Comment 61 for bug 68370

I'm writing to make three points:

1) Yes, if whoever sets the Importance rating wants Ubuntu on laptops to spread among the non-geek populace, this really need to be fixed! I am no dummy, but I don't know enough to figure this out on my own, and it took me a couple of months to learn about this as a good place for help.

2) I have a weird behaviour that hasn't been mentioned above: So long as two users are running (even after fixing it by Ctrl-Alt-F7 and Ctrl-Alt-F9), using the trackball will also simultaneously move the mouse up and down. (So you have to move it back up after you've scrolled down a screen, or you'll fall out of the correct frame.) But this only happened once, and I can't reproduce it.

3) I can confirm the behaviour reported by Andrew Jorgensen above (but which wvengen and Saïvann Carignan could not confirm). But it only works that way THE FIRST TIME!

(The rest of this post is details about #3.)

Following Saïvann's steps above (but with more detail and more steps):

1. Logging in to user 1
2. Switching to user 2
    Result: Touchpad doesn't work
3. Going back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
4. Unlocking the screen and running "sleep 20 && zenity --error"
5. Switching to user 2 with Ctrl-Alt-F9
    Result: Touchpad works!
6. Wait >20s
    Result: Touchpad FAILS! (<-- different than Saïvann reported)
7. Switching back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
    Result: Touchpad works and I have a error message.
8. Running "sleep 20 && zenity --error" again
9. Switching to user 2 with Ctrl-Alt-F9
    Result: Touchpad works!
A. Wait >20s
    Result: Touchpad works! (<-- same as Saïvann reported, but 4 steps later)
B. Switching back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
    Result: Touchpad works and I have a error message.

Compare that when I do nothing to steal focus:

1. Logging in to user 1
2. Switching to user 2
    Result: Touchpad doesn't work
3. Going back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
4. *** step deleted ***
5. Switching to user 2 with Ctrl-Alt-F9
    Result: Touchpad works!
6. Wait >20s
    Result: Touchpad works!
7. Switching back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
    Result: Touchpad works and I have a error message.
8. Running "sleep 20 && zenity --error" (for the first and only time)
9. Switching to user 2 with Ctrl-Alt-F9
    Result: Touchpad works!
A. Wait >20s
    Result: Touchpad works!
B. Switching back to user 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F7
    Result: Touchpad works and I have a error message.

I can also break user 1's Touchpad by having user 2 steal focus. In fact, if I get the timing right, I can even make the act of logging in to user 2 (and quickly switching back) cause user 1 to lose the mouse before I even get a chance to unlock the screen!