GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 541958
gdm removed support for clearing entered password with Control-U
Last modified: 2008-07-26 20:37:25 UTC
Please describe the problem: Most unix/linux password prompts, shell prompts and gtk text entry boxes (at least in emacs mode) support the standard terminal key sequences (like Control-U to clear the previously entered text). Somehow the latest gdm seems to have accidentally broken/removed support for these. They used to work in older versions. Steps to reproduce: Actual results: Expected results: Does this happen every time? Other information:
This bug was originally filed here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=454180
If you want your system to support Control-U then you can set the following GConf key in the defaults database: /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_key_theme = Emacs That way all GTK+ entry boxes will behave in a consistent way. The non-emacs way of accomplishing this is to: Control-A Delete
Control-U is not an emacs key (try it in emacs) though it does happen to be supported in the gtk emacs mode. I'm suggesting that gdm's password prompt support this "password convenience key" (as it used to) for compatibility with terminal based password prompts. Try it at any ssh prompt for example, or run "stty -a" to see that Control-U is processed by the terminal itself. I think that consistency across *all* Unix password prompts is a good thing. Control-U in particular is nice when entering passwords since it doesn't require you to know what you have mistyped, just that you *have* mistyped. This is really just a nicety for Unix old timers and power users that newer users will not be hampered by. You are right, this is not a bug per se, but it is a regression.
fwiw, i totally agree with Jim. The keybinding isn't being used for anything else anyway, and it would help people with muscle memory. (we do it for the password prompt at the Fedora boot screen too) Maybe we should fix this in gtk though, so ctrl-u always works when it's showing password characters.
Let me put my 2 cents in and agree with Jim here too. I've been using Control-U at passwords prompts for years and years now. I would hate to have my muscle memory not work in this case. Let me point out that many random other GUI programs (like Thunderbird, for example) support this....