Firefox moves to current desktop when opening a link from an external app

[Manuel McLure]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Kubuntu Hardy Heron Beta (upgraded from Gutsy Gibbon)

I have a 3x3 desktop set up, with Firefox 3 maximized on desktop 4 (second row, first column) and Kontact maximized on desktop 2 (first row, second column.) When I click on a link in Kontact, Firefox 3 opens a new tab for it, but it also moves from desktop 4 to desktop 2, covering my Kontact window. In Gutsy Firefox 2 would remain on desktop 4 which is where I want it to stay.

[Manuel McLure (manuel-mclure)]

I tested with Firefox-2 on Hardy and it works as it did in Gutsy. This seems to be a Firefox 3 bug.

[Manuel McLure (manuel-mclure)]

Further information - if I start Firefox 3, but tell Kontact to use firefox-2 as its browser, links will be opened in new tabs in the Firefox 3 window and the Firefox 3 window will NOT move to the current desktop.

[Christer Edwards (christer.edwards)]

I still have this same issue on a fresh install of hardy beta.

one user reported solving this issue by doing:

rm -rf .mozilla/

this did not work for me. firefox 3b4 still moves to the current desktop when opening a link from any external application.

[Christer Edwards (christer.edwards)]

I've also tried downloading and manually installing Firefox 3b4 from mozilla (/opt/firefox with symlink to /usr/local/bin/firefox). I have the same issue with a manual installed copy and having removed .mozilla/ for any previous settings..

[Christer Edwards (christer.edwards)]

breaking news.. this bug does *not* happen if compiz is active (default settings). I had turned this off because it is a bit much for my EeePC, but toggling it on & off seems to reproduce/solve the issue consistently.

[Joe Smith (yasumoto7)]

This has been an issue in the Firefox3 nightlies for a while (at least 7.10), take a look at the discussion upstream.

[Mogens Isager (misager)]

Maybe it is a problem in the window manager. For Metacity it seems to be the case. Via

http://christopher.aillon.org/blog/dev/gnome/20080303-metacity.html

I found

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=482354

[Stefano Maggiolo (stefano.maggiolo)]

Try to toggle browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground in about:config?

[Sarah Kowalik (hobbsee-deactivatedaccount)]

devilspie ftw. It stops a lot of these shenanigans.

[x (xk2c-deactivatedaccount)]

For the record:
happens with kde (hardy) also

[James Westby (james-w)]

Hi all,

Setting

  browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground = true

in about:config is reported to work.

Also the upstream bug confirms what Christer found,
that this is a metacity issue, see

  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=482354

I'm adding a metacity task so that this can be tracked
appropriately in launchpad.

Thanks,

James

[Lars Ljung (larslj)]

Isn't this a duplicate of bug #197761?

[Manuel McLure (manuel-mclure)]

Note that if this is a bug in metacity, it is also a bug in kwin. I use KDE and was the bug reporter.

[Manuel McLure (manuel-mclure)]

browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground does NOT fix this under kwin. The only difference in the behavior is that FF doesn't change desktops until you make the desktop that has FF on it current:

- Place FF on desktop 2, Kontact on desktop 1.
- Click on a link in Kontact. FF will not move to desktop 1.
- Make desktop 2 current - now FF will jump to desktop 1.

This behavior is *WORSE* than it is without browser.tabs.loadDivertedInBackground set.

Honestly, this makes FF3 unusable on KDE.

[Bruno Beaufils (beaufils)]

Note that if this is a bug in metacity, it is also a bug in Openbox.