Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

rha · 2020-05-23 17:04:07

Hello,
Apologies if this has been asked before, but I've been unable to find any references to this behaviour.

System is XFCE 4.14 under Fedora release 32.

On starting Firefox under XFCE4, where there are two or more windows in the Firefox session, one window will open in the current workspace, and the rest will open in the workspace they were in when they were last closed (when the Firefox session was ended).

To be more accurate, it looks as if the windows all open in the current workspace, then all but one of them will move to the window from the previous session.

For example: If there is a Firefox session with seven windows, two on workspace 3 and five on workspace 4, and the session is ended (by Ctrl+q when one of the windows has focus), and Firefox is started on workspace 2, then all of the windows will briefly appear on workspace 2 and the window that had focus when the session was closed stays on workspace 2 and the other windows are moved to the workspaces they were on when the session is ended.

The windows can be seen in the 'workspace switcher' animating from one workspace to the others.

This is not the behaviour I experienced on my old system (Fedora 27, maybe, can't remember), where all windows of a session would open in the current workspace, regardless of which workspace they'd been in when the program was closed.

Is there any way that the workspace state can be cleared when a program is closed, so that all windows will always open on the current workspace?

Setting the 'Always on Visible Workspace' option is not a workable solution for me.

Hope that i've managed to make the situation clear.

Thanks,
rha

MrEen · 2020-05-23 17:16:44

This is just a guess, but you wouldn't happen to be running devilspie, would you? This program does something like what you're describing.

rha · 2020-05-23 17:24:46

MrEen wrote:

This is just a guess, but you wouldn't happen to be running devilspie, would you? This program does something like what you're describing.

Thanks for the reply.

Not unless it comes with the package. I'm not familiar with it. I just installed Fedora 32 a few days ago and have not (deliberately) installed any tweaks apart from Redshift.

rha

MrEen · 2020-05-23 17:29:53

Okay, I'm sure it's something else then. We'll wait to wait for better help.

eriefisher · 2020-05-23 19:14:06

When you log out/shutdown is the "save session" checked. It could be trying to load old login sessions.

rha · 2020-05-23 20:02:39

eriefisher wrote:

When you log out/shutdown is the "save session" checked. It could be trying to load old login sessions.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I may have the terminology wrong... by session I meant the Firefox session, not XFCE session. I have multiple Firefox profiles, so, I may open one up and use it for a while, then close it down and open another one that gets used for a different purpose. It's just a way of compartmentalising my use of the computer.

Firefox is set to save its session, so that I get all the tabs and windows that I was using last time for that particular profile. It never displayed this behaviour in my previous install of Fedora + XFCE. Would Firefox remember which workspaces the windows were displayed across? I guess it could be done.

I tend to suspend the computer rather than log out. I don't have XFCE set to remember what programs were open when I do log out (usually only when shutting down or restarting the computer).

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the reply,
rha

eriefisher · 2020-05-23 21:16:20

Ok, I see. I've never dealt with firefox that way and I'm not even sure how that sort of set up is even accomplished. I'm afraid I'm no help there.

rha · 2020-05-23 21:44:04

eriefisher wrote:

Ok, I see. I've never dealt with firefox that way and I'm not even sure how that sort of set up is even accomplished. I'm afraid I'm no help there.

Hey, thanks anyway.

If you want to try the firefox thing, what I do is make a launcher for it (I drag the icon from the applications menu to the panel) and edit the properties to include a -P in the command. Can also do this at the command line in a termial. This will start it with the profile manager, which gives you option to create additional profiles to the default one, and lets you choose the one you want to start with.

Doing this you can have different profiles with different extensions, if you want to try stuff out without messing things up too badly. I only do this as I like to keep tabs open between sessions, and have different profiles for e.g. online banking, general surfing, music stuff, testing extensions, etc. Constantly having to fight clutter, though, in the tab area.

rha

eriefisher · 2020-05-23 22:38:12

Hmmmm, ok. Thanks

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#1 2020-05-23 17:04:07

Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#2 2020-05-23 17:16:44

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#3 2020-05-23 17:24:46

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#4 2020-05-23 17:29:53

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#5 2020-05-23 19:14:06

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#6 2020-05-23 20:02:39

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#7 2020-05-23 21:16:20

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#8 2020-05-23 21:44:04

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

#9 2020-05-23 22:38:12

Re: Program with multiple windows opens on previous workspace not current

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