Firefox notifications shown as full tiles

[git1106]

Firefox have changed their built-in notifications (turned on with about:config alerts.useSystemBackend=false) several times recently. Now notifications have appeared as fully tiling windows in the 2 latest releases.

It had always worked before with i3 so that notification where just little popups in the upper right corner.

I reported it in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1881434 , please find screenshots and xprop output there.

Can anybody tell from that data what is wrong? Or give hints how to debug the issue?

I also built the latest i3 release from source, but it behaves exactly the same way.

[thecrawler1]

I fixed with for_window [window_role="alert"] floating enable

[git1106]

Thanks, that helps. But why is that needed? Not every user should have to figure that out, neither themselves nor by asking in a forum. I was nearly sure this can be influenced by configuration, but I did not even search because I am convinced it should work sensibly out of the box.

This change could have much wider impact than Firefox notifications, I don't know who else uses role alert.

• Does Firefox do something wrong nowadays?
• Are the i3 defaults not sensible?
• Something else?

[TyberiusPrime]

For me that makes the widows float correctly, but they still steal focus.
I need to add no_focus [window_role="alert"] as well to fix that.

[KebabLord]

[git1106]

There is no doubt that notifications displayed by other programs are displayed correctly. Older versions of firefox still do, I tested xfce4-notifyd, and you tested dunst.

But that does not answer the question why current versions of firefox don't work (for a default i3 configuration). Did they do something wrong or have they hit a bug in i3?

[KebabLord]

I guess figured out the problem, apparently in newer releases of firefox, the notifications window type has changed from:
WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DIALOG to WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NOTIFICATION (just like you mentioned in the bugzilla)

i3 Doesn't mark WINDOW_TYPE_NOTIFICATION as floating as seen here:
https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/next/src/manage.c#L466

A quick patch on manage.c like this might fix it:

diff --git a/src/manage.c b/src/manage.c
index b0684d6b..873dc5c3 100644
--- a/src/manage.c
+++ b/src/manage.c
@@ -467,6 +467,7 @@ void manage_window(xcb_window_t window, xcb_get_window_attributes_cookie_t cooki
         xcb_reply_contains_atom(type_reply, A__NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_UTILITY) ||
         xcb_reply_contains_atom(type_reply, A__NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_TOOLBAR) ||
         xcb_reply_contains_atom(type_reply, A__NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_SPLASH) ||
+        xcb_reply_contains_atom(type_reply, A__NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NOTIFICATION) ||
         xcb_reply_contains_atom(state_reply, A__NET_WM_STATE_MODAL) ||
         (cwindow->max_width > 0 && cwindow->max_height > 0 &&
          cwindow->min_height == cwindow->max_height &&

[orestisfl]

Feel free to open a PR for that patch

[orestisfl]

PR merged: #6017, thank you

[KebabLord]

After a bit further digging, i came to conclusion that this problem is caused by firefox, not i3.
Chrome is also using WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NOTIFICATION and i3 successfully sets it as floating.
The reason why firefox popups are not floating is problably because xprops of firefox notification is bad.

On Chrome WM_STATE values, we can see that window is set to "ABOVE EVERYTHING"
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE, _NET_WM_STATE_SKIP_TASKBAR

Firefox WM_STATE value on the other hand is empty
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) =

Additionally WM_WINDOW_ROLE value of firefox is "alert" which should been "popup".
I'm not expert on xlib but if chrome is working with same window type while firefox can't, it is not the problem of i3.

[git1106]

Thanks @KebabLord for your digging. I have also noticed that some programs displaying notifications use _NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE. That sounds like it could be appropriate, but I am not familiar with the exact specification and implementation details. Interestingly enough older Firefox releases got the notification windows displayed in i3 as small floating windows above everything else without that setting. The xprop outputs are in the Mozilla bug report linked above.

Unfortunately I might not have time to investigate more during the next days.