unity forgets focus-follows-mouse setting across update and reboot

[Seth Arnold]

I had gone roughly two weeks without rebooting my 12.10 installation. After applying updates that included a new kernel today, I rebooted to finish the updates.

Unity forgot my focus-follows-mouse setting across the updates and reboot.

Thanks

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: unity 6.12.0-0ubuntu0.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-23.35-generic 3.5.7.2
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-23-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
Date: Thu Jan 31 18:57:02 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-18 (105 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2013-01-20 (12 days ago)

[Elaina March (marieemarch)]

have you tried unistalling thne reinstalling and rebooting right after there could be a conflict from downoad then update and not rebooting

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

On a second reboot (without updates), Unity also forgot my mouse-to-raise setting (or whatever it is called when mouseover is sufficient to raise a window). Does that deserve a second bug? Or should it be considered part of this bug? Thanks

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Hrm. Another restart and now I can't get rid of auto-raise at all.

Is this still the best way to turn off auto-raise?

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences auto-raise true

Thanks

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Sigh, that previous comment is just a copy-and-paste from http://askubuntu.com/questions/64605/how-do-i-set-focus-follows-mouse -- I obviously don't use 'true' to try to turn off auto-raise. :)

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

@Elaine -- apt-get purge unity followed by re-installing, rebooting, does not fix this problem.

Unity forgot my focus-follows-mouse setting. (It kept my auto-raise setting though. It's starting to feel like very random behaviour, as it's hard to figure out what might be common about how I rebooted / logged out and which of the two settings Unity loses.)

Any other troubleshooting suggestions?

Thanks

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ron M (launchpld)]

Same issue here. I keep doing

  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode 'mouse'

and after many (but not all) reboots, it switches back to click-to-focus.
Not sure if it's because certain packages updated between those reboots, or something else.

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Just a note that the sloppy focus and no-auto-raise settings were both forgotten across the 12.10 -> Raring upgrade process.

[oogoosha (oogoosha)]

I'm have a clean install of 12.10 and have seen focus-mode and raise-on-click reset during shutdown and restart.
I did an strace of the gsettings command to list those settings and it appears to me that they are likely stored in the file:

    ~/.config/dconf/user

I checksummed that file prior to shutdown and then again after boot and found that it is different.
I think whatever is modifying that file is what is resetting these settings.

In my opinion it is not because any packages are being updated.
I'm not certain that it happens every time however. It seems that at least one restart didn't modify both settings.
If I find more specifics I'll update here

[oogoosha (oogoosha)]

I've confirmed that this also can occur for me without a reboot at all.
Logging out and logging in was enough.
Also the settings are modified on log in not on log out.
I confirmed this by checking the settings via the console prior to logging in via lightdm.

These are the settings for me that get updated/changed/overwritten during login:
-----
< org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences auto-raise-delay 1000
> org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences auto-raise-delay 500

< org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences auto-raise false
> org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences auto-raise true

< org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode 'sloppy'
> org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode 'click'

< org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences raise-on-click false
> org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences raise-on-click true
-----

I can't confirm whether it happens every time yet however

[Seth Arnold (seth-arnold)]

Nice, thanks for tracking it down to a specific file at a specific time.

I've added an audit rule to my /etc/audit/audit.rules file to try to help spot the process responsible:

-a exit,always -F path=/home/sarnold/.config/dconf/user -F perm=wa

If you don't have auditd installed, the fatrace program in the fatrace package may be an easier starting point.

Thanks again; it'd be nice to have this one nailed down, since "Unity forgets my ... settings" seems to be a recurring complaint.

[Max Waterman (davidmaxwaterman)]

I just upgraded from 12.04 to raring and noticed I had lost my focus follows mouse setting. I use Unsettings to restore the previous behaviour, and it survives rebooting.

[Jerry Quinn (jlquinn)]

Upgrading 12.10 to 13.04 lost my focus-follows-mouse settings too.

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

I can confirm that since some time ago (perhaps 12.10 or maybe before that), unity gsettings are being reset on every login.

[Ashley Bone (ashley-w-bone-deactivatedaccount)]

I have this problem since upgrading to 13.10.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Jason: do you get the issue if you stop gnome-settings-daemon and run it again, or is that only on login?

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

I am non @Jason, but I've set "org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences focus-mode 'sloppy'" and then killed gnome-settings-daemon. It got restarted, and the 'sloppy' setting stayed as I've set it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

@Eugene: thanks, do you get the setting resetted on login, every time? that would suggests it's not a gnome-settings-daemon bug

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

@Sebastian, it is weird, now that I am paying attention, I realise that it is not resetting on every login, and I think at least once it got reset in the mid-session, without obvious provocation (I was not editing any other settings or something).

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[indy (davide-ricci82)]

Same behavior in Trusty 14.04

[thorwil (t-w-)]

This never happened in 12.04 and seems pretty random per logout/login in 14.04. The actual bug is not about focus and raise settings, other settings or at the very least custom keyboard shortcuts are lost, too.

[James (ubuntu-soundunreason)]

I can confirm this happens regularly on 14.04 machines. (Focus Mode = Mouse changes to default.) I am available for testing if that's helpful.

[Raik Gruenberg (raik-gruenberg)]

I can confirm this bug on a fresh 14.04 installation. Every other day, the focus-follows mouse and autoraise setting is reset to default. I have been using this feature on linux since 13 years. It's really disruptive that settings are just lost.

[Raik Gruenberg (raik-gruenberg)]

PS: I actually seem to have lost the setting mid-session without even logging out.

[Jeff Powell (jeffp-bangtherockstogether)]

Running 14.04. Installed Unity Tweak Tool specifically to let me turn on focus follows mouse. Did so.

Multiple times now I discover that it has reset itself back to focus mode "click" through no action on my part.

My best guess it that it can happen mid session, and not just across a reboot, but I haven't yet specifically noted when it happens exactly, nor pinned down a cause.

However, when it does happen, the unity tweak tool happily tells me that the mode is back to "click" instead of "mouse".

This needs a fix.

[Alex Baggott (alex-baggott)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu, please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.

This was tested on 15.10 Beta 2 when updating from kernel version 4.2.0-11-generic to 4.2.0-12-generic.

[Max Waterman (b-ubuntuone)]

I've not seen this happen for quite some time and also believe it is now resolved.