[Bug 1234470] [NEW] Active window cannot receive keystrokes

[Sparhawk]

Public bug reported:

Starting in a release from February, I've found that the front-most,
active window often will occasionally not receive keystrokes. Instead
they are being sent to the background, inactive window. The front-most
window is shown as selected in the pager, while a non-selected window
receives the keystrokes.

I can alt-tab or click between windows, but cannot seem to type into one
(or more) windows. Otherwise, clicking does all you expect it to. You
can select menus of the window; you can even select text (although it's
the "background window" grey instead of the "foreground window" blue).

I tried to make sure that it was not an issue with X/KDE by testing to
see what the reported active window was. First I found window IDs with

    xwininfo | grep -i 'window id'

Then, when the bug occurred, I attempted to see if keystrokes were being
passed to the active (but non-responsive) window with

    xev -id 0x123456 | grep Key

I also did the same for the background window that was actually
responding to the keystrokes. It seems that the active (but non-
responsive) window was indeed receiving keystrokes, and the other one
was not, although it was responding to them.. I presume that it's
Firefox hijacking the active window internally.

I don't see this in any other application, except much more frequently
in Thunderbird.


I've filed a bug for Thunderbird too.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1234468

Here is a troubleshooting thread for this issue.
http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=110202

Here is the related thread for Thunderbird.
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=117704

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: firefox 24.0+build1-0ubuntu0.13.04.1 [modified: usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop]
Uname: Linux 3.9.4-030904-generic x86_64
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0:  lee        2493 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20130911155223
Channel: Unavailable
Date: Thu Oct  3 11:14:42 2013
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-12-16 (290 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.2.1 dev wlan0  proto static 
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0  scope link  metric 1000 
 192.168.2.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.2.2  metric 9
MarkForUpload: True
MostRecentCrashID: bp-5270b043-7b09-48ed-b448-be4e92130427
PrefSources:
 prefs.js
 [Profile]/extensions/launchClipboard at alice/defaults/preferences/launchclipboard.js
 [Profile]/extensions/formhistory at yahoo.com/defaults/preferences/FhcPreferences.js
 [Profile]/extensions/donottrackplus at abine.com/defaults/preferences/prefs.js
 [Profile]/extensions/https-everywhere at eff.org/defaults/preferences/preferences.js
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=24.0/20130911155223 (In use)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 google-talkplugin 4.7.0.0-1
 adobe-flashplugin 11.2.202.310-0raring1
 kopete            4:4.10.5+dfsg1-0ubuntu0.1
 rhythmbox-mozilla 2.98-0ubuntu5
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-26 (159 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/07/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A19
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 0XN71K
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: FAB1
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 0.1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA19:bd09/07/2012:svnDellInc.:pnDellSystemXPSL702X:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0XN71K:rvrFAB1:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr0.1:
dmi.product.name: Dell System XPS L702X
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

** Affects: firefox (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug raring

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Title:
   Active window cannot receive keystrokes

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