Dash loses keyboard focus during search

[Steve Magoun]

Certain keystrokes can cause the dash to lose keyboard focus. This is 100% reproducible for me, and I believe it's been around since 12.10 (if not earlier).

To reproduce:
1) Hit Super to open the dash
2) In the dash, type a string such as 'sound'
3) Press the down arrow once. Notice the "Applications" section is selected
4) Press Escape. The search string is cleared
5) Type another search string in the dash

Expected results:
When you start typing in step 5, your keystrokes are entered into the dash as a search string

Actual results:
When you start typing in step 5, nothing happens. Despite the blinking cursor in the dash search box, the search box does not have keyboard focus. The arrow keys have no effect (they do not return focus to the search box). Pressing 'Escape' does not close the dash as it should. You have to close the dash (e.g. via the super key) and reopen it in order to resume your search.

This is always reproducible on my system when the search string from step 2 is an application ('sound', 'display', 'firefox', etc). It's also reproducible when the search returns a document. If the search string is random characters that don't return any results, the dash does not lose keyboard focus.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: unity 6.12.0daily13.02.08-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-5.10-generic 3.8.0-rc6
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-5-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.8-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: No value set for `/apps/compiz-1/general/screen0/options/active_plugins'
Date: Wed Feb 13 15:15:09 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-09-17 (880 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Beta amd64 (20100901.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-01-25 (19 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Edward Donovan (edward.donovan)]

Thanks so much for filing this, Steve. It had been sitting neglected in my little pile, for ages. You did a better job, too. :)

[Lem (lem-jjr)]

This might be a duplicate of #1070302, see here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1070302

Have you guys tried moving your cursor over the dash while it's non-responsive to keyboard input? For me that makes the dash work again (without having to close/reopen it)

[Brandon Schaefer (brandontschaefer)]

I cannot reproduce this issue anymore using 14.04+. This most likely was fixed somewhere else, and the bug does not reflect it. If this is still an issue for you in 14.04 please mark this bug or let us know!