Keyboard and mouse stop working in Gnome after typing break

[Bem Jones-Bey]

I'm using the Dapper, which I updated today (Friday, May 19th, 2006). I use the Gnome Typing Monitor (which is version 2.14.1), and sometimes after a typing break, the keyboard and mouse stop working in Gnome. It looks like it may be a problem with the window manager, because while I cannot click on any windows with the mouse or use keyboard shortcuts like alt-tab to switch windows, the keyboard still works in whatever application is still focused (though the mouse does not), and I can do things like switch to a virtual console, or kill X with ctrl-alt-backspace. Some Gnome specfic shortcuts do work, like alt-F1 and alt-F2, and if I use the keyboard to close an application, the focus will change to another one. I haven't figured out any way to get the keyboard and mouse to start working properly again other than killing the X server and logging back in. This has been intermittantly been happening for a couple of weeks now at least.

I'm using the nvidia proprietary X server, in dual head mode, in case that helps.

[Bem Jones-Bey (ajani)]

It looks like this happens when the screensaver activates when on a typing break. It still doesn't seem to happen every time.

I found that if I kill gnome-screensaver, everything returns to normal.

It has been suggested to me that this might be an interaction between OpenGL screensavers and Nvidia's X server. I've turned my screensaver to be a plain blank screen, and will report back with my results.

[Bem Jones-Bey (ajani)]

It still happens with the simple screen blanking screensaver.

[Jerome S. Gotangco (jsgotangco)]

Please confirm if it also happens with the open source driver.

Thanks

Jerome

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

I can confirm this happens to me on a up to date Dapper (with backports active). Typing monitor version is 2.14.2. My graphics card is an ATi Mobility Radeon 9600, and I am using the propietary fglrx. However, I am using xscreensaver instead of gnome-screensaver.

I have found out that the mouse will not respond if the screensaver doesn't show when you are back to work. Keyboard and mouse behaviour follows the description made by Bem. If I leave the computer enough time so that the screensaver appears again and I move the mouse, I regain full control of the situation without having to kill anything.

I will test it with the free radeon driver if needed.

[kresp0 (kresp0)]

I can confirm this happens to me too, with a i810 driver and xscreensaver on a Dapper.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

I have some more info on this bug. First, it also occurs in Debian Etch
(Gnome 2.14) with an Intel integrated GPI (i810, like kresp0). Second, it
appears to be solved in Edgy. I no longer suffer from it, although I've
switched to the free r300 driver.

¿Is it then solved for all edgy users? And more important, ¿is this an
upstream bug that got fixed with gnome 2.16?

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Well, I'm pretty sure that the hang is being caused by gnome-typing-monitor, which is part of gnome-control-center. I'm not seeing the locks in Feisty using the proprietary fglrx (and I didn't see the locks in Edgy anyway). These two had gnome-control-center > 2.14. However, the bug is still present in Debian Testing. Lenny uses a nearly full gnome 2.18, although some parts are older. One of these is gnome-control-center, being version 1:2.14.2-7. And yeah, gnome locks after the typing break until the screensaver triggers.

With all this data, should the status of the bug be changed to "Fix Released"? I'd do it myself, but I'm a bit wary of doing it (first bug closure), even with the post in the forum regarding bug triage for gutsy.

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

I've changed the affected package to gnome-control-center. Reason is this bug stopped happening when I updated gnome-control-center from 2.14.2 (Dapper's version is 2.14.1) to 2.18.1 in a Debian testing machine. I think the status should be "fixed upstream", but I'm not realy sure. Especially since dapper support is still active.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

if the bug is fixed in gutsy close it, a dapper task can be opened if required

[Miguel Martinez (el-quark)]

Status changed to "fix released", since I am no longer able to reproduce it in Gutsy.