MacOS problem when screen sharing

[dsewell]

Now that COVID-19 is pushing many of us to telecommute and in some cases rely on screen sharing from a workplace machine, I am wondering if there is any fix for a problem with have noticed with the MacOS version of oXygen running with Java SE 8u202: when you are running oXygen on your remote computer via the Screen Sharing app, very often if you switch applications on the remote computer and then return to oXygen, oXygen will not accept keyboard input. (The workaround is to minimize the app then restore it, which returns keyboard focus). This seems to be related to a bug reported here:

https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8185326

Is the only current solution to use the OpenJDK 13 version of oXygen? If we do that, do we lose any functionality compared to the Java SE version?

[dsewell]

sorry, that should be "a problem we have noticed"

[adrian]

Hello,

I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for Java 8 bugs. There are no more Java 8 free updates.
Try the distribution of Oxygen with OpenJDK. There is no functionality loss. OpenJDK should perform better especially on newer macOS versions (10.14, 10.15).

Regards,
Adrian

[dsewell]

Thanks, Adrian, I've replaced my installation with the OpenJDK one and will test things out soon.

[dsewell]

Unfortunately, the problem is still there with OpenJDK, only maybe not so bad as there is a simple workaround.

The problem I see, running under MacOS, can be tested by:

1. Connect to one Mac from another via Screen Sharing

2. On the remote Mac, open oXygen. Also open some other applications

3. In oXygen, open or create a file. Edit it to add some text.

4. Use the mouse to select a different application

5. Use the mouse to go back to oXygen

6. Result: keyboard focus is lost and you can't input anything

The bug seems to be somewhat intermittent (at least I haven't identified the pattern). The workaround is simply to navigate back to oXygen using the dock or Command+TAB. So it isn't fatal, just annoying.