Bug 189309

Summary:	Desktop switching shortcuts behave badly
Product:	[Plasma] kwin	Reporter:	Nicholas Coltharp <coltharpnicholas>
Component:	general	Assignee:	KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE
Severity:	normal	CC:	finex
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Nicholas Coltharp 2009-04-10 20:43:38 UTC

Version:           4.2.2 (using KDE 4.2.2)
Compiler:          gcc (Ubuntu 4.3.3-5ubuntu4) 4.3.3 
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

In Compiz with the cube enabled, it is possible to switch between desktops with the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Left and Ctrl+Alt+Right. The first one switches a a desktop to the left and the second switches a desktop to the right.

In Kwin, I thought I could enable this by going to System Settings->Keyboard & Mouse->Global Keyboard Shortcuts->Kwin and setting "Switch One Desktop to the Left/Right" to Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right.

However, under the default settings, these shortcuts do not work properly. Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right both move me a desktop to the left initially, and then back a desktop to the right.

The reason for this is the 2x2 grid in which my 4 desktops are laid out. I can fix this by creating a Pager plasmoid and setting my number of columns to 0, which lays my desktops out in a straight line. However, I don't want a Pager plasmoid, so I remove it. When I restart X, my pager's settings are gone, and so the shortcuts are back to their normal, irritating ways.

Comment 1 Martin Flöser 2009-04-18 14:25:40 UTC

could you try the following: add the pager plasmoid, change the layout, logout, login, remove the plasmoid, logout and login. I just want to know if the setting does not get saved or if there is another reason for that behaviour.

Comment 2 Nicholas Coltharp 2009-04-19 03:01:44 UTC

Following your instructions, I got the following behavior:

After adding the Pager: the Pager had the settings that it had last time I used it--that is, all of my desktops were in a straight line. My shortcuts now worked the way I wanted them to, where they hadn't before during that session.

After restarting X: Everything still worked fine.

After removing the Pager: Everything still worked fine.

After restarting X: The shortcuts no longer worked.

Comment 3 Martin Flöser 2009-04-19 10:33:24 UTC

As I thought: the layout is only set when the pager is active.

Comment 4 FiNeX 2010-10-10 19:58:59 UTC

@Martin: so what does it mean? Does the screen layout depend from the pager plasmoid?

Comment 5 Martin Flöser 2010-10-10 20:10:05 UTC

(In reply to comment #4)
> @Martin: so what does it mean? Does the screen layout depend from the pager
> plasmoid?
Yes, that's how it is standardized. The layout is set by a pager, not by the window manager. See http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/wm-spec-latest.html#id2550891

we have somewhere a bug report/feature request to have a pager independent layout, so this could be a duplicate of it.

Comment 6 Thomas Lübking 2010-10-10 21:14:40 UTC

i'll just mark it - according to the last comment (no idea about credability) it doesn't /have/ to be a pager, kwin could just pretend to be one...

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 105779 ***