When clicking on a URL link in other package, focus is not automatically switched to Firefox

Ask Fedora
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Currently using Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition).

In older versions of Fedora, if I clicked a link in eg Thunderbird, or any package for that matter, the link would open in my default browser (Firefox) and then Fedora would automatically make Firefox the current window.

In the last few versions of Fedora, focus is not automatically switched to Firefox and I have to select Firefox manually.

I know, its a tough life :wink: but I wonder if there is a way to do this automatically?

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

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Have you checked in the Settings >> Apps >> Default apps > and verified if Firefox is the default web app?

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@ilikelinux Hi, yes Firefox is selected as the default app

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@grumpey Thanks for pointing that out -
It seems the extension did not work for that person.
I looked at the extension and it has a massive amount of settings and it seems it interferes with eg Dash to Panel which I also use, so I dont think it would be good to install.
I did “gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-new-windows” and it returned “smart” so that is already set.
So like that person I dont have a solution still.

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Sorry about that.

.. so oddly enough ..
ptyxis 49.2 if I ctrl+click a url in the terminal I get the prompt.
fractal installed from the :fedora: repos and the telegram flatpak I do not.
Steam worked once without the prompt with firefox as the default browser.
Switched to Chrome, got the prompt and then got the prompt on firefox as well…

[grumpey@grumpey1: ~]$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode
'click'
[grumpey@grumpey1: ~]$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-new-windows
'smart'

I have gnome-tweaks installed but do not have any extensions installed.

There’s a bug here that suggests another gnome extension Steal my focus window - GNOME Shell Extensions

I just tried it and it appears to work..

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@grumpey No need to apologize - I appreciate your time and effort.

I have clicked Install on the gnome extension Steal my focus window - GNOME Shell Extensions page and always get an error from Gnome Extensions manager: “Connections Error - GDBus.error.org.freedesktop…….”. So then I download the extension but in typical Gnome fashion, there is no documentation that I can find as to what to do with the download.

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Do you have gnome-browser-connector installed?
sudo dnf install gnome-browser-connector

that’s probably the easiest way to install gnome extensions from their site.

Edit:
Extensions are installed to your home directory:
/home/username/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
My permissions are drwxr-xr-x. (755 )

From what I can gather the directory name for the extension should match the uuid in the metadata.json file. This is where the files should go.
/home/username/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/steal-my-focus-window@steal-my-focus-window/
Same permissions as the above directory.

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@grumpey Thanks for your additional help - I found that
gnome-browser-connector
was already installed.

I manually installed the extension as you suggested but the exetension did not show up in Gnome Extension Manager.

It took me a couple of days to notice that there was now an On/Off switch on the extension’s webpage, hence my late reply.
Once I turned the extension on using the webpage, the extension then also appeared in the Extension manager. And now Firefox does open immediately after clicking a link in eg Thunderbird.

Thanks again for time and effort on this - you are now saving me hundreds of clicks per day.

1 Like