6

I'd like application switching to include applications from all workspaces. While the settings look correct, application switching does not include applications from all workspaces but applications from the current workspace only. Changing the settings below "Application Switching" seems to have no effect.

I think to remember it worked nicely a few days ago. Since then, I've made some virtual machine installation tests and it is possible I've made modifications that ended with this bug. Is there a way to solve this problem?

  • Linux distribution: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
  • Linux kernel version: 5.15.0-43-generic

enter image description here

TVG
  • 529

2 Answers2

8

Cause

As already mentioned above, GNOME has 2 ways for switching applications:

  • 'Application switching' (usually mapped to Super + Tab) switches on a per-application basis, and
  • 'Window switching' (usually mapped to Alt + Tab) switches on a per-window basis.

Separate settings control the behavior of Application switching and Window switching. The settings described in the question apply to Application switching only (N.B. caption is literally 'Application switching'). This setting will not change the way Window switching works.

Similar setting exists for Window switching as well, the factory default for which is "current workspace only" -- hence the experienced behavior. Unfortunately this second setting is not shown on the GUI, therefore cannot be changed directly.

Solution

In order to enable cross-workspace Window switching with Alt+Tab, the configuration value of org.gnome.shell.window-switcher.current-workspace-only must be set to false with some other tool than Settings.

  • Option 1: use the following command from a terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.window-switcher current-workspace-only false
  • Option 2: use the Dconf Editor tool (install if necessary from software center or from terminal: sudo apt install dconf-editor), then use the treebrowser in Dconf Editor to navigate to org.gnome.shell.window-switcher.current-workspace-only, turn off the switch: dconf setting

Alt + Tab will then include windows from all workspaces.

Source

balage
  • 196
  • 1
  • 4
3

Super+Tab keyboard shortcut will give you the functionality you need.. under settings->keyboard->navigation->switch applications you can change the keyboard shortcut to Alt+Tab if that's your preference.

Daniel Cavalli
  • 31