Child Windows [of Synaptic/update manager] should remain in the same desktop as the parent window

mac_v, this has to be filed against synaptic only. notify-osd is not responsible (or in control) regarding what application sends notification-requests to it. This is purely within the scope of the application in question and not the notification-daemon "notify-osd".

after discussion with mvo on irc.

Assigning after discussing on irc

Is this a paper cut? Aren't the affected projects being replaced by App Center in Karmic?

David Siegel , no , synaptic by karmic+1 , and update manager probably by karmic+2

This is a window manager issue, not an issue with synaptic itself. If you notice, metacity does not do this.

Jason Smith , you maybe right , i tried this after setting window manager to metacity and there were no such problems.

Since this seems more of a compiz bug , Assigning to Travis after discussing with him.

I can confirm that in Xubuntu, update-manager has alway grabbed focus for all child/popup/status windows, which is annoying. As a user, I expect this this to run in the background, in a less intrusive way.

I don't think this is a compiz problem, because I never installed that package, and I can confirm that compiz is NOT installed in my current systems.

Thank you very much for making this a paper cut!

I believe this is a wider (compiz?) problem. Windows often keep popping to the active desktop.

For instance, if I start Aptana on one desktop, it displays the splash screen, as it takes a while for it to load. If I then switch to another desktop, Aptana opens there, and not on the desktop where it was launched. This happens with every application with a splash screen.

It is quite frustrating, since you have to wait for the application to load completely, before switching to another desktop. If I launch an application on one particular desktop, I obviously want it there, and not wherever I go next.

As pointed out in a bug 35876 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/metacity/+bug/35876), this bug appears to be two-fold. 1. Synaptic/Update Manager shouldn't be trying to steal focus and 2. compiz should not be allowing it to do so. However, I think #1 seems like a more appropriate fix.

Loye Young proposed a fix in that bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/metacity/+bug/35876/comments/46
https://bugs.launchpad.net/metacity/+bug/35876/comments/55

Has anyone attempted a patch based on the suggestions provided?

I'm using compiz 0.8.4 on Ubuntu 10.04 and I have the same problems. Update Manager steals focus, as does every other application after starting up while I'm working in another window.

I strongly second that "Personally I don't see any good reason to steal focus, ever. It is quite simply rude and annoying." (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/373974)

As pointed out in https://bugs.launchpad.net/metacity/+bug/67476 this is security risk.

I would like to note Gtk3 seems to fix this, as the child window is attached to the parent.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I noticed this behavior with Synaptic and Eclipse. Modal windows should open on their parent's viewport.

Thanks a lot for reporting this. Can you please confirm if it's still a problem in 12.04?

Removing assignee since several years have passed since the original assingment.

Still very much an issue in 12.04.

Reading the discussion, there are many nice ideas here that perhaps should belong to separate papercuts:

1: Modal windows should open on their parent's viewport.
2: Modal windows should not steal focus if parents were not focused.
3: Unfocused modal windows should fire an alert on the launcher.
4: All windows of the same app should try to share the same desktop - https://bugs.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+bug/391479/comments/10