Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

I run my desktops with pointer focus (that is, focus is based on mouse position). I've been doing that for literally decades, so I'm not stopping now. In that model, I absolutely do not want "auto-raise" behavior, because, well, it puts me in a killing rage when the window manager randomly decides to raise a window while I'm in the middle of doing something.

Up until recently, this worked out fine in xfce with the default xfce window manager. However, of late I've noticed that (in particular with Chrome) that the application seems to deliberately override my desire to not have "auto-raise" behavior. For example, if I want to have a Chrome window open with something on it for me to peruse, and another Chrome window behind it that I want to type into (like, a stack exchange site), well, I can't. When I mouse out of the foreground window to type into the other Chrome window, the other window auto-raises. This makes me very very upset.

This seems to be an application thing, but I'm not really sure. If I bring up two xterm windows, for example, I don't get the effect. In fact I really don't get it with anything other than Chrome, now that I think about it. So is this a Chrome "feature"? Is there a way to make it stop doing that?

share|improve this question
You should really try a tiling window manager, such as xmonad, if you like "focus on hover". Which also would fix the problem with Chrome. – Sergey Sep 23 '11 at 2:20
I'm way too old to make a change like that :-) But thanks. – Pointy Sep 23 '11 at 2:30
OP are you still looking for an answer? If so, you may need to repost your question as this is flagged for closure. =) – Ringtail Mar 8 '12 at 1:41
@BlueXrider well no I've mostly given up Chrome because its developer tools are pretty lame compared to Firebug (which isn't saying much, but it's something). Thanks for the heads-up however. – Pointy Mar 8 '12 at 3:17

closed as too localized by Ringtail, bodhi.zazen, Takkat, fossfreedom♦ Mar 31 '12 at 12:28

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.