1805766 - Open new tab from 3rd party application raises window AND moves it to the current virtual desktop

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Core :: DOM: UI Events & Focus Handling, defect)

Description

[René Bertin]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/109.0

Steps to reproduce:

Click on a link in an email (opened say in KMail), with FF set to open such URLs in a new tab.

Actual results:

Whatever window is chosen as the parent for the new tab is brought to the foreground on the current virtual desktop screen, even if it was on a different virtual desktop.

Expected results:

Before the window would be brought to the foreground of its current virtual desktop. Waterfox G5 still does that.

I'm using KWin 5.x which does not to my knowledge have any options allowing to control this. I am not seeing a FF option either.

I can imagine that some people want the new tab to be opened in the visible foreground, bringing the window from wherever it was. But I'm pretty certain I am not the only person to use virtual desktops to separate various activities, including open browser tabs organised in windows that are intended to stay put on their corresponding desktop.

Comment 1

[Jan Harders]

I can confirm this bug, happens for me too, also KWin 5.x (5.18). Very disrupting new behavior.

Workaround: via "Configure Special Window Settings" (right click title bar, "More Actions") you can set the Desktop to whichever you want Firefox to remain on and choose "Force". Will not help if you occasionally take your Firefox window with you as you switch Desktops, but for "I have my Firefox on Desktop X and I want it to stay there", it works just like it did before the Update.

Comment 2

[René Bertin]

That workaround only works if you have all your browser windows on a single desktop, which is not my case. I don't see a KWin setting either to prevent applications from switching desktops on their own (= allowing only user-controlled changes via KWin).

Curiously, the issue isn't happening to me at the moment. That is, I had gone back to running Waterfox G5.1 off the same profile for a while, then restarted FF 109 because all addons I had moved into the overflow menu had disappeared and I figured I had to dig them out of FF's new addon menu thingy to get them back.
The only possibly related tweak is that I set mozilla.widget.raise-on-setfocus to false ... but I had already done that (and I think relaunched FF) before reporting this bug.

Clearly this tweak means windows aren't raised anymore at all. TBH that is a better workaround for me, but I still think the new "power raise" feature is a regression as long as it is that or no raising at all. Why not make mozilla.widget.raise-on-setfocus a tristate setting?