Xfce Forum

Ferdinand

Member

Registered: 2020-07-22

Posts: 8

Are CSD windows always raising?

I just noticed that Mousepad has begun raising to top when I click inside the application window; it doesn't respect my window manager settings of not raising on click (Settings > Window Manager > Focus > Raise on click).

I also noticed that it's been changed to CSD, and so I tested my other CSD applications, and they all raise when I click inside the application window.

It's curious that I haven't noticed before, but I guess I don't have many CSD applications

Anyway, my question is: Does anybody know how I can prevent those CSD applications from raising when I click inside the application windows?

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 321

Re: Are CSD windows always raising?

First, a simple solution for Mousepad: you can run

gsettings set org.xfce.mousepad.preferences.window client-side-decorations false

to disable CSD.

For a general solution regarding CSD and xfwm4, I think there is nothing to do but to modify the code.
However, the modification is very simple: see https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/-/merge_requests/8

I personally use this patch, but you have to know that afterwards CSD windows don't raise at all, even when clicking on the title bar (with CSD there is actually no title bar from the window manager point of view).
You have to click on the window while holding down the key to grab and move windows, configurable in the advanced settings of xfwm4.
That's what I do.

Ferdinand

Member

Registered: 2020-07-22

Posts: 8

Re: Are CSD windows always raising?

Ah, thank you @Tamaranch - you saved Mousepad for me; I was about to uninstall it and use notepadqq instead, but now I don't have to - Mousepad is actually a very good editor

I read the discussion that was referenced from the merge request you linked to, and I must say I'm getting more and more upset about this CSD thing - they are actually talking about abandoning the possibility to not auto-raise, just to support "modern CSD clients". I have no idea why CSD should be modern - it completely ruins any possibility of having uniform look-and-feel of the desktop. It's not modern; it reminds me of early Windows multitasking which depended on the individual applications to release the processor, so the next application could run. It's not modern, it's archaic - every application is a loose cannon with no common policing

EDIT:
It seems KDE are able to tame those pesky CSD things?
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/12/kde … integrated
I haven't used KDE in years, but maybe it's time to try it out and see how they're managing CSD applications.

Last edited by Ferdinand (2021-06-22 09:43:08)

Tamaranch

Member

Registered: 2020-12-31

Posts: 321

Re: Are CSD windows always raising?

Yes, CSD are a bit controversial
You can have a look at https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui/-/issues/14 if you haven't already done so.
We also discussed this a bit when adding it to Mousepad: https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/- … equests/97

Regarding the link you quote, I'm afraid it only concerns theming (which is already not bad), not the possibility to have CSD header bar recognized by the window manager. But I could be wrong, because I don't know much about this area, and I haven't tried KDE for a long time either.