Debian Bug report logs - #851547
gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2017 22:04:48 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: gnome-shell
Version: 3.22.2-1
Severity: normal

Dear maintainers,

Bug #648841 reoccurs when running GNOME under Wayland.  The problem does
not appear under X11.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set window focus mode to 'mouse' or 'sloppy' (e.g. under "Windows" in
   gnome-tweak-tool)
2. Focus window X, and place mouse cursor within borders of window X
3. Use alt-tab to switch to window Y.

Expected result: Focus is switched to window Y.

Actual result: Focus switches to window Y momentarily, before returning to X.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (900, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 4.8.0-2-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnome-shell depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend]  0.26.0-2
ii  evolution-data-server                        3.22.3-1
ii  gir1.2-accountsservice-1.0                   0.6.43-1
ii  gir1.2-atspi-2.0                             2.22.0-5
ii  gir1.2-caribou-1.0                           0.4.21-1
ii  gir1.2-freedesktop                           1.50.0-1
ii  gir1.2-gcr-3                                 3.20.0-3
ii  gir1.2-gdesktopenums-3.0                     3.22.0-1
ii  gir1.2-gdm-1.0                               3.22.1-1
ii  gir1.2-glib-2.0                              1.50.0-1
ii  gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0                    3.20.0-1
ii  gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0                      3.22.2-1
ii  gir1.2-gtk-3.0                               3.22.5-1
ii  gir1.2-gweather-3.0                          3.20.4-1
ii  gir1.2-ibus-1.0                              1.5.14-2
ii  gir1.2-mutter-3.0                            3.22.2-2
ii  gir1.2-networkmanager-1.0                    1.4.4-1
ii  gir1.2-nmgtk-1.0                             1.4.2-1
ii  gir1.2-pango-1.0                             1.40.3-3
ii  gir1.2-polkit-1.0                            0.105-17
ii  gir1.2-soup-2.4                              2.56.0-2
ii  gir1.2-telepathyglib-0.12                    0.24.1-1.1
ii  gir1.2-telepathylogger-0.2                   0.8.2-2
ii  gir1.2-upowerglib-1.0                        0.99.4-4
ii  gjs                                          1.46.0-1+b1
ii  gnome-backgrounds                            3.22.1-1
ii  gnome-settings-daemon                        3.22.1-1
ii  gnome-shell-common                           3.22.2-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                    3.22.0-1
ii  libatk-bridge2.0-0                           2.22.0-1
ii  libatk1.0-0                                  2.22.0-1
ii  libc6                                        2.24-8
ii  libcairo2                                    1.14.8-1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                           0.30-3
ii  libcanberra0                                 0.30-3
ii  libcroco3                                    0.6.11-2
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2                             0.108-1
ii  libecal-1.2-19                               3.22.3-1
ii  libedataserver-1.2-22                        3.22.3-1
ii  libgcr-base-3-1                              3.20.0-3
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                           2.36.2-1
ii  libgirepository-1.0-1                        1.50.0-1
ii  libgjs0e [libgjs0-libmozjs-24-0]             1.46.0-1+b1
ii  libglib2.0-0                                 2.50.2-2
ii  libglib2.0-bin                               2.50.2-2
ii  libgstreamer1.0-0                            1.10.2-1
ii  libgtk-3-0                                   3.22.5-1
ii  libical2                                     2.0.0-0.5+b1
ii  libicu57                                     57.1-5
ii  libjson-glib-1.0-0                           1.2.2-1
ii  libmozjs-24-0                                24.2.0-5
ii  libmutter0i                                  3.22.2-2
ii  libnm-glib4                                  1.4.4-1
ii  libnm-util2                                  1.4.4-1
ii  libpango-1.0-0                               1.40.3-3
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0                          1.40.3-3
ii  libpolkit-agent-1-0                          0.105-17
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                        0.105-17
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0                      9.0-5
ii  libpulse0                                    9.0-5
ii  libsecret-1-0                                0.18.5-2
ii  libstartup-notification0                     0.12-4
ii  libsystemd0                                  232-8
ii  libtelepathy-glib0                           0.24.1-1.1
ii  libwayland-client0                           1.12.0-1
ii  libx11-6                                     2:1.6.3-1
ii  libxfixes3                                   1:5.0.3-1
ii  mutter                                       3.22.2-2
ii  python3                                      3.5.1-4
ii  telepathy-mission-control-5                  1:5.16.3-2

Versions of packages gnome-shell recommends:
ii  gdm3                        3.22.1-1
ii  gkbd-capplet                3.22.0.1-1
ii  gnome-contacts              3.22.1-1+b1
ii  gnome-control-center        1:3.22.1-1
ii  gnome-themes-standard-data  3.22.2-1
ii  gnome-user-guide            3.22.0-1
ii  iio-sensor-proxy            2.0-1
ii  unzip                       6.0-21

gnome-shell suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

-- 
Sean Whitton

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Message #10 received at 851547@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>

To: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>, 851547@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 13:02:44 +0100

Hi!

This is annoying me, too:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2017 22:04:48 -0700, Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> wrote:
> 1. Set window focus mode to 'mouse' or 'sloppy' (e.g. under "Windows" in
>    gnome-tweak-tool)
> 2. Focus window X, and place mouse cursor within borders of window X
> 3. Use alt-tab to switch to window Y.
> 
> Expected result: Focus is switched to window Y.
> 
> Actual result: Focus switches to window Y momentarily, before returning to X.

Has a solution already been found for this issue, or at least a
workaround?


Grüße
 Thomas

Message #15 received at 851547@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>

To: Thomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>

Subject: Re: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2017 08:07:50 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hello Thomas,

On Wed, Dec 13 2017, Thomas Schwinge wrote:

> Has a solution already been found for this issue, or at least a
> workaround?

Unfortunately I don't know.  I abandoned using Wayland because of this
bug...

-- 
Sean Whitton

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Message #20 received at 851547@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Antonis Christofides <antonis@antonischristofides.com>

To: 851547@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2019 10:24:37 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Likewise, in Buster, I'm using GNOME on xorg because of this bug.

Maybe the severity should be raised to "important"? It effectively renders
Alt+tab functionality nonexistent if the user has set focus mode to "focus on
hover".

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Message #25 received at 851547@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Antonis Christofides <antonis@antonischristofides.com>

To: 851547@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 09:26:06 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Apparently this is the upstream bug report:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=739718

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #30 received at 851547@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Thomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>

To: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>, 851547@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#851547: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2025 23:59:46 +0100

Hi!

On 2017-12-16T08:07:50-0700, Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name> wrote:
> [...] I abandoned using Wayland because of this
> bug...

Same here -- until today.  Just a few years later, GNOME 49 has come upon
us, which removed support for X.org.  So I log in using Wayland.  And I
find that apparently this bug has been fixed: at least my case of
'gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode sloppy' now
appears to behave as expected.  Nice!


Grüße
 Thomas

Message #35 received at 851547-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jeremy Bícha <jbicha@debian.org>

To: 851547-done@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Antonis Christofides <antonis@antonischristofides.com>

Subject: Re: Bug#851547: gnome-shell: under Wayland, alt-tab switcher fails when using focus-follow-mouse

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2025 18:53:05 -0500

There have been many changes to Debian since this bug was originally
reported. If you are still experiencing this issue with Debian 13 (or
with Debian 12 or Testing or Unstable), please report a new bug.

Thank you,
Jeremy Bícha

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