[patch] XGrabKey allows several grabs on the same key by the same client

Bug #138774 reported by Lowell Alleman
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xorg-server (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
Declined for Edgy by Henrik Nilsen Omma
Declined for Feisty by Henrik Nilsen Omma
Gutsy
Won't Fix
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

This bug has been fixed upstream. A full technical description of the issue as well as a link to the patch is provided on the following page:
    https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2738

Personal experience/observations:

I noticed that after a few days of uptime, my X session would begin to slowdown dramatically, especially when switching between windows; sometimes taking 2-5 seconds or more just to change active windows. I use VMware Workstation 5.5 quite frequently, and I noticed a pattern that the more frequently I switched between local X applications and virtual machines the more quickly my system would slow down. Looking back, I think this has been happening for quite a while (Edgy and Dapper), but I only noticed the pattern recently due to an increased usage pattern over the last few months. Before it just seemed "sluggish", now because of the heaver usage, my system becomes nearly unusable after a few days. I figured out that rebooting (starting a new X session) would cause the entire system to become highly responsive again! (Unfortunately, due to the very sad state of the ATI proprietary driver (fglrx), I cannot actually restart X without freezing the entire system, so I can't actually test just restarting X server. Yeah, I've tried several different releases, so I don't think that video driver is to blame here. It's actually better than it was; I'm very much looking forward to better ATI driver support.)

Version Info:

Linux lalleman64.mfps.com 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Fri Aug 31 00:55:27 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
X Window System Version 7.2.0
fglrx 8.40.4 [Jul 31 2007]
fglrx(0): Chipset: "ATI Radeon Xpress Series" (Chipset = 0x5954)

My own testing:

I recompiled the xorg-server-1.2.0 package under Kubuntu Feisty with the the following patch ( https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=10222&action=view ). So far, I have been using the patched version for a day without any noticeable X server slowdowns. My system is more responsive than it has been in quite a long time! Normally, a bunch of window switching (or technically "grabs") would cause the X session to be noticeably slower after a day; but I'll keep testing it.

I downloaded the lasted source package for gusty (xorg-server_1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu3) and noticed that this patch is not included (from the best I can tell). My concern is that I'll have to wait for yet another release before this gets fixed. I'm not sure how many people this effects, but I wouldn't be surprised if quite a number of users notice increased responsiveness.

My apologies if I didn't fill all of this out correctly, this is my first Ubuntu bug report.

Revision history for this message
Lowell Alleman (lowell-alleman) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Lowell Alleman (lowell-alleman) wrote :

The is my Xorg.0 log from the Ubuntu compiled X server.
xorg-server_1.2.0-3ubuntu8

Revision history for this message
Lowell Alleman (lowell-alleman) wrote :

It works! I restarted my system for the first time the other day, after 37 days of up-time. I'm pleased to report that I did not experience any noticeable slow down in switching between X windows. I also noticed that X shutdown much quicker than before (sometimes it would take between 5-20 minutes); others have reported this issue and suggested it has to do with X cleaning up the massive number of X key grabs.

I don't believe that there were any cumulative slowdowns at all; based on my observation that after performance was the same before the reboot and after the reboot.

So, that said. What can I do to get some attention on this issue? As much fun as is it to patch and rebuild xorg myself, I'd rather not; and X is is basically unusable after a few days without the patch. I see there are a lot of "new" and "unconfirmed" bugs for the xorg-server, so how can I promote this one? I have a have a link to the patch, which to my understanding, has been applied upstream. But I'd prefer not waiting until Gusty+1 to be released.

Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)
Changed in xorg-server:
status: New → Fix Released
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h) wrote :

The 18 month support period for Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 has reached its end of life -
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-7.10-eol . As a result, we are closing the
Gutsy task.

Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu Gutsy):
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
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