Linux KODI v14 and windows focus/keyboard controls
#1
On my Linux machine I start KODI through an entry in .xinitrc

Code:
exec kodi --standalone

and since KODI v14 helix, I can't use my keyboard anymore after I ran an external program, e. g. when I quit a program which I started through advanced launcher.
I knew this kind of problem from ratpoison WM, but I know how to solve it there, so I tried to use ratpoison with KODI together (I did this with XBMC 12-13 on various occasions and it always worked), and I changed my .xinitrc to

Code:
ratpoison &
exec kodi --standalone

However, after this I can't use my keyboard at all in KODI.

Evidently KODI changed its way of handling window/input focus (at least I deduce this from the problem I had with ratpoison), I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but can anyone tell me what changed in v14, and thus what causes this behavior?

What is the preferred way to start a window manager with KODI on Linux now?
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#2
use fluxbox. you can also find an upstart script in the top 2 howtos in this forum
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#3
(2015-01-11, 14:06)BillCosby Wrote: Evidently KODI changed its way of handling window/input focus (at least I deduce this from the problem I had with ratpoison), I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but can anyone tell me what changed in v14, and thus what causes this behavior?

Kodi behaves now as a X11 applications should do. Instead of grabbing the keyboard regardless whether the application has focus or not, it registers with the WM in a way, that it gets keyboard events when focused.
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#4
For me this behaviour pretty much makes Kodi unusable. It makes sense to not grab input when running in a window but not when using fullscreen without a mouse pointer. I use a secondary screen (my TV) to run Kodi, in this case I am not able to get focus at all with my current wm. I tried KDE and got it to focus by randomly moving the invisible mouse pointer, but focus was again lost when starting a video.

The situation could perhaps be better with fluxbox but I don't want to switch wm just for Kodi and everything was fine with version 13 so I chose to patch Kodi to again do input grab. It works but I would of course prefer that this function was included in the upstream kodi, at least as an option.
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#5
feel free to submit a pr for discussion
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