Alt-Tab not working after upgrade

[hanspb]

Hi,
I just upgraded from Mint 20.3 to 21 (Cinnamon) with Mintupgrade. After the upgrade, Alt-Tab is not working. I have googled without any results.

Anybody able to help?

[vimes666]

Have you checked the keyboard bindings?
<menu><preferences><keyboard><shortcuts
Then click windows in the left pane an click 'Cycle through open windows'.
In the bottom pane you can see what it is set at now.
If it says unassigned (the first one) then change it to alt-tab.

[hanspb]

Well, there is no entry for "Cycle through open windows". So I tried "Add custom shortcut", but that doesn't work either.

[vimes666]

I am sorry, I was referencing an older cinnamon version. It has been moved to the 'general' tab.

[hanspb]

Right, I found it. But it turns out is is assigned correctly, but it still doesn't work.

[vimes666]

Try to change alt-tab into ctrl-pause and then try to use that combination for switching. If that works it may mean that either the alt or tab key is malfunctioning.
Also check whether you are using the correct keyboard layout.

[hanspb]

I assume you mean Ctrl-space. That doesn't work either. And I have checked that both the Alt and Tab keys are working for other things.
I only have one keyboard layout, the same I have had for years.

[vimes666]

I didnt mean any specific combination as long as it were other keys. Its unfortunate that it didnt work, because I am out of ideas.

[hanspb]

Ok, thank you anyway. I tried a couple of other combinations, but nothing worked.

[motoryzen]

Hmm.. here's something I haven't seen mentioned here yet to check...

Open cinnamon menu, " Windows" without the quotes. and select the Alt-Tab button at the top right.

What is the drop down selection you currently have?

If it's " Window Preview ( no icons), then that's either A or THE source of the problem and your alt-tab is working but visually you're accidentally misunderstanding thinking it isn't working because you're not seeing any really easily to notice visually indicators of it such as you'd see with every other option.

Change that away from "Window preview (no icons).

[hanspb]

Hi,
Sorry, it's not that either. I have already tried that. But even if that was the case, a new wi dow should have received focus and been brought to the front. Nothing happens at all.

[motoryzen]

I'd say boot into a Linux Mint live environment and use timeshift to timeshift back to a restore point before the upgrade, go back and review the directions and try again. Beyond that..I'm not sure what to think. That's a new one for me.

[vimes666]

It may be worth checking for error messages. I would expect those either in the syslog or the xsession log.
Try to switch windows a few times and then execute the following terminal commands:

Code: Select all

tail -n10 .xsession-errors

and

Code: Select all

tail -n10 /var/log/syslog

Please post the output of both commands here to the forum.

[kingzLoFitness]

Finally found Solution for my Macbook Pro 2010 using Linux Mint 19.3 (only Linux Mint version to work with this Computer by the way). Enjoy:

- Go to Windows Menu
- Search for Keyboard
- Go to Layouts Tab
- Choose: Options button (bottom right) - takes you to Keyboard Layout Options
- go to third arrow named "Alt/Win Key Behavior"
- Choose: "Left Alt is swapped witih Left Win"

This will change (swap) the left Window Button (or in this case Mac Cmd icon) into Left Alt, making left Window (cmd) button as the left Alt (and of course the actual Left Alt still wont function).

NOTE: Only the Right Window will function as a proper key to work with normally (having 2 Window Buttons will not be the same again, but doable (to me at least)).

I find this helpful because I can now left Alt + tab to swap open files. as an example. and other keyboard shortcuts that uses the Left Alt keyboard shortcut (using the Left Windows Button).

[glg]

I'm a bit late to the party, but for anyone else experiencing similar problem after upgrade to Mint 21
(or possibly just a cinnamon version upgrade?)

I found my installed theme (Adara-Dark, for "Desktop" theme setting) didn't work properly for the ALT-TAB On-Screen-Display and I had to change it after the upgrade.

ALT-TAB function itself still worked but the on-screen display for it didn't, so I couldn't see which application I was tabbing TO which made it impossible to use.

The initial set of icons representing my open applications would appear, but none were highlighted and as I tabbed back & forth (ALT-TAB & ALT-SHIFT-TAB) there was no indicator to show which application I had landed on.

Changing the theme fixed this without touching key-bindings or specific ALT-TAB behaviour settings.