mate-panel workspace switcher does not loop with repeatedly pressed keyboard shortcuts on workspace switcher applet

[Theodor]

Right clicking preferences and toggling the checkbox next to "Allow workspace wrap around in switcher" enables looped workspace switching only with mouse wheel, but not with keyboard (<Ctrl+Alt+→> or <Ctrl+Alt+←> repeatedly).

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Original description from reporter is below:

Issue is confirmed to be present in Ubuntu MATE 18.04 and Ubuntu MATE 19.04. mate-desktop team reports there's no problem with their code, suspect out of date packages included in release.

Performing the operation through cmdline leads to expected behavior, i.e.:

    gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general wrap-style 'classic'

Relevant history:
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-panel/issues/420#issue-143072722

[Moritz Bruder (muesli4-2)]

Those options are not related. The command-line argument clearly indicates it is from Marco (the window manager of MATE). However, this feature is from the workspace-switcher applet from mate-patel.

This is the way to do it with the most recent version:

    dconf read /org/mate/panel/objects/workspace-switcher/prefs/wrap-workspaces
    dconf write /org/mate/panel/objects/workspace-switcher/prefs/wrap-workspaces true

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

@muesli4-2, aren't you running Arch Linux? Please explain how those options aren't related when changing that settings leads to the desired behavior.

On my system /org/mate/panel/objects/workspace-switcher/prefs/wrap-workspaces does not exist.

Instead, the dconf read shows that the gui button toggles this boolean:
    /org/mate/panel/objects/object-0/prefs/wrap-workspaces

Performing either of the following
    dconf write /org/mate/panel/objects/workspace-switcher/prefs/wrap-workspaces true
    dconf write /org/mate/panel/objects/workspace-switcher/prefs/wrap-workspaces false
does not change the behavior at all on my system.

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

@Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)

Just for reference with all relevant dconf/gsettings keys see my answer on AskUbuntu ( https://askubuntu.com/a/1142354/66509 ).

I do not see problems with 18.04 LTS and newer releases.

Please reset your settings (or use clean user profile), install all updates with `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y` and record screencast with `byzanz` to demonstrate the problem.
Keystrokes should be shown with `key-mon`, terminal should be shown with output of `apt-cache policy mate-panel mate-applets`.

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

@nrbrtx I see that using the mouse wheel in the workspace switcher exhibits the desired behavior on my system as well. However, why does this behavior not extend to the keyboard shortcut keys for switching workspaces?

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

To be crystal clear - my system has the following output of `apt-cache policy mate-panel mate-applets`:

$ apt-cache policy mate-panel mate-applets
mate-panel:
  Installed: 1.20.1-3ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.20.1-3ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.20.1-3ubuntu1 500
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mate-applets:
  Installed: 1.20.1-3
  Candidate: 1.20.1-3
  Version table:
 *** 1.20.1-3 500
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

Mine is the same
mate-panel:
  Installed: 1.20.1-3ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.20.1-3ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.20.1-3ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
mate-applets:
  Installed: 1.20.1-3
  Candidate: 1.20.1-3
  Version table:
 *** 1.20.1-3 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

I think the real issue here is a misunderstanding of what features should be affected by that toggle button.

My assumption was that it would globally affect how workspaces wrapped in Marco, not just in the context of the switcher menu. Since the number of workspaces and workspace names settings go through gsettings to Marco, I think this is not an unreasonable expectation.

The real question is, should that toggle button affect the shortcut keys or no, and if no, can we add another toggle that does so it's all in the same place?

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

@nrbrtx the dconf/gsettings link you provided dosn't include any mention of the Marco wrap-style setting, which does affects workspace switching with keyboard

[Norbert (nrbrtx)]

> However, why does this behavior not extend to the keyboard shortcut keys for switching workspaces?

The standard keyboard shortcuts are <Ctrl+Alt+ → > or <Ctrl+Alt+ ← >. But they do not loop (or "wrap around").

I have just booted my old system with GNOME 2.32 and I see that it simply does not have such option.
And old MATE 1.8.1 do not wrap with keyboard shortcuts.

So we can end this discussion by filing the feature request - https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-panel/issues/969 .

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Theodor (hoffer-schaefer.theo)]

Awesome, thank you so much!

[Tim Nolte (tim-nolte)]

This would be nice to have working.