steam notifications appearing causes windows to un-fullscreen when using bspwm, after the new steam UI update

steamopen Steam clientWindow manageroverlayDistro Family: Arch

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#9716 · opened 2023-06-24 by ana-rchy · updated 2024-06-04 · 11 comments · github

Aana-rchy 2023-06-24 github

Your system information

Steam client version (build number or date): 1687386907
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): arch linux
Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] no
Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] yes
Steam Logs: [generate by running this command in a terminal tar -zcvf ~/Desktop/steam-logs.tar.gz ~/.steam/steam/logs] steam-logs.tar.gz
GPU: rtx 3060ti

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

after the new ui update, whenever a notification such as "friend X is now playing Y" or "X has finished installing" pops up, the window im currently fullscreened/focused on un-fullscreens and goes to the very back of the current workspace
this never happened before the update

Steps for reproducing this issue:

use steam on bspwm
wait for a steam notification while in a fullscreen window

Nnegativems 2023-06-25 github

I have the same issue, maybe creating a rule on bspwm to make the Steam notification window floating could fix it, but I don't know how this window is called.

RRistovski 2023-06-30 github

Reproducible on Wayland with Sway. The notification appears to also steal certain input keys, so taking a screenshot while in-game makes you unable to move until the screenshot taken notification goes away.

Hhjpaul7 2023-07-02 github

Same with XMonad, it actually caused the entire screen to flicker black for a split second when the notification pops up or when disappearing.

HHexicube 2023-07-03 github

I have this on Manjaro KDE (I think Wayland), the issue is specifically that the notifications are stealing focus very briefly as when I'm playing Minecraft I'll stop moving when a notification appears. This just happens to also unmaximise some games, which I've observed on Diablo 4, and also happens on non-games as I observe title bars flicker whenever it happens due to the focus switching.

This also doesn't seem to be an issue when playing a game through Steam, presumably because notifications are being routed through the overlay. Oxygen Not Included does not show adverse effects when a notification appears.

Also worth noting that this also happens when the notification disappears too.

SSisScarletRed 2023-07-06 github

Same/Similar Issue here on LXQT on Lubuntu (Jammy).
It will unfocus the current window, focus briefly on the newly created overlay, which then reappears for a brief moment in the top-right corner after retracting.

Zzupatisc 2023-07-06 github

Same issue while using dwm, the popup is recongnized as a normal window instead of a popup and thus steals focus and moves the stack.
I think what needs to be done here is set the correct window flag, currently xprop shows the following:

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NORMAL

I compared this to the flags that my Dunst notification manager sets for the popups:

_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NOTIFICATION, _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY

Tttl-0 2023-07-14 github

I can confirm this issue on BSPWM as well. Pretty irritating when trying to work in a full screen.

JJ-Lowrance 2023-09-18 github

I am having this issue on EndeavourOS with KDE as well.

Ccpadilla 2024-03-20 github

I want to confirm I'm having this issue as well using dwm on arch linux. It sounds like @zupatisc 's solution might work. Perhaps we could get a PR with the changes tested? I could try to tackle it if I have time

Gg1sbi 2024-06-02 github

Bump. Having this issue as well on bspwm.

Xxmusjackson 2024-06-04 github

I'm having this issue as well in XFCE4 and X11. Running Linux 6.9.2, XFCE 4.18, and the latest stable steam client as of this date.

Nothing extracted yet.