Arch Linux

AFT

Member

Registered: 2025-09-29

Posts: 2

Mouse focus stuck to a specific window on Sway and i3wm

Hi there,

I've had an issue over the past two days where my mouse focus, at some point, gets stuck to a specific window. The keyboard continues to work normally, and I can switch windows, switch workspaces, and open new windows with the keyboard. Even when I'm on another window or workspace, the mouse still only works in the original window, and any clicks I do are registered there instead of the window on display. I tried on both Sway, then i3, and the exact same issue happens everything.

The only workaround I found for now is restarting the display manager (`# systemctl restart sddm`), and it usually works for a while before it bugs out. The most consistent way it breaks is by going to sleep.

I'm not sure if it's relevant, but it all started after I used dodgy SATA to USB3 adapter from Aliexpress. And it happens with both the touchpad and external mouse.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,138

Re: Mouse focus stuck to a specific window on Sway and i3wm

For X11/i3 I'd say the mouse is grabbed

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option             "AllowDeactivateGrabs" "true" # also run setxkbmap -option grab:break_actions
    Option             "AllowClosedownGrabs" "true"
EndSection

and then ctrl+alt+kp_multiply/kp_divide allow you to kill the grabbing client or break the grab but the same thing happening in sway kinda makes no sense - except if it's maybe an Xwayland client that does that?

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AFT

Member

Registered: 2025-09-29

Posts: 2

Re: Mouse focus stuck to a specific window on Sway and i3wm

Interesting theory, but I double checked and Firefox seems to be running natively under sway,  no Xwayland involved, and the issue still happens when only Firefox windows are open. I added the provided xconfig just in case and rebooted, but no luck.