Ubuntu: window title bar with minimize,maximize,close button keeps disappearing

Question

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 64bit, Radiance theme, nothing fancy.

A couple of times a day my window title bar with minimize,maximize,close buttons is suddenly missing (is there a name for this title bar?)

I can restart gnome like /etc/init.d/gdm restart, but I have to close all my applications then every time.

Is there a reason why this could happen?

Answer 1

They're called "window decorations". Your window manager is dying and not respawning. Running metacity --replace should get them back (although not the same ones if you happen to use a different WM by default).