Bug 512841

Summary:	Keyboard cannot get focus when alarm is activated in a full screen application
Product:	[Applications] kalarm	Reporter:	kde
Component:	general	Assignee:	David Jarvie <djarvie>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED
Severity:	normal
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	3.5.4.2
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian stable
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:	https://invent.kde.org/pim/kalarm/-/commit/2d5e049f93b2e3446112e76e6ee28260565ccbff	Version Fixed/Implemented In:	26.04
Sentry Crash Report:

Description kde 2025-12-01 16:15:38 UTC

SUMMARY
If an alarm is activated when running a full screen application the alarm notification dialog and subsequent dialogs ie "Edit Alarm" and "Defer Alarm" do not respond to the keyboard. The keystrokes are sent to the full screen application instead of the KAlarm dialog.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Create a display alarm
2. Run an application in full screen mode (I tried SMPlayer and Firefox)
3. Wait for alarm to activate
4. Click on the notification dialog so it gets focus
5. Alt-D does not bring up the "Defer Alarm" dialog
6. The [Defer…] button needs to be clicked to bring up the "Defer Alarm" dialog
7. Same for the [Close] and [Edit…] buttons, Alt-C and Alt-E have no effect

OBSERVED RESULT
The KAlarm dialogs that pop-up over a full screen application does not have a title bar. Also they do not capture keystrokes, instead keystrokes are processed by the full screen application. Even when the full screen application is taken off full screen mode (eg using 'f' to toggle full screen in SMPlayer or F11 in Firefox) any already opened alarm notifications and its child dialogs (ie "Edit Alarm" and "Defer Alarm") continue to ignore keystrokes. Furthermore clicking into one of the date or time input widgets has no effect ie no cursor appears in the widget - the only way to change to input is to use the spin buttons.

EXPECTED RESULT
Keyboard input should be functional even when the alarm notification pops up over a full screen application.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In KDE settings I have
Window activation policy: Focus follows mouse (mouse precedence)

So whether I simply move the mouse cursor over the KAlarm dialog or explicitly click on the KAlarm dialog the keystrokes are still processed by the full screen application.

Comment 1 David Jarvie 2025-12-02 23:05:51 UTC

For recent versions of KAlarm (since version 3.10.1), message windows are only ever displayed without a title bar if this has been selected by the user in KAlarm's Configuration dialog.

On a system with only one screen, desktop notifications are suppressed while a full screen application is active, so alarm display is suspended until the other application switches out of full screen mode. For systems with more than one screen, message windows should be displayed on a different screen from any screen containing a full screen application with focus.

Comment 2 kde 2025-12-03 08:08:39 UTC

I installed Manjaro on a test system so I could try out a more recent version of KDE than what is available with Debian Bookworm. For reference the KAlarm on Manjaro is currently 3.11.21
KDE Gear 25.08.1
KDE Frameworks 6.18.0
Qt Using 6.9.1 and built against 6.9.2

As you say, there is an option to show or not show the title bar for Alarm Windows.

And if a full screen application is running then alarms do not show. Can this be made a user configurable option? Personally I would want the alarms to show regardless of whatever else is going on, it kind of defeats the purpose of an alarm if they do not show. Thanks.

Comment 3 David Jarvie 2025-12-09 21:00:43 UTC

What you say makes sense. I've now added an option in the Edit Alarm dialog to override notification inhibition, which will also make the alarm message display when a full screen application is active. On X11 the alarm will appear without title bar (as in your KAlarm version) but it will only have an OK button to ensure that it can't activate other dialogs/windows which then remain hidden. Unfortunately on Wayland, I don't think there is any way of forcing a message to appear on top of a full screen application.

This change will appear in KAlarm version 3.13, which will be in KDE Gear 26.04. Commit 2d5e049f93b2e3446112e76e6ee28260565ccbff in master.