Focus prevention sometimes behaves unexpectedly

[Owais Lone]

Binary package hint: compiz

The Focus Prevention Level is set to low by default in Compiz and at times it makes my apps behave in really weird ways, especially with global menu on in Unity. For example, I'm using Firefox and I have a number of tabs open; probably a bank transaction or something :-P and I wan't to open my music player window from the sound menu or my mail notifier window from the messaging menu. What happens is the new window is drawn on top of my browser BUT focus remains with the browser. Now, if I hit alt+F4 to close my mail notifier window, something totally unexpected happens i.e, my browser window is closed. This problem is more prominent in Unity because of the application (global) menu and window controls in the panel for maximized apps.

I'm attaching a video.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

That is not a solution. Focus stealing prevention is needed otherwise if I send you an IM when you are signing in to your bank you'll probably give me your password. If anything we just need to tweak how it stacks windows when it denies them focus.

[Owais Lone (loneowais)]

Sure, but this needs to be taken care of really soon.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

also see bug 627195 in libindicate, bug 562191 in rhythmbox, bug 646733 is also in unity. This is a general problem which certainly needs attention.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

The solution to this is to provide a mechanism for windows to say their
focus should not be stolen, and otherwise, to do what the user expects.

Mark

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

I expect windows to never steal focus while typing or otherwise interacting with another application. The correct solution is what we have now but with the window stacking matching the focus prevention (ie stack the new window under the current one if the new one is denied focus).

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

bug 646733 is on the very same issue but it seems the actual problem resides in libindicate or in the indicator stack, marking this bug as duplicate.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

This was also a problem in Maverick so its not really a problem in compiz IMO.