SUMMARY For some time, I've been annoyed by new application instances opening their windows *underneath* my existing windows instead of on top of them, with a new yellow-tinted icon appearing in the icons-only task manager instead of merging with the one I clicked. I was at a loss understanding where this annoying behavior came from, until I found a forum post where someone explained that it could be caused by focus prevention policy. I had indeed changed that, but had no idea that focus prevention would affect depth order. It is hardly self-explanatory, is not stated in the help text, and isn't something I want given my preference to have focus and depth order independent of each other ("click to focus" and "click raises active window" both turned off). STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Under "Windows Management / Window Behavior / Focus", set "Focus stealing prevention" to "High", uncheck "Click raises active window", set "Focus Policy" to "Focus Follows Mouse - Mouse Precedence". 2. Ensure you have the current workspace covered with windows (to make it clear whether a newly opened window is opened above or below other windows), and an application focused that is not Konsole. 3. Go to the icons-only task manager and middle click on the Konsole icon to open a new instance of Konsole. OBSERVED RESULT The new Konsole window opens below the existing windows, and a new yellow-tinted icon appears indicating that focus prevention took place for this window. EXPECTED RESULT The new Konsole window should open on top of the other windows, regardless of focus prevention. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS Linux/KDE Plasma: Kubuntu 18.04 KDE Plasma Version: 5.12.8 KDE Frameworks Version: 5.44.0 Qt Version: 5.9.5
I'm sorry, but our understanding of focus stealing is also preventing windows from raising itself. I assume you don't experience this with all apps. If I am right, please report the issue to the affected applications: they shouldn't try to raise themselves. This is important as Wayland doesn't allow changes of stacking order.
Perhaps the function should just be renamed "focus stealing and raise prevention"? Or at least, mention that they are connected in the help? When the settings otherwise allow focus and raise operations to be independent, it's very confusing that they are forcibly connected here without any mention of that being the case. This is no problem for me personally, now, since I can live with changing the focus & raise prevention level to medium. Then I can successfully launch applications from one part of KDE without another part of KDE working against me. But I would never had found that solution myself, i.e. changing a focus-related setting to solve a problem that has nothing to do with focus behavior.