When HUD is enabled, AltGr/Compose still causes focus stealing from the widget

[Roman Yepishev]

STR:

1. Make sure that HUD is enabled
2. Make sure you are using a keyboard layout that uses a Compose key (e.g. English (UK))
3. Open http://people.canonical.com/~roman.yepishev/blur.html in firefox or chromium
4. Put the cursor in the field and press AltGr/Compose key
5. Observe that "Blurred" is appended on the page

Expected results:
Compose sends nothing (as it happens when HUD is disabled)

Actual results:
Widget loses focus for a fraction of the second.

Impact:
This is most noticeable in the web pages that make use of 'blur' event handler, such as PicasaWeb, where the image title is updated once the focus leaves the field, thus making it impossible to properly change the title of the picture.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.8.0-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-21.34-generic 3.2.13
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
Date: Mon Apr 2 11:28:58 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Alpha amd64 (20120225)
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, is that still an issue? Quite some bugs key conflicts bug got fixed

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

Wow, it looks like it is fixed indeed. I will test it for a day or so and will mark the bug as fix released if i don't reproduce this issue.

[turbooster (comacritter)]

This same bug also makes it impossible to write a | in stjerm when the option "close on focus lost" is enabled. A serious issue!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Confirmed by duplicate.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please try this as a workaround:

Change: System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Launchers > Key to show the HUD
to your right Alt key.

Then you can use the left Alt key uninhibited by the HUD.

It's only possible to choose a specific Alt key in the Gnome settings dialog like this. CCSM doesn't let you distinguish between left or right modifiers.

[aleth (aleth)]

As noted in bug 1034811, this focus stealing also occurs for Alt key combinations such as Alt-PgUp/PgDn.

This is a problem as an application may interpret the loss of focus as an intentional action by the user. For an example, see https://bugzilla.instantbird.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1624.

Disabling/changing the HUD shortcut key as per comment #6 works as a workaround, but is hardly going to be found by users who will instead consider the application to be "broken" in its behaviour.

[menner (menner)]

The bug is very annoying when I want to enter an e-mail address in evolution with a german keyboard. On the german keyboard "@" is AltGr + Q key combination, and when I press AltGr for "a", evolution looses focus, then regains focus, then it puts in an address separator, that is "comma blank". So when I enter "name@domain", I get "name, @domain".

[Roman Yepishev (rye)]

Still happening in raring and setting HUD key to left Alt instead leaves my compose key (AltGr) alone in the layout that has a compose key but works with both Alts for other layouts properly.

Can this be default?
gsettings set org.compiz.integrated show-hud "['<Alt_L>']"

[Peter (doob)]

This is still happening in 13.10.
It seamed to be gone but came back with some of the recent updates. I noticed this as of today again.
This is really a big issue for people working with guake terminal.

Related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/compiz-core/+bug/1233458

[Peter (doob)]

This really a show stopper! It makes me crazy *ARGH* sometimes it's gone and then after some reboots or upgrades it's back again!

[Peter (doob)]

This seams to only happen when I use <ALT> key to show the Dash.
It doesn't happen, when I use the default setting of using <SUPER> key to show the DASH.
However this isn't really a solution, because my main keyboard doesn't have a SUPER key.

[Peter (doob)]

Workaround (not really).
I can stop this until to the next reboot by:
- In compiz config settings manager / Unity plugin / Launcher
- disable 'Key to show the Dash'
- reset settings 'Key to show the Dash'
- close compiz config

So disable and reset the keybinding for the launcher somehow solves this for the current session.
This isn't really a workaround, but maybe it gives some developers a clue about whats happening here internally.

[Peter (doob)]

I found a workaround that solved it for me.

It seams the reason for this is somehow related to equal key bindings in compiz plugins for unity and gnome compatibility.
Disabling the key bindings in gnome compatibility plugin solved this for me.

[Matteo Pagliazzi (paglia)]

Is this going to be solved anytime soon? It makes impossible even to type email addresses on some sites.

[Tomas Lycken (tlycken)]

This popped up again today on my system (Ubuntu 13.10), in the middle of a session, without having just installed any updates or anything. I was able to (temporarily) fix it by running compiz --replace (i.e. I didn't have to change any settings anywhere, just restart the window manager).

However, I forgot to add & at the end of the command, and followed up with ^C to get rid of all the console output. Naturally, after that I was screwed... :P

But "compiz --replace &" in the terminal should be a functioning workaround until a fix is provided. (And a real fix is really needed - this bug makes lots of features of lots of systems, and some entire systems, practically unusable...!)

[Peter (doob)]

This is still happening in Ubuntu 14.04.

My current working workaround is to disable the HUD key in the Unity plugin in CompizConfig SettingsManager.
However Compiz doesn't remember this sometimes. So from time to time it suddenly resets the settings for the HUD key after reboot and I have to disable this again manually.

[Seth Johnson (sethj)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug. We have tried to recreate this on the latest release of Ubuntu and cannot reproduce it. This bug is being marked as Invalid. If you believe the problem to still exist in the latest version of Ubuntu please comment on why that is the case and change the bug status to NEW.