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I recently switched to Ubuntu 22.04, and encountered this issue when switching workspaces:

I open a window (e.g. a text editor) on a given workspace, and interact with the window (e.g. write “test”). Then I switch to another workspace, using the default keyboard shortcut. When I switch back to the original workspace and want to continue typing, the text editor window is somehow not active, and a “Find files on Desktop” pop-up window opens.

I observe this problem not only with text editors, but also terminals, browser, etc.

Any ideas how to avoid this?

Example screen recording

ingo-m
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3 Answers3

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I ran into the same problem. I was able to get it working again on X11 by disabling the Desktop Icons NG extension by typing the following in a terminal:

gnome-extensions disable ding@rastersoft.com

nonameentername
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The bug causing active windows to de-focus when switching workspaces has been described here:

Apparently this only happens when using Xorg. I was using Xorg; Wayland was disabled because of an issue with nvidia drivers described here: Can't use Wayland with Nvidia 510 drivers on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

I was able to enable Wayland by setting WaylandEnable=true in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf, in combination with the hack described here: https://askubuntu.com/a/1403916/1593752

With Wayland enabled, the problem with windows losing focus is gone. But I do have serious graphics glitches now (flickering, windows briefly disappearing).

ingo-m
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Well, after researching the problem multiple times it happens that the gnome/ding contributors are not going to solve the problem soon, but there is an elegant solution that works quite well.

Installing this Gnome extension solved the problem for me, without needing to disable the DING extension: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4688/focus-follows-workspace/?c=154468 https://github.com/christopher-l/focus-follows-workspace

I hope it helps!

bteo
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