Ctrl-Alt-Tab no longer moves focus between panels with compiz

[Colan Schwartz]

Binary package hint: compiz

I recently enabled compiz, "Visual Effects", on Hardy and now I cannot switch between panels with Ctrl-Alt-Tab. This used to work in metacity. Now it selects between all application windows instead. I looked at the key bindings in the compiz settings and the keyboard shortcuts in preferences, and neither of those locations have a control for this action. Therefore, there is currently _no_ way to focus on and select an applet without clicking on it. This is a usability issue as I shouldn't have to use the mouse (especially since this worked before, without compiz in Gutsy).

[Markus Korn (thekorn)]

I can confirm this bug. However I think the real bug here is that the default keybindings of compiz overwrites a default keybinding in the gnome desktop.

Workaround:
* open gconf-editor
* change the value of /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_panels

[Colan Schwartz (colan)]

I tried "<Control><Alt>Home" and it didn't work for me, even after a reboot. Is there some way to refresh those settings, or is that an illegal value? Right now that key combination doesn't do anything.

[Robert Ancell (robert-ancell)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Jan Hink (jhink)]

Hello, this issue persists in Ubuntu Karmic.

When the Compiz is turned off, Ctrl+Alt+Tab switches between the gnome panels. But when Compiz is on, I cannot get it to switch between the panels no matter what shortcut I define in gnome shortcuts. So there is virtually no way of activating an applet on a gnome panel but clicking on it.

[Colan Schwartz (colan)]

Agreed. Compiz is grabbing the input and doing something completely different (swtiching between windows on all workspaces), ignoring Gnome's keyboard shortcuts.

[David Fraser (davidf)]

Re #1:
> I can confirm this bug. However I think the real bug here is that the default keybindings of compiz overwrites a default keybinding in the gnome desktop.
> Workaround:
> * open gconf-editor
> * change the value of /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_panels
This doesn't seem to make sense. That's a metacity setting, but metacity is not running when Compiz
However I did try adjusting the key bindings in the Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box, and it affects this key, so Gnome is obviously storing the values here.
I set cycle_panels to Ctrl-Alt-comma, and switch_panels to Ctrl-Alt-period. Neither of these keys have any effect
I suspect that Gnome is writing the settings here for metacity, and Compiz is reading some of them using plugins but not all...
For example, the compiz Gnome Compatibility plugin contains separate settings for Show Main Menu and Run Dialog (Alt-F1 and Alt-F2 by default) - these modify and reflect the global_keybindings under metacity and also in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog
The Expo plugin has an Expo key setting, and this modifies the Expo key in Keyboard Shortcuts->Desktop->Expo key as well.

I have found that in the Application Switcher plugin there are Bindings for "Next Panel" and "Prev Panel" that can be configured with either mouse or keyboard. However:
 * The keyboard bindings do not connect with the corresponding settings in Keyboard Shortcuts / metacity
 * The functionality seems bizarre. If I set the binding to Ctrl-Alt-period, then pressing that fades out everything except the selected panel. However as soon as I release Ctrl or Alt, the desktop restores to normal and my window regains focus. If I set it to something like period, then the effect lasts for as long as I keep the period key depressed. In addition, any keypresses during the focus on the panel seem to be sent to the last active window, not the panel.
So in effect these key bindings seem to be absolutely useless... unless I'm missing something.

[David Fraser (davidf)]

Correction to my above post: the Next Panel binding does in fact select the panel highlighted, and defocus the current window!
However there is no highlighting of the panel to indicate this, and in addition actually doing anything with the panel is tricky.
So far if I:
 * Select the panel using Next Panel (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-period), the current window is defocused and the panel is selected
 * Press tab to cycle through elements in the panel
Only some of the items in the panel show the dotted-line highlighting. It's quite tricky to see when you've selected the indicator applet element for example (see bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libindicator/+bug/519195: sometimes pressing left/right seems to just select the username and icon, and sometimes it drops down the menu) - the net result is you can get lost fairly easily.

[Luca Ferretti (elle.uca)]

I FOUND IT !!!!!

OK, here is the trick. Every Copiz switcher provides many gconf keys in order to set the window switch behavior

Let's assume you have the static switcher. Go to /apps/compiz/plugins/staticswitcher/allscreens/options/ GConf directory.

In this directory you have "next_all_key" (desc: Popup switcher if not visible and select next window out of all windows) using <Ctrl><Alt>Tab value. This mean that in default Compiz setting you have
  * Alt+Tab -> switch visibile (i.e. unminimized) windows
  * Ctrl + Alt + Tab -> switch all (i.e. minimezed and unminimized) windows.

In order to work like Metacity you have to
 * set "next_all_key" to "<Alt>Tab"
 * set "prev_all_key" to "<Shift><Alt>Tab"
 * set "next_panel_key" to "<Ctrl><Alt>Tab"
 * set "prev_panel_key" to "<Shift><Ctrl><Alt>Tab"
 * set "next_key" and "prev_key" to "Disabled"

I suppose the same could be applied to other Compiz switchers (switcher, ring, and ?????).

[Luca Ferretti (elle.uca)]

Filed bug 520900 in hunded paper cuts (while I fear this is not the proper way to report a paper cut or link to this issue)

[Luca Ferretti (elle.uca)]

> * set "next_all_key" to "<Alt>Tab"
> * set "prev_all_key" to "<Shift><Alt>Tab"

Sorry, I was wrong here. The *_all_key will switch between applications in all viewports.

It should be

 * set "next_key" to "<Alt>Tab"
 * set "prev_key" to "<Shift><Alt>Tab"

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Peter Hurley (phurley)]

@Chauncellor,

You marked my bug #789352 as a duplicate of this, but you've marked this bug as incomplete and invalid?

I thought my steps to repro were straightforward. When running compiz on 'classic' desktop, try to navigate from the panel application menu to any other panel area with any key combination.

How do you do it?

[jhfhlkjlj (fdsuufijjejejejej-deactivatedaccount)]

@peter, we need to test on current versions of compiz/Ubuntu, not older ones. Have you tested this on Precise pangolin (12.04)?

Thanks

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for compiz (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for One Hundred Paper Cuts because there has been no activity for 60 days.]