Does this still occur for you with 3.5.0 ?

(In reply to comment #1)
> Does this still occur for you with 3.5.0 ?

I confirm that the issue still occurs with official 3.5.0.

Using Gentoo Linux 2.6.39-gentoo-r3, Xorg X11 7.4-r1, Gnome 2.32.1.

Hi,

It seemed to run nicely for quite some time on 3.5.0 now, running with neap [1] as the only desktop/window related widget.

Recently, I switched back to xfce4-panel [2] with it's window list and pager plugins, among others. Lo and behold, the problem reappears!

So, it definitely has something to do with non-openbox software. Unfortunately, my knowledge is not enough to know where to dig further. Any hints appreciated, i'd be glad to help.


-- Dave

[1] http://code.google.com/p/neap/ (version 0.5.2, from arch AUR)
[2] current version: 4.8.6 (Xfce 4.8) (most current arch package)

Cool. thanks for the extra info.

One thing you could do if you're interested is run openbox with --debug.  Then you can peep at ~/.cache/openbox/openbox.log and see what it says when this succeeds vs fails.   That'd be my first step.

Thanks for your input... Although the logfile was deleted and re-created sometime during my session start (maybe another bug?), openbox had an open file descriptor, so I could get at the following log data.

As you can see, it starts to loop with ConfigureRequests shortly after the menu entry is selected. This continues until I manually activate the selected window.

Openbox-Debug: KILLED open menus
Openbox-Debug: Want to focus window 0x1e00089 at time 137076071 launched at 0 (last user interaction time 0) request from user, allow other desktop: yes
Openbox-Debug: Unknown launch time, using 0 - independent window
Openbox-Debug: Not focusing the window because its on another desktop

Openbox-Debug: Focus stealing prevention activated for $name_of_selected_window at time 137076071 (last user interaction time 0)
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest for "xfce4-panel" desktop 2 wmstate 1 visible 1
Openbox-Debug:                      x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21 b 0
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest x(1) 0 y(2) 0 w(0) 1920 h(0) 21 move 1 resize 0
Openbox-Debug: Granting ConfigureRequest x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21
Openbox-Debug: Sending ConfigureNotify to xfce4-panel for 0,0 1920x21
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest for "xfce4-panel" desktop 2 wmstate 1 visible 1
Openbox-Debug:                      x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21 b 0
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest x(1) 0 y(2) 0 w(0) 1920 h(0) 21 move 1 resize 0
Openbox-Debug: Granting ConfigureRequest x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21
Openbox-Debug: Sending ConfigureNotify to xfce4-panel for 0,0 1920x21
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest for "xfce4-panel" desktop 2 wmstate 1 visible 1
Openbox-Debug:                      x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21 b 0
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest x(1) 0 y(2) 0 w(0) 1920 h(0) 21 move 1 resize 0
Openbox-Debug: Granting ConfigureRequest x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21
Openbox-Debug: Sending ConfigureNotify to xfce4-panel for 0,0 1920x21
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest for "xfce4-panel" desktop 2 wmstate 1 visible 1
Openbox-Debug:                      x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21 b 0
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest x(1) 0 y(2) 0 w(0) 1920 h(0) 21 move 1 resize 0
Openbox-Debug: Granting ConfigureRequest x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21
Openbox-Debug: Sending ConfigureNotify to xfce4-panel for 0,0 1920x21
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest for "xfce4-panel" desktop 2 wmstate 1 visible 1
Openbox-Debug:                      x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21 b 0
Openbox-Debug: ConfigureRequest x(1) 0 y(2) 0 w(0) 1920 h(0) 21 move 1 resize 0
Openbox-Debug: Granting ConfigureRequest x 0 y 0 w 1920 h 21
Openbox-Debug: Sending ConfigureNotify to xfce4-panel for 0,0 1920x21

Okay, here's a log snippet from a session without xfce4-panel. Again, desktop switching works in this case:

Openbox-Debug: KILLED open menus
Openbox-Debug: Want to focus window 0x2200004 at time 137739175 launched at 0 (last user interaction time 0) request from user, allow other desktop: yes
Openbox-Debug: Unknown launch time, using 0 - independent window
Openbox-Debug: Allowing focus stealing for $selected_window at time 137739175 (last user interaction time 0)
Openbox-Debug: Moving to desktop 3

Uh-oh, here's something else that may be of interest - and probably means we can close the bug... Dana, is it reasonable to assume that this actually was the cause?

Some time ago, xfce4-panel did have a bug so it only showed up on one desktop, but not another. So I added the following lines to my rc.xml to force it on all desktops:

    <application name="xfce4-panel">
        <desktop>all</desktop>
    </application>

Of course, I totally forgot about it in the meantime. Having removed that setting, here's a working log of switching desktops, again with the xfce4-panel.

Openbox-Debug: KILLED open menus
Openbox-Debug: Want to focus window 0x2400004 at time 138019811 launched at 0 (last user interaction time 0) request from user, allow other desktop: yes
Openbox-Debug: Unknown launch time, using 0 - independent window
Openbox-Debug: Allowing focus stealing for tail -f 3 - LilyTerm at time 138019811 (last user interaction time 0)
Openbox-Debug: Moving to desktop 9


So for me, it seems to work properly now, but I'll keep an eye on it and report back if it breaks again. I'm wondering if kfiadeg@gmail.com did a similar hack, or if there's a different problem...

Anyway, thanks a lot!

Hmm, sorry for the spamming, but the problem returned...

In the log, it's the same output again as in comment #6, looping until I manually go to the activated window. Strangely, it works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. I currently can't see any pattern about it's cause. I tried to activate the menu with the mouse and also via key binding, both causing the problem.

-- Dave

I made a commit recently to fix alt-tab not switching desktops.  So I wonder if that wouldn't fix this for you too. The log output is the same case.

Would you be willing to try out openbox from git ?

(In reply to comment #10)
> I made a commit recently to fix alt-tab not switching desktops.  So I wonder if
> that wouldn't fix this for you too. The log output is the same case.
> 
> Would you be willing to try out openbox from git ?

Yeah, sure! I'll keep you posted on results.

I've tried the 3.5.0 again, using brand new configuration this time (last time I used the one from 3.4.11.2, but I noticed, that it has changed a little with 3.5.0).

No luck this time either.
I've tried turning --debug on, but ~/.cache/openbox/openbox.log shows only:

Openbox-Message: A window manager is already running on screen 0

The problem with not switching desktops occurs not straightaway, but after a while, so just like David Vogt has described.

I'll try to get the GIT version working, but I can't promise it happens too soon...

I would expect 3.5.0 to be the same since the change i made came later and is only in git.  Looking forward to the result.

Hi!

Now I think I do have good news: I've been running git master for a few days now, and yes, the problem seems to be gone!

So for me, this bug can be closed, for real this time :)

-- Dave

Great, thanks.