a11y panel should have an option to turn on gtk-entry-password-hint-timeout

[Martin Pool]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

gtk has an option to turn on brief display of characters entered into password fields, in the way that is commonly done on handheld devices. This is highly useful to users who for whatever reason have trouble typing password sequences without errors.

You can put

gtk-entry-password-hint-timeout = 600

into ~/.gtkrc-2.0 but there is no UI for this as far as I can see. It would be nice if there was a checkbox for it in the keyboard accessibility control panel.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:2.32.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-24.42-generic 2.6.35.8
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-24-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jan 10 07:30:54 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, why do you think that's an accessibility issue? seems rather a privacy one?

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

Some people (including me, in the past) have physical conditions that mean they type with a higher-than-usual error rate. Entering a typical password without confirmation that the correct key was pressed is difficult and runs a risk of being locked out through repeated wrong attempts.

If it was in Security rather than Accessibility that would also be fine. Since the feature exists, it would just be nice to make it easier to reach than editing gtkrc.