Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

sunn · 2008-08-10 16:31:35

Well, the topic kinda says it all. Say I've got Firefox running on desktop 1, and I click on a link somebody pasted in irssi running in my terminal on desktop 4, Firefox will move to desktop 4. I want it to stay on desktop 1 and not bother me.

I've been googling and searching the forums, the wiki and the openbox wiki, but I can't seem to find anything about this specific issue. Maybe I just suck at searching.

I'm using openbox + GNOME - if that matters.

.:B:. · 2008-08-10 17:23:17

    <application name="opera">
      <desktop>1</desktop>
      <focus>yes</focus>
      <decor>no</decor>
    </application>

Do you have such a snippet in your rc.xml?

sunn · 2008-08-10 18:05:37

B wrote:

Do you have such a snippet in your rc.xml?

No. I haven't edited anything within the <applications> tag.

thayer · 2008-08-10 19:08:48

This has been annoying the hell out of me as well...and I do have the applications rules configured. It started happening with Firefox 3 and I haven't been able to get it fixed yet.

Firefox also ignores the fact that it's supposed to open on desktop #2 always.

I'll see if I can track down similar cases today and if not, then I'll open a bug report.

Last edited by thayer (2008-08-10 19:09:46)

tth · 2008-08-10 19:19:41

Maybe this explains a little:

"The change which I suspect will cause us the most trouble is that _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW now shows the window on the current desktop, so pagers/panels should send a desktop change message first. Probably some of them don't and people will send bug reports. Send them to the pager/panel author instead please . "

http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Openbox:News

I think this is the cause for the problem. I fixed it by setting browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground to true from about:config.

I'm pretty sure this change in Openbox is wrong (They think standards are more important than reality), but I have not investigated the problem more so I can be wrong too. It just seems so wrong because Openbox has been working almost perfectly before.

thisllub · 2008-08-11 22:35:10

It doesn't happen for me.
I use no panels or pagers.

moljac024 · 2008-08-12 09:28:58

It happens with old panels and pagers that expect the old non-standard behavior. Unfortunately there are a dozens of them...

jordi · 2008-08-12 11:56:50

If it happens just with Firefox, you can set browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground to True in about:config

That is at least what fixed the problem for me

moljac024 · 2008-08-12 14:39:43

The pager should be patched to switch the desktop before giving focus to the window.

dunc · 2008-08-12 18:26:16

moljac024 wrote:

The pager should be patched to switch the desktop before giving focus to the window.

It doesn't fix the OP's problem, but for the record there's a patch for NetWMPager here (which I haven't actually tried yet, although it's nearly four months old now and nobody seems to have complained ).

PierreAd · 2008-08-13 14:00:14

Very interesting, it's one of the reasons I decided to come back to Gnome... Maybe will I change my mind once mort

moljac024 · 2008-08-13 23:18:35

dunc wrote:

moljac024 wrote:
The pager should be patched to switch the desktop before giving focus to the window.
It doesn't fix the OP's problem, but for the record there's a patch for NetWMPager here (which I haven't actually tried yet, although it's nearly four months old now and nobody seems to have complained ).

I'm surprised that no one has bothered to do this upstream yet. Takes about 2 seconds to copy/paste a line. Why it wasn't there in the first place baffles me.

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-08-13 23:18:51)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-10 16:31:35

Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#2 2008-08-10 17:23:17

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#3 2008-08-10 18:05:37

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#4 2008-08-10 19:08:48

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#5 2008-08-10 19:19:41

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#6 2008-08-11 22:35:10

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#7 2008-08-12 09:28:58

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#8 2008-08-12 11:56:50

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#9 2008-08-12 14:39:43

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#10 2008-08-12 18:26:16

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#11 2008-08-13 14:00:14

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

#12 2008-08-13 23:18:35

Re: Openbox: Stop applications from switching desktops when focused?

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