I just got a new Zareason computer that came with Slackware on it; I updated it to Current as soon as it arrived.

I can't get tabbed windows to work in Fluxbox. In order to create tabbed windows, you middle click the titlebar of one window with the mouse wheel/button and drag it to the window that you want to tab it with.

My question is this: where should I look to fix the problem I describe below? ( I figured I was more likely to find help here than in the Desktop forum.)

The problem I'm having is that I cannot drag the window with the mouse. When I middle click a window, focus switches to another window. The scroll wheel works--I can use it to scroll through the contents of a windows, plus the tabbing worked in the computer I'm replacing (which also is running Current). It has also worked on every other Slackware computer that I've run.

I am confident that this has something to do with the mouse hardware configuration. I looked at the various setting in the KDE settings manager (Settings-->System Settings-->Window Behavior-->Titlebar Actions) and tried a few different ones, but was still unable to drag a window using the titlebar.

In case it helps, here's the output of pressing the mouse wheel/button as captured by xev.

Web searches have turned up a number of links about Fluxbox tabbing, but little about troubleshooting it when it doesn't work.

Thanks.

Just checking, but perhaps you forgot to transfer your .fluxbox/keys over to your new computer?

From /usr/share/fluxbox/keys:
So by default, ctrl+left click is used for tabbing, and middle click lowers the window and switches the window focus (which you seem to be experiencing).

The xev output looks normal.

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I would look at ~/.fluxbox/keys first and check if the lines with OnTitlebar Mouse* are properly set.
Never actually used tabbed windows, but there was something broken with the focus last time I tried current
Not sure what exactly, but I don't think it's covered in kde systemsettings.

Nice, did you have them install Slackware at Zareason, or...?

I ordered the computer with Slackware from Zareason. They installed it and even included a v. 14.1 DVD. That's why I settled on Zareason--they let you pick your distro. This is my third Zareason device--I been quite happy with the workmanship and the hardware.

I haven't gotten back to troubleshooting this--I'll let you know what happens when I look at it later this week.

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Yeah, it is Control-click drag now, not middle click drag. Also experienced it myself when I installed -current on my X220, and previous docs/guides told me that middle-click drag was StartTabbing.

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CTRL-click-hold-and-drag did the trick. Thanks. (Middle-click-hold-and-drag was what had always worked before for me.

Any idea why they changed it? Are three-button mice on the way out or something?

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I am full time Fluxbox user, but this is not a feature I often use.

When I first read this thread I tried it on my 14.1 machine and simulated-middle-click-drag worked. But I have a wireless keyboard/touchpad that I use on another 14.1 machine on the other end of my desk - and it failed, but works with USB keyboard and two-button mouse.

It works as you describe on a -current machine.

So I am guessing it has to do with encodings or communications between the various devices and the ubiquity of two-button pointing devices - probably in response to user reports.

Thanks for posting this - otherwise I would have stumbled over it at some point myself.

You are welcome. It's a really neat feature, especially if you are using a smaller monitor (in terms of pixels).

The problem computer came with 14.1 out-of-the-box.

I have seldom used the feature myself, though I have played with it a bit over the years, because I like to know how stuff works. As monitors got larger, I used it less and less.

Now, though, I have what I find a compelling reason to use it regularly on the one computer. I am using SeaMonkey mail and the SeaMonkey browser (I like the integration); with tabs, I can keep them both in one window.

Probably Touchscreens. They don't have a middle click.

As it happens though, even us living-in-the-past types can struggle with middle-click-drag. I use a "kensington expert mouse", which despite its name, is actually a trackball. For a right-handed person, left-click-drag is easy(bottom left: thumb), right-click-drag (bottom right: pinky) isn't quite as easy but is ok, middle-click-drag (top-left: ?) is very, very, impractical no matter how you try and hold your hand, or which digit you use to depress the button! Thankfully, middle-click drag isn't that common. Even with this design issue, I still prefer my trackball to a mouse; I just wish they'd thought about the ergonomics of the button placement a little more.

Now that makes sense.

I have no use for trackballs or trackpads, but I use a trackpoint quite happily. It's a matter of taste, I guess.

I only ever met on trackpad that I thought was worth a darn, but the computer it was attached to wasn't. It was an old Winbook in the Win95 days.

FWIW KDE also has window grouping as tabs, now doing the same on my other Slackware thinkpads that I have kept KDE on.