many apps randomly lose focus

[Adam Smith]

I just upgraded to Hardy over the weekend. Since then, I've found that many applications are randomly losing focus--it happens about once every 20-30 seconds. This has become exceedingly annoying. For example, in the mines game, the program pauses many times each game because it assumes that I've clicked elsewhere. Or in Firefox, when I'm running a Flash applet, it often loses focus and I have to click on the window again to regain it. Some applications seem unaffected though. I'm only noticing it in apps in which real-time interaction is important. Maybe I have some rogue process that is stealing focus, if only for a moment?

Release 8.04 (hardy)
Kernel Linux 2.6.24-16-386
Gnome 2.22.1

Possible relevant detail: the upgrader was having trouble finding a couple of items in some of the "unstable" repositories, and so it told me that it was doing only a partial upgrade to Hardy. However right now it seems convinced that it's running Hardy just fine, and I don't know how to check on that.

Thanks all.

[ChrisH (christopher-harte)]

Exactly the same thing is happening to me after upgrading from 7.10... I also got the same messages about unstable repositories. The problem is particularly noticeable when using IM clients...

Has anyone got any suggestions?

Lenovo X61
Release 8.04 (hardy)
Kernel 2.6.24-16
Gnome 2.22.1

[ChrisH (christopher-harte)]

This seems to be linked to these bugs:

https://launchpad.net/bugs/67476

https://launchpad.net/bugs/54300

Using an IM (it's a problem for me in both pidgin and aMSN), the focus gets stolen when one of your contacts logs on or out so it is very irritating...

[Marnanel Thurman (marnanel)]

I haven't confirmed this locally (haven't attempted to yet), but the behaviour described is not just evil bad and wrong but also a regression.

[ChrisH (christopher-harte)]

Yes, I ran Feisty and Gutsy on my laptop quite happily without this problem - considering reverting to the Gibbon at the moment...

[ChrisH (christopher-harte)]

To add some more detail in the case of aMSN:

In the Chat window the conversation pane seems to steal focus from the text input pane whenever your contact changes status in some way. e.g. "contactx joins the conversation", etc.

[Adam Smith (aasmith)]

This one is still plaguing me, and I'm getting very frustrated. This is probably the worst Ubuntu bug I've had. If any of you can tell me anything I can do to help--any diagnostics or tests--I'd be more than happy to run them.

I've upgraded slightly since this bug first showed. I'm now running:

Release 8.04 (hardy)
Kernel Linux 2.6.24-17-386
Gnome 2.22.2

I've fixed the repository problem since I last posted, so I don't think that's the cause. And when I first turn the computer on, this bug doesn't occur. It's only after a couple of hours have passed that some mysterious, malevolent process is stealing the focus. Logging out and logging in doesn't change this. Which user is active doesn't have any noticeable effect. It's only if I do a complete restart that I can use apps without losing focus every 30 seconds.

Please...anybody?

[Dariel Dato-on (odd-rationale)]

Does this happen only in gnome? Try installing another window manager like xfwm4 (from xfce), fluxbox, openbox, or others and see if it still happens.

If it only happens in gnome, then maybe it is a metacity bug.

[Adam Smith (aasmith)]

Thanks for your response. I was beginning to feel abandoned, and this one's way beyond my ability to fix.

I tried working with mwm. I found that exactly every 30 seconds the screen would black out, much like if you leave the computer alone for too long. And I just verfied that under Gnome I'm losing focus at exactly every 30 seconds. The only fix I have is to totally reboot my system, and then I get a couple of hours of everything working as it should.

[A. Walton (awalton)]

Definitely sounds like a window manager bug. Can you tell us which window manager is in use (in GNOME, it would either be Compiz or Metacity). Thanks in advance.

[Adam Smith (aasmith)]

I would guess Metacity, because that's the name of one of my running processes. There's nothing named "compiz" or anything similar running. Honestly though, I'm not sure--how do I find out?

Also, is Metacity used by mwm? The bug *does* stay there when I leave Gnome.

Thanks.

[ChrisH (christopher-harte)]

If it's in the window manager then it's metacity - I've never used compiz on my machine because my X61 thinkpad has the intel965 graphics that is still blacklisted.

[Adam Smith (aasmith)]

Well, I updated to Intrepid and the bug is gone. I don't know what happened. Just a guess: my boot partition is relatively small, and lots of old versions of the kernel had built up there. This gave me space to do the Intrepid installation all at one go, rather than the piecemeal way I did Hardy. So maybe some parameter somewhere was better set.

But really, I don't know. I'm just thankful that this bug's not plaguing me anymore. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[Trond Husoe (tr-huso)]

This bug is "bugging" me in Ubuntu 9.04. I am using Compiz and it happens while I am using OpenOffice. I also experience when I use Inkscape in maximized mode that the window bounces "up and down" (titlebar goes behind top panel) and trying to close the application with the X-button, or unmaximize window is impossible.

If there are any debug information I can send over, please let me know how to do this and I will gladly do so.

Annoying: You bet.

[Adam Smith (aasmith)]

Sorry...don't think I can help. I upgraded to Jaunty this last weekend without this bug showing up again. My best guess is still related to the piecemeal approach I took when I installed Hardy--but honestly, this is not my area of expertise and I just don't know.

Good luck. Hope you solve it.

[Vish (vish)]

Thanks for following up. This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an upgrade. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.