-2 Common library of lightweight GTK2 ii liborbit2 1:2.12.2-3 libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB ii libpango1.0-0 1.8.2-1 Layout and rendering of internatio ii libpopt0 1.7-5 lib for parsing cmdline parameters ii libsm6 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System Session Management ii libstartup-notification0 0.8-1 library for program launch feedbac ii libx11-6 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System protocol client li ii libxext6 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System miscellaneous exte ii libxinerama1 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System multi-head display ii libxrandr2 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System Resize, Rotate and ii libxrender1 1:0.9.0-2 X Rendering Extension client libra ii sgml-base 1.26 SGML infrastructure and SGML catal ii xlibs 6.8.2.dfsg.1-7 X Window System client libraries m metacity recommends no packages. -John Marter
