Left Click of mouse does not work outside opened window

Rocky Linux General
1

Dear RL family,
Greetings everyone!

Before we get to the problem, here’s my OS details using the hostnamectl command on the terminal.

[nishikant@galileo ~]$ hostnamectl

Static hostname: galileo
Icon name: computer-desktop
Chassis: desktop
Machine ID: {erased}
Boot ID: {erased}
Operating System: Rocky Linux 8.6 (Green Obsidian)
CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:rocky:rocky:8:GA
Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-372.19.1.el8_6.x86_64
Architecture: x86-64

The problem is that the mouse clicks do not register outside of the firefox window I am operating in. So, in this Rocky Linux, I remember having configured 4 different workspaces, and right now, I can’t switch between them - using the mouse. I can switch between different applications instances using Alt + tab (like this firefox window and another one opened incognito, Document Viewer 3.28.4, & Files 3.28.1-Stable which are open in this workspace along with the terminal)
However, clicking the mouse on them does not do anything.

To reiterate, my mouse is OK. I can use it within this application instance to select, left/right click etc.

I am lucky to search and remember Alt+F1 allowed me to access Applications, in which Firefox is the first in the list of favorites.

Anyway, I hope others can second me on this. And please someone help me with it. I will use poweroff command from the terminal to shut down the computer when I am done.

Best regards,

2

For anyone stuck like me, the relevant keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Alt + Left/Right Arrow key to toggle between workspaces.
Also the restart/power off can be accessed by Ctrl + Alt + Delete key to yield the Power off button click effect on the top right corner. You can toggle between the options using the left/right arrow keys. Please make sure you save your work before this try.

Regarding the upper message, yes, if I restart the machine, it can go back to normal, but then it is like M$ Windows of yesteryear, when I’d seen many problems swept under the carpet by simply restarting the computer.

Since I am using a mature OS, I expect a mature solution, or a diagnosis of what’s wrong with my installed OS.

Thanks folks.

3

Right, it’s working now. I can use the mouse clicks to do something outside of the window {FFox/ Files etc.}
Need to observe what I did to get it working. Probably switching workspaces helped?

4

woah… I sure came off as very entitled in that last sentence about “expecting” a mature solution. Far from it!
Please know I would be happy to have some diagnosis and solution to this unexpected interruption to my use of this wonderful and free OS

Best,