App in one workspace 'steals' browser in another [solved]

[rayandrews]

All,

This is only a minor irritation but I'm hoping that it can be fixed anyway. Say I'm looking at the Mint welcome screen "Welcome to Linux Mint" on desktop #1 and I have FireFox open on desktop #2. I click on one of the links on the welcome screen such that it wants to access FF. What it does is move FF from being open on desktop #2 to being open on desktop #1 and thus the welcome screen hides itself under FF. I keep having to go up to the destop switcher and drag FF back to desktop #2.

Is there some way to ask Xfce to stop moving things and just use them where they already are? This strange behavior seems unique to Xfce, it didn't happen with Gnome nor KDE.

Thanks.

[jjaythomas]

I Believe this does what you want...

under the firefox preferences-->tab setting make sure the 1st and last check box ('open in new tab' and 'open link in new tab and switch to imediatly') are both unchecked.
also...
for the 'Window Button' (thats the running app list in panel) set the window grouping to Never.

This should do the trick for what your looking to do...or play with these settings to your liking

Hope helps
J.Jay

[rayandrews]

I Believe this does what you want...

under the firefox preferences-->tab setting make sure the 1st and last check box ('open in new tab' and 'open link in new tab and switch to imediatly') are both unchecked.
also...
for the 'Window Button' (thats the running app list in panel) set the window grouping to Never.

This should do the trick for what your looking to do...or play with these settings to your liking

Hope helps
J.Jay

jjay,

I'ts nothing to do with FF itself. It mostly happens when I'm in Tbird and some email has a link in it. My default browser is Opera, and even if I have Opera open in some other desktop, it moves over to the same desktop that Tbird is on and hides that. If my default browser is FF the behavior is the same. This never happened with Gnome or KDE, so I figure it's an Xfce thing.

[jjaythomas]

Not sure about Opera...

don't use opera but if under widow button preferences if you change grouping to never and have unchecked Restore minimised window to curent workspace a Link in E-mail will stay on current workspace (in 2nd FF) even if I have firefox open on another workspace.

I.E. I can have FF browser on workspace 1 then switch to 2nd workspace to check E-Mail< I can click a link in E-Mail and FF in WSpace 1 will not be effected (and if never group can see 2 FF open on the panel in both WSpaces

Maybe like I said opera preferences may not allow the running of 2 instances and only allow a new tab in browser if running no matter what WSpace.

P.S. checked while composing this in WSpace 1, went to a empty Wsace 2 opened TBird went to a link. Had 2 instaces of FF running and back to Wspace 1 finshed this reply.

J.Jay

[rayandrews]

Not sure about Opera...

don't use opera but if under widow button preferences if you change grouping to never and have unchecked Restore minimised window to curent workspace a Link in E-mail will stay on current workspace (in 2nd FF) even if I have firefox open on another workspace.

I.E. I can have FF browser on workspace 1 then switch to 2nd workspace to check E-Mail< I can click a link in E-Mail and FF in WSpace 1 will not be effected (and if never group can see 2 FF open on the panel in both WSpaces

Maybe like I said opera preferences may not allow the running of 2 instances and only allow a new tab in browser if running no matter what WSpace.

P.S. checked while composing this in WSpace 1, went to a empty Wsace 2 opened TBird went to a link. Had 2 instaces of FF running and back to Wspace 1 finshed this reply.

J.Jay

Been doing some experiments and I can duplicate your results if I make FF my default browser. As you say Tbird opens another instance of FF on top of itself but the first copy of FF stays where it was. I'd still prefer it if the email window stayed uncovered, but as it is now at least my first copy of FF remains unmolested and that's the important thing. It doesn't work with Opera tho, but I'm going to experiment further.
Hard to juggle all these different combinations of settings and know for sure what you've done, isn't it?

BTW, I sure wish we had a 'Solved' button on this forum like they do on so many others.

[jjaythomas]

Glad partially works to your liking...

I don't thin yon can get a link to open to another worspace But if you have TBird open on right side of screen you can change where the link (Browser window) will open using the setting under 'Window Manager Tweaks' and then the placement tab. (try playing with those settings)

P.S. I believe you can edit your first post and chang the subject line to state solved or partially solved (as case may be), only the original poster can change subject line(?) I think.

Maybe that helps
J.Jay

[rayandrews]

Glad partially works to your liking...

I don't thin yon can get a link to open to another worspace But if you have TBird open on right side of screen you can change where the link (Browser window) will open using the setting under 'Window Manager Tweaks' and then the placement tab. (try playing with those settings)

P.S. I believe you can edit your first post and chang the subject line to state solved or partially solved (as case may be), only the original poster can change subject line(?) I think.

Maybe that helps
J.Jay

J,

With Opera, I can open a second 'copy' of it using Ctrl+N, and then let Tbird steal one copy while I keep the other copy for whatever I was doing with it before. It works OK I just hafta remember that if I want to switch back and forth between the email and the link, to use the 'window switcher' applet vs. the 'desktop switcher'. All good

[jjaythomas]

Thats nice...

I don,t think FF can do that. I may try Opera and switch.

Can you tell Opera to copy the window to a specific work space or do you manually send it to a different virtual desktop (right click on panel task/list icon)??

J.Jay

[rayandrews]

Thats nice...

I don,t think FF can do that. I may try Opera and switch.

Can you tell Opera to copy the window to a specific work space or do you manually send it to a different virtual desktop (right click on panel task/list icon)??

J.Jay

Yeah, it's one of the nice things about Opera. Once you've created the 2nd window you can drag it to any workspace you want. Tbird will always steal one copy, but the other one is unmolested. All things considered I prefer Opera to FF and Cr. Although it does have the maddening habit of opening new tabs all the time so that Alt+LeftArrow does nothing -- you hafta use Ctrl+W to kill the tab to go back in history.

[rayandrews]

Thats nice...

I don,t think FF can do that. I may try Opera and switch.

Can you tell Opera to copy the window to a specific work space or do you manually send it to a different virtual desktop (right click on panel task/list icon)??

J.Jay

Yeah, it's one of the nice things about Opera. Once you've created the 2nd window you can drag it to any workspace you want. Tbird will always steal one copy, but the other one is unmolested. All things considered I prefer Opera to FF and Cr. Although it does have the maddening habit of opening new tabs all the time so that Alt+LeftArrow does nothing -- you hafta use Ctrl+W to kill the tab to go back in history.

[rayandrews]

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/activate_action -s switch

100% perfect