http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=941036 Bug ID: 941036 Summary: Gnome gedit text selection should not auto-deselect unless user wants that Classification: openSUSE Product: openSUSE Distribution Version: 13.2 Hardware: Other OS: openSUSE 13.2 Status: NEW Severity: Major Priority: P5 - None Component: Other Assignee: bnc-team-screening@forge.provo.novell.com Reporter: Nick_Levinson@yahoo.com QA Contact: qa-bugs@suse.de Found By: --- Blocker: --- In gedit with the Gnome desktop, I used to be able to select a string and have the selection remain highlighted so I could work with it. That was in Fedora 20 Linux. Now, in openSuse 13.2, within about half a second of having selected text, it usually self-deselects and I'm left with just an insertion point. The problem occurs with shift-any-arrow, shift-ctrl-any-arrow, and double-clicking. The direction of swiping across text to select it doesn't matter. If I hold down the shift key well after I've used the arrow key, the selection remains, but eventually releasing the shift key usually means deselection, so waiting doesn't matter. So, generally, I type replacement text and the old text is still there, next to the new text, so I have to delete the old text character-by-character. Or, often, I press the Delete key but instead of deleting the string I delete just one character, often the character after the string, so I have to undo and try reselecting or delete character-by-character. The longer the string, the greater the annoyance. If I have to select several screensful in one selection, having to select it again and still get the boundaries right is even more annoying. This also occurs elsewhere in gedit. In the find (ctrl-f) function, if a string is in the find window and I select part of it to edit it, I have to select it twice. The same is true of the Replace dialog (ctrl-h), in either the Search For field in text entry mode or the Replace With field in text entry mode, and in the Save As dialog, if a filename is in the Name field. Another symptom: It remembers the first attempt (the one that auto-deselects) so that the second attempt is permanently highlighted by remembering its content, not its location. Thus, for several identical strings in a document, selecting one such string requires two attempts but selecting the others requires only one attempt per string, as long as what is selected each time has identical content, even if the user deletes each string when found. This remembering applies only to consecutive selections; selecting something else in between means the memory contains the latest string content only. However, the remembering applies even if the first instance was in Firefox and the second instance is in gedit, which means that the remembering is outside of gedit, Firefox, or, probably, most apps. I didn't change my hardware when I changed the distro. I didn't reconfigure hardware unless the openSuse installation did. My hardware is AMD. The half-second-or-so delay of auto-deselection makes it possible to delete highlighted text the first time, before it self-deselects, provided I'm speedy with my finger on the del key just as I release the shift key. A test in gtk3-demo in Gnome had the same unwanted effect: One double-click resulted in self-deselection but a second double-click resulted in a highlight that stayed. A test to see if this comes from GtkSourceView was suggested, using another text editor based on GtkSourceView 3, e.g., LaTeXila, but I don't have LaTeXila and I don't know which text editors are based on GtkSourceView 3. Leafpad 0.8.18.1 (thus beta and not copyrighted (or presumably updated) since 2010) is GTK+-based and, in Gnome, has the same problem. I don't know the basis of or how to use Emacs. The Software program, which lists what software has probably been vetted for acceptability with openSuse 13.2, does not list any others. A suggestion was that I disable gedit's plugins, in case one is defective. Most of the time, I'd rather leave things at the installation defaults, so I didn't try disabling. I have the plugins Document Statistics, File Browser Panel, Insert Date/Time, Modelines, and Spell Checker only. They're part of the openSuse installation or auto-updating. I didn't add any on my own. Konqueror 4.14.2 > Help > Konqueror Handbook produces a dialog that says the handbook file cannot be found. That dialog has the same problem (although, in that context, it's minor). I can exonerate in Gnome both Firefox 33.0 (which is specifically for openSuse 13.2) and LibreOffice Writer 4.3.2.2.0+ build "430m0(Build:2)", so this is not a Gnome-wide problem or kernel problem. KWrite 4.14.2 in Gnome also is free of the problem. It came with openSuse but is not listed in the Software app as a text editor. Unfortunately, I can't use it because at least one of my files have long line lengths and KWrite would change the file. I used to use gedit in Fedora 20 running Gnome, all of which was automatically updated until F20 recently reached the end of its life (EOL), so I don't know gedit's version number at F20's EOL date, and which distro I've since replaced with openSuse 13.2, both with Gnome 3. I don't know the version numbers for all the other desktops in openSuse 13.2. Changing the desktop to IceWM solves the problem with gedit; a selection remaining highlighted the first time. So the problem is with gedit in Gnome and incomplete testing in KDE Plasma Workspace, LXDE, Openbox 3, and Xfce Session (Xfce Desktop Environment 4.10) desktops found the same auto-deselection problem. Switching to IceWM as a general proposition is not good for me, since Gnome has a security/convenience advantage over IceWM. The method that works in Gnome is to select twice: once resulting in auto-deselection and then the second time for the same string to stay selected, which is still annoying. If this is a feature intended as confirmation, please make it a configurable option, defaulting to off. I originally reported this at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=753212, where it has been closed, because their opinion is that it is not a Gnome or gedit problem but a distro-level problem, as "most probably a bug in GTK+", so, at their suggestion, I'm reporting it here. See also http://sourceforge.net/p/parcellite/bugs/131/ and https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=912645, but I'm not sure either one is related. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.