Focus Retention when switching to (non-EXWM) buffers

[moritzschaefer]

When switching to another window (usually on a different workspace) with an emacs (not EXWM/X) buffer, it happens (50% of cases) that the 'focus' remains on the last window.

This is visible from the cursor color in switched-to window-buffer (a transparent box
)

rather than the full-color active-cursor cursor

More importantly, when in this inactive state, it happens that typing on the keyboard, leads to input-actions on the previous buffer/window (no matter whether it is an EXWM/X buffer or an emacs buffer)! In consequence, the active workspace automatically "switches back" showing the previously active window/workspace/buffer.

Any ideas on how to debug this?

PS 1: For a long time, I suspected that this is the same error as described in #759, but it must be different, since it also happens when switching between emacs-buffers (although less often)

PS 2: Following old #942 I am opening this in this new repo. A big thank you to the maintainer(s) for moving this project forward!

[minad]

I also stumble over over focus issues from time to time (in general, maybe not specifically this one). Fixing focus issues has a high priority and I hope that we will make progress there soon. In general it is helpful if you provide a minimal recipe (a minimal Emacs configuration), and figure out precise reproduction steps. As you wrote, the issue only happens in 50% of the cases, so the behavior is likely timing dependent and this makes it a little harder to debug. Maybe @Stebalien has some specific debugging suggestions?

[nagy]

I have had this exact same issue and my solution was to update libX11 to 1.8.4 as I documented here ch11ng/exwm#889 (comment) . There are other suggested fixes in that thread.

[moritzschaefer]

Thank you so much for pointing me there. I read through the issues, but didn't recognize that issue as mine while skimming over it. Closing here in favor of the other one

[ArneBab]

I also experience this from time to time. For months I suspected that it was tied to mu4e, but just now it is happening without mu4e and between two Emacs buffers (doc-view mode and org-mode). My libX11 is on version 1.8.7.

[Stebalien]

@ArneBab can you try setting x-no-window-manager to t? I've found not setting this can cause some focus issues, but I've only seen them when switching between X and Emacs windows.

(note: this is now set to t on master, but that hasn't been released yet)

[ArneBab]

I set it now — will report whether the issue repeats in the next days. Thank you!