Ctl-Alt-L does not lock screen immediately after startup

[Stefan Stasik]

Binary package hint: gnome-control-center

The default keyboard shortcut binding Ctl-Alt-L that locks the screen seems to have stopped working on my system with an upgrade to Jaunty beta. When I try to re-map the action to a different key-binding, it still does not work.

Description: Ubuntu jaunty (development branch) Release: 9.04
gnome-control-center: Installed: 1:2.26.0-0ubuntu1
I expected to happen: Ctl-Alt-L >> Screen Lock.
What happened: Nothing.

Thank you, Stefan Stasik

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, I don't confirm the issue on jaunty, do you use the desktop effects option?

[komputes (komputes)]

I can confirm this bug. Note that there is a specific way to reproduce this bug:

1) Install Jaunty
2) Boot into Jaunty
3) Without running any applications* press Ctl-Alt-L
What happens: Nothing
Expected behavior: Locks the screen

* It seems that by first opening a single gnome application like totem, gedit or even one of the gnome preferences, then pressing Ctl-Alt-L will lock the screen. Sebastien, when reproducing this bug, please try creating a new user, logging in (making sure there are no applications/notifications that pop up), then press Ctl-Alt-L.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

don't specify the version in the title there is no reason karmic should not have this issue too if there is no change so it's not jaunty specific, it's not clear it's due to gnome-control-center either, do you have any error in .xsession-errors?

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Hello: Sorry for the delay in responding back to you on this. I fugured out how to reproduce this bug.

The issue occurs when you set a option in the 'Mouse Preferences' control panel window.

If you turn on this option, under 'Mouse > General ' : ' Locate Pointer: [ ] Show position of pointer when the Control key is pressed '

then the Control-Alt-L default key stops working. If you turn off the show-pointer feature, it will start working again.

Hope this helps you triage and solve this bug.

Thank you , Stefan

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Hello: Sorry for the delay in responding back to you on this. I figured out how to reproduce this bug.

The issue occurs when you set a option in the 'Mouse Preferences' control panel window.

If you turn on this option, under 'Mouse > General ' : ' Locate Pointer: [ ] Show position of pointer when the Control key is pressed '

then the Control-Alt-L default key stops working. If you turn off the show-pointer feature, it will start working again.

Hope this helps you triage and solve this bug.

Thank you , Stefan

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported, but feel free to report any other bugs you find.

[komputes (komputes)]

I would like to mention that Bug # 9441 covers one aspect of this bug - the "Locate Pointer" issue. But there is still the aspect of not being able to use Ctl-Alt-L to lock the screen unless a gnome application is running has been run beforehand.

I have no problem in marking Bug # 354790 as a duplicate of Bug # 9441 but we need to keep Bug # 354792 open as a separate issue which affects users who want to lock the screen immediately after logging in, before opening any applications (completely unrelated to Bug # 9441).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

what do you mean a GNOME application has been running before? the keybinding works without that there, but maybe you count nautilus and gnome-panel as GNOME applications and they are started on any GNOME session

[Toby Bartels (tobybartels)]

David, it might be clearer if you start your own bug report, if Locate Pointer has nothing to do with your bug, especially since the Locate Pointer bug seems to fix things for Stefan. That way, people will have a clean description of the can't-lock-screen-immediately bug right up front.

And while I'm here: Stefan, sorry for misspelling your name at Bug #354790.

[Stefan Stasik (stefan-stasik)]

Hello Toby, Sabastien:

Thank you for addressing this issue for me, and I will be watching the status of this bug as it progresses.

I just want to re-iterate that while my original problem was Ctl-Alt-L not working, and it is 'fixed' with a work-around, I DO want the ability of my Find-Pointer to work, and at this point, I cannot use that feature as it will break my screen-lock. So I will be watching this bug as it progresses, and I do want it fixed, as I want to use the mouse Find-Pointer feature in the future.

Thank you,

- Stefan Stasik

[komputes (komputes)]

@Sebastien, I can try to put together a list of applications that once you run them, you can do Ctrl-Alt-L and it works but this will take time and I fear it will be futile. Let me give you an example of applications you want to avoid when trying to reproduce this bug:

1) If you simply open up the network manager window after booting, you will not be able to reproduce this bug.

2) If you get a network manager notification after booting, you will not be able to reproduce this bug.

3) If you get a keyring notification, you will not be able to reproduce this bug.

4) If you simply open up System > Preferences Mouse you will not be able to reproduce this bug.

To answer your questions - when reproducing do not start a nautilus window, but the desktop can load. gnome-panel can load but do not click on any items.

As I have mentioned above, the specific steps to reproduce this are simple and have always given me the same result Please consider rebooting into a new user and testing this:

-Boot into Jaunty
-Without running any applications (or getting any notifications at boot) press Ctl-Alt-L

If you can't reproduce this issue. I can record myself with my camera.

@Toby, I was with Stefan when he showed me both issues. I recommended that he start a bug for each issue. As you can see, the description of the bug does not state anything about the "Locate Pointer" functionality. Stefan was confused when creating a bug, and so he created 2 similar bugs by accident.

Please refer to Bug # 354790 as a duplicate of Bug # 9441 and please refer to this bug as dealing with the issue of locking the screen with the keyboard at startup.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is simply that gnome-screensaver is not running immediatly for some reason, not a g-s-d bug but a gnome-screensaver or gnome-session one

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

reassigning the bug

[komputes (komputes)]

Thank you :)

[Fortunato Ventre (voria)]

The issue is caused by a recent change in gnome-settings-daemon that adds a 30 sec delay for starting gnome-screensaver. This is the reason for it (directly from source code):
         /*
          * We'll start the screensaver after a delay so it doesn't
          * compete with other processes while the session is starting
          */

I've attached a patch that adds a new option to gconf for setting a custom delay timeout value. It defaults to 30 seconds. Setting it to 0 will results in gnome-screensaver immediately started, and screen lockable.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could you open an upstream bug about that with the change so they can review the issue?

[Fortunato Ventre (voria)]

Done.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=582587

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This is fixed in Karmic.

[komputes (komputes)]

Tested in Karmic, works for me.

[durilka (durilka)]

Still an issue in Karmic. Upgrade, not a clean install.

[ronin (pgarciab)]

Solved in Jaunty after the last heavy update (1 week ago, more or less)