Subject: FVWM: occasional SloppyFocus mis-focus

From: [email-masked] (Andrew Pimlott)
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 18:12:58 -0500

I have a problem that I can't reproduce, but it's driving me crazy,
so I post in hopes that someone can offer a hint.

I use SloppyFocus, and on one computer I occasionally (perhaps once
a day) find that the mouse is in a window, but that window doesn't
have focus.  Sometimes (I think), the focus remains flaky for a few
more window transitions (ie, as I wave the pointer around in
frustration, trying to regain control of focus), and then returns to
normal.  Sometimes the failure happens after mouse movement into the
new window, sometimes after switching pages in the virtual desktop
(via keyboard shortcut) such that the mouse lands in a new window.
The problem happens very infrequently, so my recollections of the
occurances are fuzzy (and above details may be mistaken).  I have
never reproduced the problem intentionally.  Has anyone else seen
it?

This seems only to happen on one computer (I have used the same
setup on two others for years, and I don't recall ever seeing it
there).  I am using roughly, but not exactly, the same software
versions on all three (the problem machine is running Debian
"testing" as of a few weeks ago, the others Debian "stable"; exact
software versions below).  The other difference is that this machine
has small personal hacks to the mouse handling in XFree86 and gpm,
which I highly doubt could cause this, but would like to rule out
(because I intend to submit them to the maintainers).  I will try to
reproduce the problem without my hacks next time I start X.

I am using
- Debian testing
- fvwm 2.2.4, with the following config entry setting my focus model
    Style "*" SloppyFocus,ActivePlacement,DumbPlacement,NoPPosition
- XFree86 3.3.6, framebuffer server
- gpm 1.17.8 repeating an IMPS/2 mouse to X as an IntelliMouse (this
  repeater mode is a Debian patch)
- Linux kernel 2.2.19pre7, x86

Thanks for any clues,
Andrew

PS.  Please Cc: me on any replies.
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---

From: Dominik Vogt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 12:24:40 +0100

> reproduce the problem without my hacks next time I start X.

It's a well known problem (at least to me), but you can't do much
about it except upgrading to the latest beta version.  The best
way to reproduce - as far as I remember - is to switch pages and
then move the mouse before switching is completed.  The focus
code has been cleaned up in the betas, so this should not happen
anymore.  The frequency at which the problem occurs is mainly
related to the speed of the X server.  The slower the server, the
higher the chance to see this.

Bye

Dominik ^_^  ^_^

--
Dominik Vogt, email: [email-masked]
LifeBits Aktiengesellschaft, Albrechtstr. 9, D-72072 Tuebingen
fon: ++49 (0) 7071/7965-0, fax: ++49 (0) 7071/7965-20
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---

From: [email-masked] (Andrew Pimlott)
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 10:42:26 -0500

On Wed, Feb 14, 2001 at 12:24:40PM +0100, Dominik Vogt wrote:
> > have focus.
> anymore.

Thanks for the confirmation.  Only a second before reading your
email, I had it happen:  I had two Netscape pop-ups one above the
other, with the focus on the top one.  I hit escape to close the top
one, and when it went away, focus was not in the bottom one (even
though the pointer was).  I may have been moving the mouse at the
time.  Moving the pointer into the title bar gave it focus.

I just reproduced it once using the suggestion you gave (moving the
mouse while switching pages with the keyboard), though it's not
consistent.  I also reproduced it on the same machine using an
unmodified X server and gpm.  My technique was to open two xterms,
put the focus in one, and close it with ctrl-d while moving the
pointer into the other.  Sometimes, when I get to the other, it
doesn't have focus.  I'll try reproducing on other machines.

Anyway, I'll write this off as a known problem.  Thanks!

> The frequency at which the problem occurs is mainly

Well, the machine where I see the problem is the fastest of the
bunch, however it is using the unaccelerated framebuffer server,
which obviously makes many drawing operations slower.

Andrew