Gnome desktop didn't process HID events

[Simon Chopin]

On Noble, using Gnome (not the Ubuntu desktop) + a few plugins, I had my desktop completely unresponsive after logging in. The mouse cursor was still moving, but the hot corner didn't work, nor did the various keyboard shortcuts. Surprisingly, the Ctrl-Alt-Fn access to console also didn''t work, so I had to resort to a hard reboot.

The logs that are automatically attached aren't relevant since, of course, I was unable to report the bug during that boot, but I can attach the full journal for the relevant boot if it helps. I couldn't find anything that looked obviously related to the problem at hand.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: gnome-shell 46.0-0ubuntu5.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-35.35-generic 6.8.4
Uname: Linux 6.8.0-35-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs
ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Wed Jun 5 09:47:11 2024
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-07-05 (1066 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute Hippo" - Release amd64 (20210420)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
 TERM=xterm-256color
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
RelatedPackageVersions: mutter-common 46.0-1ubuntu9
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2024-03-05 (92 days ago)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I also can't see anything relevant in the log that's failing. The first thing to try is without custom extensions:

  cd ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/
  rm -rf extensions

and then log in again. Does the bug still occur?

[Simon Chopin (schopin)]

The bug didn't occur after the reboot anyway so I'll keep my extensions.
I do feel like no extension should be able to lock up the shell to the point I can't even reach the console.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

> I do feel like no extension should be able to lock up the shell to the point I can't even reach the console.

In an ideal world, yes. But such a safe framework does not exist in gnome-shell right now. Extensions are allowed to do anything, and thus frequently break anything.