Gnome 3 keeps adding VLC in Alt+Tab

[Martin Constantino–Bodin]

Hi,

I have these two settings on: https://askubuntu.com/questions/464946/force-alt-tab-to-switch-only-on-current-workspace-in-gnome-shell and https://superuser.com/questions/394376/how-to-prevent-gnome-shells-alttab-from-grouping-windows-from-similar-apps
I would thus expect that Alt+Tab would only show apps from the current workspace. However, I have VLC on another workspace, and Gnome 3 always show VLC as first app in Alt+Tab. To remove the app, I have to go to VLC’s workspace, and focus its window. But then when VLC will switch song, it will go again as first app in Gnome 3’s Alt+Tab shortcut in ALL workspace.

This is my number 1 issue in Gnome 3 that just makes me crazy: as VLC is shown as first app when I do Alt+Tab and that the current app is thus shwn second, doing Alt+tab quickly leaves the current app as current. Because VLC was shown first and the current app second, Alt+Tab goes to the second element, that is, the current one. This basically makes Alt+Tab completely useless for me, and I have to press the super key each time to switch windows. This is extremely annoying.

Of course, I could just type Alt+tab+tab to switch to the third app, expect that (1) this is extremely counter-intuitive, and (2) depending on whether VLC is adding this “all workspace Alt+Tab notification” or not, the semantics is not the same.

Note that I have prevented VLC to display any notification. This prevents VLC from adding overlay notification, but does not prevent VLC to do this Alt+Tab notification.

This is incredibly annoying. As the semantics of “/org/gnome/shell/app-switcher/current-workspace-only” is *not* to only switch between current workspace (as it always adds VLC’s notificationsm whichever workspace VLC is), I suggest to either rename it or fix its behaviour to match its name.

Attachment: a screenshot of my screen when I do the Alt+Tab. As the print-screen button in Gnome 3 frustratingly does not work when pressing Alt+Tab, I took it with my phone. In this case, I have Firefox opened as well as a console in this workspace, and VLC is in another workspace. I have a lot of other apps in other workspaces too, but they do not trigger this “Alt+Tab notification”.

Regards,
Martin.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: gnome-shell 3.28.4-0ubuntu18.04.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-1073.83-oem 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-1073-oem x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.11
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Mar 1 11:51:56 2020
DisplayManager: gdm3
DistributionChannelDescriptor:
 # This is the distribution channel descriptor for the OEM CDs
 # For more information see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistributionChannelDescriptor
 canonical-oem-somerville-bionic-amd64-20180608-47+berlinetta-cfl-r+X77
GsettingsChanges:
 b'org.gnome.shell' b'enable-hot-corners' b'true'
 b'org.gnome.shell' b'favorite-apps' redacted by apport
 b'org.gnome.desktop.interface' b'gtk-im-module' b"'gtk-im-context-simple'"
 b'org.gnome.desktop.interface' b'show-battery-percentage' b'true'
 b'org.gnome.desktop.interface' b'clock-show-date' b'true'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-08-28 (185 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic" - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20180608-09:38
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, What version of VLC do you use? (snap? deb?)
Cold you include a 'journalctl -b 0' log of a session which triggered the issue?
Could you also try with a new user profile to see if that's an issue there?

[Martin Constantino–Bodin (martin-bodin)]

Hi!

Sorry for the late answer. Here is the return for `vlc --version`. The issue is relatively difficult to reproduce: I have a set of mkv/webm files that do it all the times, but if I set-up VLC with other files (mp3), the issue does not appear.

```bash
$ vlc --version
VLC media player 3.0.8 Vetinari (revision 3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7)
VLC version 3.0.8 Vetinari (3.0.8-0-gf350b6b5a7)
Compiled by buildd on lcy01-amd64-014.buildd (Sep 11 2019 11:39:37)
Compiler: gcc version 7.4.0 (Ubuntu 7.4.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1)
This program comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence;
see the file named COPYING for details.
Written by the VideoLAN team; see the AUTHORS file.
```

I was also able to reproduce the issue with LibreOffice: I launched LibreOffice, then switched workspace. Once LibreOffice was ready, it appeared “by surprise” in the Alt+Tab menu of another workspace.

VLC and LibreOffice are both large softwares: maybe they both launch some kind of global instance in addition to the windows, and it is this global instance that trigger the Alt-Tab notification? I can’t tell, apart from the fact that each time this happens, I’m being caught by surprise 😅​

I attaching the logs. At the time 11:50, it was VLC doing the Alt+Tab appearance in another workspace, and at 11:54, it was LibreOffice.

I will try to reproduce the issue in a newly created session. ☺

Have a nice day ☺
Martin.