Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): metacity-2.4.34-3. XFree86-4.3.0-2 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start xclock 2. Notice it appears in the task list applet on the panel 3. Unsuccessfuly try to switch to it using alt-tab This might as well be because the xclock utility doesn't behave. I don't really care whether this works, but the inconsistency between task list applet and metacity might matter.
This is why: Thu Dec 5 18:41:02 2002 HideToshi Tajima <hidetoshi.tajima> * src/window.h (META_WINDOW_IN_NORMAL_TAB_CHAIN, META_WINDOW_IN_DOCK_TAB_CHAIN) : never use a window with input = FALSE take_focus = FALSE in the normal and dock tab chains. #90409 You can see bugzilla.gnome.org bug 90409 for the full analysis.
Havoc, Thanks, so it is by design. I was trying to use Alt-Tab not for the focus, but to raise the window; A similar comment in the gnome bug was not answered either. Anyway, feel free to close this bug if you don't feel like reverting the change. I've observed it only on xclock and ghostscript output window, both have a more GNOME-ish replacement. Thanks.
I think the current setup suboptimal, but I don't really know any way to fix it, so I think it's the best we can get. We might want to fix xclock to accept focus, perhaps.