Hi all,
I am facing a strange problem.
If I open an application window, it opens on the workspace that it had last been opened instead of the currently active one.
How can I force applications to open on the currently active workspace?
Thank you!
Robert
What window manager are you currently using? Is this specific to only one application, or to all applications?
Sorry, forgot to mention that. I am using the default Marco but with the GPU compositor. I noticed this behaviour with Chrome in particular but will see if other applications are affected as well.
Compositor should not matter, this type of issue is generally an app-specific setting issue.
Go to preferences (wherever they’ve stuffed your settings) and see if it says anything about supporting multiple workspaces, or limiting the app to single-instance.
A single-instance app will always run in the workspace where you started it because somebody told it there should only be one-at-a-time ie single-instance. Multi-instance apps can have, you know, multiple instances, in one workspace or several.
[i wish i understood better how linux implements workspaces but have no time to dig that info up.]
Actually if using Compiz as the window manager you can assign applications to a specific desktop by going to CompizConfig Settings Manager > Place Windows > Fixed window placement > Windows with fixed viewport
@orschiro I looked in dconf-editor under /org/mate/marco/, and while I found no options to assign applications to a desktop, there are many options for Marco that I knew nothing about. You should have a look.
Two thoughts:
Thank you very much!
I changed it from Only on this workspace to Always on visible workspace for the Chrome window. Is this setting change persistent over start ups?
Cool, that’s maybe a new-feature or a mate-exclusive, since i don’t remember seeing it on any other DE that i’ve used. 
So…
Always on Visible Workspace will make Chrome visible on every desktop at the same time, which is more of a temporary fix to your problem. I think you should reboot to see if that setting is persistent, and then switch it back to Only on This Workspace. My hope is after you switch back everything will return to normal.
Only on This Workspace is the default setting, but I’ve never had it force Chrome to open on the same desktop repeatedly. By default, a application should open on what ever desktop you are on, and only be visible on that desktop until you tell it to do otherwise.
Yes, I noticed additional plugins in CompizConfig Settings Manager after upgrading to Ubuntu Mate 16.04.
Unfortunately, no luck.
This setting is not persistent across sessions. Even after just closing and reopening of Chrome, it reverts back to Only on this workspace.
And Chrome continues to open on workspaces that are not the current one.
Maybe it gets confused by the simultaneous use of Chromium?
It seems to be the only application affected by this as far as I can see.
I enjoyed all the compiz i could stomach back when they first introduced Unity, but apparently it’s running on my system now, who cares what the graphics processor is, y’know?
I basically use Compiz for the Scale window picker. The rest is trivial to me.
The only other things I can think of, and they are grasping at straws, would be clearing your cache, or possibly deleting ~/.config/google-chrome and starting over. Remember to backup your bookmarks first though.
Thank you all!
I will respond back if I found a solution.