How do I switch the focus of the X-screen that I'm looking at?

Question

For a variety of reasons, I have two x screens configured on my Ubuntu 10.10 desktop. But, I can't use Alt+Tab to switch between any all of the windows at the same time.

For example, if 2 Windows are on Screen A and 1 window is on screen B, and my mouse is over screen A, then Alt+Tab only shows the two windows on screen A.

Is there a shortcut I can use to switch the focus to various screens, or is there a way to combine the entries in Alt+tab to show all windows. (Note that I am NOT looking for a solution that will make all monitors work as one, e.g. through xinerama).

Thanks!

Bernie

Answer 1

Figured it out.

I ended up writing a small script that would set focus on a window in the desired screen. Then I placed it in my /home/my_name/bin directory, and set keyboard shortcuts to execute the script with the correct options.

All the script does is move the mouse to the desired screen coordinates, then simulates a click at that location. it accepts options for up, down, left, and right so that I can choose any one of the four screens.

Here it is:

#file: /home/my_user/bin/smon 
#(make sure you have execute privileges on this file)

while getopts ":udlr" Option
do
  case $Option in
    u    ) s=2;;
    d    ) s=1;;
    l    ) s=0;;
    r    ) s=3;;
  esac

done
xdotool mousemove --screen $s 500 28 click 1

You can execute the script like so:

/home/my_user/bin/smon -u
=> moves the mouse to the top of screen 2, and clicks at 28 pixels below the top.

So if you open the Ubuntu keyboard shortcuts dialog, (currently in System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts), then click the "Add" button, then you should be able to copy the above command, paste it in the 'command' text box, and map it to some useful shortcut.

I know, not the most elegant solution, but it works for me.