If I have a conversation window open in Empathy, it is not possible to get the contact list back in focus - even if I move the contact list to another workspace. If I try to use Alt-Tab instead of the mouse, the contact list does not even show up as a selection choice.
I can however click on the contact list to open another conversation or change my status.
This wouldn't be a big deal except that I'm running 11.04 with Unity. And of course, in Unity, it is not possible to access the menus for a program unless a window is in focus, thanks to the global menu. This means that it is impossible to change a setting in Empathy without closing an open conversation - the conversation window does have an entry for Edit->Preferences; only the Contact List has this.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: empathy 2.34.0-0ubuntu3.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-10.46-generic 2.6.38.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-10-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Aug 18 09:55:41 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: empathy
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
Correction: this seems to be a Unity bug - similar to how you don't get proper focus in Firefox if you use the keyboard to change workspaces instead of choosing the program from the launcher. So, to reproduce you have to open Empathy and a conversation window, go back to another workspace (eg to check your email) and then return. Closing the Contact List and then using the Chat/Email indicator icon in the panel to reopen it gets things working again.