Ubuntu – Latest Emacs Version, Windowed GUI

I came across the same problem today on Ubuntu 12.04. The main problem is that the Emacs window is not brought to front.

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 with Emacs/AucTex/Okular/TexLive 2011. I found that if I press Shift+LeftMouse twice in Okular, the Emacs window will be brought front. So this can be seen as a workaround.

You could also configure the Custom Text-Editor in Okular.

First install xdotool

sudo apt-get install xdotool

Then save the following script

#!/bin/bash                                                                     
emacsclient -a emacs --no-wait +$1 $2

fs=$2
filename=$(basename "$fs")
pathname=$(dirname "$fs")
xdotool search --name $filename windowactivate

The script will first call emacsclient, then bring a window whose title contains the filename of the TeX source to front.

Make the script executable and write the following command (don't include ~ in your path) in the Custom Text-Editor in Okular.

<absolute-path-to-script> %l %f

Hope it works.

There are stopped jobs message is far, far away to be an error. It's just a notification telling you that you attempt to exit from the shell, but you have one or more suspended jobs/programs (in your case emacs which you putted in background using & at the end of your command). The system doesn't let you to exit from the shell and kill the jobs unless you mean to. You can do a couple of things in response to this message:

• use jobs command to tell you what job(s) you have suspended
• you can choose to add the job(s) in the foreground using fg command
• if you don't care if the job(s) will terminate, you can just type exit again; typing exit a second time with or without an intervening jobs command will result in the termination of all suspended jobs.

To answer the second question, I will tell you that not Ubuntu or emacs behaving like this. This is a normal behavior when you put an application to run in background. In this case sudo is asking for password, but is asking in background, so you can't see this fact. To see it, you should bring back the job in foreground using fg command:

radu@Radu: ~ $ sudo emacs tet.c &
[1] 7732
radu@Radu: ~ $ # now sudo emacs run in background so you can't see nothing about what's happening
radu@Radu: ~ $ fg
[sudo] password for radu:

After this you can type Ctrl+Z to put again the job in background if you want. Then you can run again 'fg' command to bring back the job in foreground and so on.