Not getting application is ready focus stealing prevention notifications

Desktop
1

I am using GNOME 49 on Fedora 43. Prior to this Fedora/GNOME update, focus-stealing worked the way I wanted it to. I clicked a link in another application, Evolution for example, and a tab opened in Chrome and the Chrome window was focused on the newly opened tab.

Now in GNOME 49, nothing happens to tell me that Chrome has opened a tab for me. Chrome does not get focus (and I understand this is a design decision) and I don’t even get a “Chrome is ready” notification to click on to focus Chrome. I get zero indication that Chrome actually opened the link in the tab.

Previous to GNOME 49 I was an X11/GNOME user due to the missing functionality in (and just general issues related to) Wayland. But as of Fedora 43/GNOME 49, even using X11 deprecated is no longer an issue, so I am being force into Wayland. I only mention this in case it’s relevant to the difference in behaviour that I am seeing with focus-stealing not actually stealing focus any longer since I updated to GNOME 49 (and thus away from X11).

So (as an aside) is the reason that focus-stealing worked prior to this update due to using X11 previously given that preventing focus-stealing seems to have been a controversy for 6+ years now?

Regardless, is it a known issue that I am not even getting the “Application is ready” notifications now in GNOME 49? Should I open an issue in Gitlab about this or is this an end-user issue of some sort?

2

I’m seeing essentially the behaviour you describe on KDE/Plasma (also
F43 with Wayland). It’s quite annoying. That of course doesn’t mean it
isn’t GTK-related.

poc

3

Since GNOME 49, global.display may stop emitting the window-demands-attention signal during a session. I’m not sure what exactly triggers this, but in my case it seems related to reconnecting to the signal from extension.

4

I’m afraid I don’t know what that means and therefore what action I need to take off any to correct that.

5

I should note that this only happens on one out of two of my machines here on the same Fedora and GNOME release.

So clearly something is different between the two of them. I’m just not sure what.

6

That means there’s a bug, and I’m still not sure exactly how to reproduce it :wink:

7

I do seem to get a notification from Evolution when I click a mailto: link.

The one I am noticing not getting the most is from Chrome, where previous to GNOME 49 (and Wayland – I used X11 prior to being forced to use Wayland with GNOME 49) Chrome windows stole focus so that when I clicked a URL in, say, Evolution, I would be taken to the GNOME window where it was opened.

That means there’s a bug, and I’m still not sure exactly how to reproduce it

I will open an issue then.

8

For me, it’s mostly about missing notifications from an open GNOME Settings window when I activate one of its panels from the overview search results (the Settings search provider). My extension automatically activates the Settings window when the signal is triggered, but then it stops working, the signal from MetaDisplay is no longer received, even if I create another connection to it from Looking Glass to check it.

9

gnome-control-center 49 introduced a change that breaks window activation with an already open window: Cursor spins for a long time when opening a specific pane in Settings from outside of the app, when Settings is already open (#3624) · Issues · GNOME / Settings · GitLab

10

It mostly works, until it doesn’t, and then it’s not just about the Control Center.

11

Maybe the demands attention state of the window is not getting reset properly when you try to activate it?

12

You’re right - when I close the attention notification, the state isn’t reset until the window gains focus. And when I activate the notification, the window gets focused and the error “Object Gjs_ui_messageTray_Notification (0x55c2356e3a90) has already been disposed …” is thrown. Definitely a bug.