Focused window is not always brought to front

[teo1978]

The following steps will systematically reproduce the issue. Terminal is only an example, you can do the same with any other application that can open multiple windows.

- open three terminal windows
- hit Ctrl+Super+D to show the Desktop. All windows disappear as expected
- click on the Terminal icon in Launcher. One of the three windows is selected and brought to front as expected
- click on the Terminal icon again
- when presented with the three miniature windows, click on any of them except the one you previously selected

Expected result: the selected terminal window should get focus AND be brought to front

Observed result: the selected window is given focus but is not brought to front. Instead, another random one of the three is brought to front.

The mere fact that the focused window is not the one on the top of the stack (i.e. the one most on the front) is in itself an inconsistency that should never exist and should be forbidden at the lowest conceivable level.

Note that this is a HUGE SECURITY ISSUE and as such should be marked as critical. You can be typing (or sending keystrokes) into a window without even seeing it.

Since one window is brought to front, you may not realise that it is not focused (though you can tell the difference if you look at it carefully enough), and hence you may for example hit several keys including Enter thinking that the selected windows is not responding, while infact your keystrokes are all processed by the invisible focused window. You may do random stuff on the invisible focused window. You could *literally* (and I'm not abusing the word "literally") wipe out your hard drive or publish your password on Facebook; or more likely, delete files or do all kind of irreversible damages to some document of yours.

Note that I reported a somewhat similar issue where a random window is focused instead of the clicked one but that's a different bug (it still happens, but I don't know how to reproduce it systematicall), and another one regarding the focused window not having the title bar and borders, but that's different too and that particular one seems to be fixed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+7ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-34.39-generic 4.2.8-ckt4
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-34-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 340.96 Sun Nov 8 22:33:28 PST 2015
 GCC version: gcc version 5.2.1 20151010 (Ubuntu 5.2.1-22ubuntu2)
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Apr 3 21:38:07 2016
DistUpgraded: 2016-01-18 11:11:01,146 DEBUG enabling apt cron job
DistroCodename: wily
DistroVariant: ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0166] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0647]
 NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] [10de:1140] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] GeForce 710M [1025:0691]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (905 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
MachineType: Acer Aspire V3-571G
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.2.0-34-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=5830b30e-69e8-4bb4-8a2b-bc2b43c7414a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-01-18 (76 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/15/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V2.07
dmi.board.asset.tag: Type2 - Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: VA50_HC_CR
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Type2 - Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V2.07
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV2.07:bd10/15/2012:svnAcer:pnAspireV3-571G:pvrV2.07:rvnAcer:rnVA50_HC_CR:rvrType2-BoardVersion:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV2.07:
dmi.product.name: Aspire V3-571G
dmi.product.version: V2.07
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.12.2+15.10.20151202-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.64-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 11.0.2-1ubuntu4
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 11.0.2-1ubuntu4
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.17.2-1ubuntu9.1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.9.2-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.5.0+git20150819-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20150808-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.11-1ubuntu3
xserver.bootTime: Fri Apr 1 21:24:50 2016
xserver.configfile: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
xserver.logfile: /var/log/Xorg.0.log
xserver.version: 2:1.17.2-1ubuntu9.1

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alberto Salvia Novella (es20490446e)]

The likelihood of sending sensitive data by error is negligible.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

But the likelihood of doing something harmful, such as deleting a file or an item of any kind, or performing any kind of irreversible action (or even reversible action but unknowingly) is far from negligible and is enough to mark the importance as CRITICAL.

I can't believe you set it to high.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

(I meant, medium - however, even high would be ridiculous)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) reached end-of-life on July 28, 2016.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.