Ubuntu
policykit-gnome package

onscreen keyboard cannot enter password in policykit dialog

Bug #209408 reported by Francesco Fumanti
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
PolicyKit
Fix Released
High
policykit-gnome (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: policykit-gnome

Hello,

Here is the issue:

It is not possible to enter any password with an onscreen keyboard into the dialog that appears when I click on an Unlock button like the one on the Network capplet.

The Assistive Technology capplet in Ubuntu 8.04 (and previous) offers the "Password dialog as normal windows" option. But it only works for the gksu dialog, and not for the dialog from policykit.

This is a major problem for any user that has to rely on an onscreen keyboard to do its typing (tabletpc user, mobility impaired user,...), as he will not be able to do any administrative task.

How to reproduce the problem:

1. Open the onscreen keyboard named onboard shipped with Ubuntu. You will use it for the typing instead of your hardware keyboard.

2. Open the Synaptic Package Manager by using the System menu. Try to enter your admin password: it does not work.

3. Open the Assistive Technology capplet and activate the "Password dialog as normal windows" option. (A restart might be necessary.) If you repeat step 1. and 2., you will see that you will be able to enter the password with onboard into the gksu dialog.

4. Now open the Network capplet and click on the Unlock button. Another kind of password dialog will appear and you will not be able to enter the password with onboard into it, even though the "Password dialog as normal windows" option is enabled.

See original description
Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

I filed a corresponding bug at freedesktop:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15362

(I hope that it is right, or should I have filed it in GNOME instead of freedesktop?

Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

I have been told on in the bugthread that I filed against policykit on freedesktop.org that the bug should be filed against policykit-kit in GNOME. So I am changing the affected package indication at the top of the thread from policykit to policykit-gnome.

Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

There was some activity in the corresponding bug upstream and a patch has been supplied there:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531609

Maybe that the patch can also be applied in ubuntu.

Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

And here is the corresponding thread in openSUSE:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=384159

description: updated
Francesco Fumanti (frafu)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

The patch does not apply properly on policykit-gnome version 0.7 that ships with ubuntu, but it seems to apply properly on policykit-gnome version 0.8.
(I am a newbie in patching)

Revision history for this message
Rick @ rickandpatty.com (rick-rickandpatty) wrote :

> 1. Open the onscreen keyboard named onboard shipped with Ubuntu. You will use it for
> the typing instead of your hardware keyboard.

This also affects the "cellwriter" and "xvkbd" onscreen keyboards that are installable via synaptic.

This makes using a Tablet PC is tablet mode an exercise in frustration, since I have to flip the computer back open to type a password when changing my network profile from work to home.

Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

I think that the problem occurs generally for any pointer input as the policykit authentication dialog grabs the pointer events which makes them not arrive anymore to the application in which they were generated.

The good news is that the problem has been solved upstream and it should only be a matter of time for the solution to arrive to Ubuntu.

(If I got it right, the solution is similar to the same issue in the gksu dialog, where a gconf key has been provided to disable the pointer grabbing.)

Revision history for this message
Clarke Wixon (cwixon) wrote :

There is a workaround -- an ugly one, but it works for me and it's simple.

If I just manipulate the user drop-down list on the "Authenticate" dialog, by just clicking on it, and then clicking somewhere else to close the list, then the rest of the desktop becomes accessible, including the Onboard on-screen keyboard (if it's already open) or the launcher on my Gnome panel.

Weird, but it will do until the patch arrives.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in policykit:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

Thanks Clarke for sharing the work around with us.

Revision history for this message
Francesco Fumanti (frafu) wrote :

The fix has arrived with policykit-gnome 0.9 in the development version of Ubuntu 8.10.

Is there any intention to backport it to Ubuntu 8.04?

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in policykit:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
James Westby (james-w)
Changed in policykit-gnome:
status: New → Fix Released
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in policykit:
importance: Unknown → High
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