xdotool – xdotool Search Window of Gedit Doesn’t Work

17.10command linegeditshortcut-keysxdotool

Need to bind an F key to perform Ctrl-S in Gedit and reload page browser. Can't get xdotool to find Gedit window on Ubuntu 17.10

$ xdotool search --name "Opera" | tail -1
58720257
$ xdotool search --name "Gedit" | tail -1
$

Tried changing search string to "Text Editor", file name, etc. xdotool can't find only Gedit. Works for any other desktop window. It's always the active window so finding that would also work.

Best Answer

Ubuntu 17.10 by default uses Wayland instead of Xorg and Gedit runs under Wayland itself instead of the XWayland compatibility layer. xdotool doesn't work with windows running under Wayland.

As a workaround you may switch back to an Xorg session from Wayland following this Q&A: How do you switch from Wayland back to Xorg in Ubuntu 17.10?

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Xbindkeys won’t work properly

The problem with xdotool is while real keys are pressed Xorg repeatedly sends keypress events (look at xev output). To overcome this you need to temporarily turn off repeat feature, then generate KeyRelease event on key that were down.

Instead of

"sleep 0.2 && xdotool type --delay 15 '{'"
  Control+Alt + 7

try the following:

"xset r off; xdotool keyup --window 0 7 type --clearmodifiers --window 0 '{'; xset r on"
  Control+Alt + 7

Shortcut Keys – How to Fix Xdotool Not Working with Xbindkeys

The default for xbindkeys is to catch Press event. It catches Shift + Shift_L then xdotool generate a key stroke. We get:
```
Shift + Shift_L + a
```
Similar to pressing: Shift_R+Shift_L+a (in this order)

These solutions worked for me:

On Press event

"xdotool keyup Shift_L keyup Shift_R key a keydown Shift_R"
    m:0x1 + c:50
    Shift + Shift_L

On Release event

"xdotool keyup Shift_R key a keydown Shift_R"
    Release + m:0x1 + c:50
    Release + Shift + Shift_L

Also it is possible to use small pre-delay but that is not perfect method.

Reference: xbindkeys + xdotool timing problems

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Xbindkeys won’t work properly

Shortcut Keys – How to Fix Xdotool Not Working with Xbindkeys

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