Arch Linux

ATnpG

Member

Registered: 2025-06-26

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

This issue has absolutely been driving me crazy.

In the last few days (before I updated to plasma 6.4, though the issue remains after the update), KDE (wayland) has started acting extremely weirdly with firefox:

* sometimes clicking firefox "toggles" the focus instead of setting it. Basically every time I click firefox, if it's already in focus it'll go out of focus, and if I click it again it'll go in focus. This is maddening whenever I'm just trying to get work done. I think this happens after I alt-tab, but I haven't been able to consistently replicate it. It seems to happen at random
* firefox does not appear in the pinned widgets anymore even when there's obviously active windows (such as the one I'm writing in right now)
* sometimes when I click on firefox, the click goes "through", as if the window does not exist for kde, and it ends up raising a window behind it

Can someone help me out in debugging these issues? I can't find anything online about it. At this point I'm really regretting switching to wayland...

EDIT: it's not just firefox. Remmina also has the same issue where it disappears from widgets and sometimes clicks are eaten. Also when firefox is maximized, the widget bar just sits on top and obscures part of the window. It's like kde is not recognizing that firefox exists...

Last edited by ATnpG (2025-07-01 15:02:47)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,100

Re: [SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

At this point I'm really regretting switching to wayland...

1. when did you? Does it coincide with this problem showing up?
2. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Waylan … plications & https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox#Xwayland

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

ATnpG

Member

Registered: 2025-06-26

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

Ok, this is bizarre. I ran "qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin org.kde.KWin.showDebugConsole", and it turns out only the X11 windows are displayed by the taskbar. Firefox and Remmina are wayland windows, and they are the only ones that aren't displayed on the kde taskbar even when active. Any way I can debug this further?  xorg-xwininfo does not work with firefox, which I assume means it's not a XWayland window.

And my statement about Wayland was more of a rant than a fact, sorry. I recently installed Arch + Wayland on a new laptop and I'm finding a myriad issues that I had never encountered with Xorg.

Last edited by ATnpG (2025-07-01 14:41:26)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,100

Re: [SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

The main point was whether this started w/ using wayland or whether wayland has worked before and starts to act up only now itr.
Or did it start w/ a firefox update?

only the X11 windows are displayed by the taskbar. Firefox and Remmina are wayland windows, and they are the only ones that aren't displayed on the kde taskbar

Are you saying eg. kwrite or konsole or dolphin all run on Xwayland??

Maybe wrt to your other thread we shuld take a close look on what you're actually running there…
Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

ATnpG

Member

Registered: 2025-06-26

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

I solved it! The solution was the same as with https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2249386

I had to add the following to /etc/environment:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland;xcb

After logging out and in again, it was fixed.

Last edited by ATnpG (2025-07-01 15:03:07)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,094

Re: [SOLVED] kde and firefox: bizarre focus issues

It's much more likely you actually had (and still have and are just masking it now) an export of QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb somewhere which you should get rid of. By default this variable shouldn't exist which will default to the correct behaviour.

Last edited by V1del (2025-07-01 16:22:14)