Make app open on the "current" workspace

[Tarka Dal]

Hi folks. Tiny, tiny, annoying niggle but it's finally annoyed me enough to post here about it. Linux Mint 20.1 w/ Cinnamon 4.8.6, dual monitors, 3 workspaces.

When I type [windows key] [app name] [enter] most of my apps open on the screen in front of me. That's good.

Some apps always open on whichever workspace it was left on. so if I'm on workspace 2 and type the same as above, it will open on workspace 1 and I have to go and find it. I just want all apps to open on the current workspace.

Firefox, Sublime Text, Sublime Merge exhibit this behaviour. If anyone can point me towards a solution I would be v grateful.

I've tried resetting Cinnamon, toggling "Bring windows which require attention to the current workspace" and "Focus mode for new windows"

Thanks

[mikeflan]

Some apps always open on whichever workspace it was left on.

Please name some apps that do that. The only one I know of is Firefox. It might do that in some cases.

[Tarka Dal]

I did say

Firefox, Sublime Text, Sublime Merge exhibit this behaviour

It looks to me like the context options when right-clicking a window header don't make sense. I get two radios:

Always on visible workspace -> this means the window "follows you around" when you switch workspace, I don't want that.

Only on this workspace -> this seems to make the window "stay where it is" even if I close the app, swap workspace, then open it again.

There's no option to just behave what I'd call "normally" i.e. open on the current workspace and stay there.

[mikeflan]

I agree. The application (FF) is apparently driving this behavior to open where last closed. I like that behavior, but I can see why you don't.

I use Gnome Terminal ver 3.28.1 and despite selecting 'Always on visible workspace' these terminal windows are not always available on all workspaces. I sometimes have to go back to the 'main' workspace they were opened on, bring the terminal windows up, and then switch back to the workspace I was working in to see them. Kind of annoying.

[Flemur]

I agree. The application (FF) is apparently driving this behavior to open where last closed.

For me FF open in whatever workspace is active/visible, so it might depend on the window manager **; fluxbox let's you (optionally) define which workspace a program will appear in, but other than that everything opens in the current workspace.

Edit: OP, do you get an option like this from the panel/taskbar?

** Edit: I was going to suggest using a different window manager, but
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/cinnam ... ow_manager

Use a different window manager
Cinnamon does not support using a different window manager.

[Flemur]

Some apps always open on whichever workspace it was left on.

Perhaps deleting the .cache files for that program (e.g. rm -r ./cache/mozilla) would cause it to forget which workspace it was left on (= ran on previously and closed..?). FWIW, I regularly delete ~/.cache/* without any harm.

[mikeflan]

I regularly delete ~/.cache/* without any harm.

That is something for me to consider. My .cache is 843 MB with 45,187 items
Just the directories are this:

Code: Select all

babl/
champlain/
chromium/
cinnamon-settings.py/
cs_backgrounds/
cs_themes/
dconf/
doc/
evolution/
filezilla/
flatpak/
fontconfig/
gegl-0.3/
gnome-calculator/
gnome-disks/
gnome-screenshot/
gstreamer-1.0/
ibus/
kioexec/
kio_http/
libgweather/
matplotlib/
mesa_shader_cache/
mintinstall/
mozilla/
obexd/
qtshadercache/
RawTherapee/
remmina/
rhythmbox/
ringcentral/
shutter/
simple-scan/
SpeedCrunch/
sushi/
thumbnails/
thunderbird/
tomboy/
transmission/
wallpaper/
xreader/
yelp/
youtube-dl/

[Tarka Dal]

Thanks for your input guys.

The cache folder was ~3.5Gb on this machine so I ran

Code: Select all

sudo mv .cache .cache_backup

in my home dir.

Firefox is now behaving "normally" and opening on the current workspace. Sublime Merge still opens wherever I left it

[karpo518]

Sublime Merge still opens wherever I left it

I dont know, what is about Sublime Merge, but flag "remember_workspace": false fixed the same problem in Sublime Text