By Romano Giannetti romano@rgtti.com , romano.giannetti@gmail.com
You are on the master branch (Gnome Shell version ≥ 50).
If you don't know what Focus-Follow-Mouse (FFM) is, or you don't like it, this extension is not for you.
This extension is oriented to user that likes to have their focus mode set to
"sloppy" (an enhanced focus-follow-mouse mode, FFM), or "mouse", but sometimes
they need to switch to the click-to-focus (CTF) mode because some program
misbehave: for example, a lot of programs running under wine will fail to
correctly show menus when in Focus Follow Mouse (the menu disappears shortly
after popping up because the window which is the menu is unable to get focus).
The extension preferences let you select the sloppy or mouse FFM variant,
enable Auto-raise, and choose its delay. Auto-raise uses GNOME's native window
manager settings, so the same values remain visible in Tweaks and dconf-editor.
Click on the icon to change from FFM (F icon) to CTF (C icon). Each click toggle the status.
There are four main branches:
legacy: GNOME Shell 3.10–3.36legacy2: GNOME Shell 3.38–44legacy3: GNOME Shell 45–49master: GNOME Shell 50 and later
The exact supported Shell versions are declared in each released extension's
metadata.json. The options for activating or not the notifications or for
choosing between sloppy and mouse mode are available only from gnome 45
(version 13).
If you want to test it on another version, just try to add the version to
metadata.json and tell me if it works for you.
The preferred way to install this extension from the Gnome extensions site; the correct version will be used automatically. Notice that extensions are reviewed and vetted on that site (which is good), so not always the most recent version is available there. Just wait a bit...
If you want to install from source, just copy/link the directory
SwitchFocusType@romano.rgtti.com to your
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/, restart the shell (on Wayland,
login/logout), enable it with gnome-tweak-tool or Extension
Manager or
something equivalent. If you clone the repository, remember to check out the
correct branch with git checkout master or the correct legacy version with
git checkout legacy... depending on the version of your shell.
When clicked, by default it switches between "sloppy" and "click" focus modes, and it notifies every change; the behavior is adjustable with the options (you can access them with your extension manager of choice).
The panel button changes GNOME's native focus-mode setting. In the newest
(but not the legacy) version the preferences window also exposes the native
auto-raise and auto-raise-delay settings; their values are preserved while
Click-to-focus is active and take effect when GNOME is using either FFM mode.
Icons based on LockKeys extension by Kazimieras Vaina et al. at https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/36/lock-keys/ .
The reviews by JustPerfection have always been valuable teaching points.