GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 704130
Move cursor blinking disabling to Universal Access
Last modified: 2017-09-01 15:14:17 UTC
I can no longer disable the cursor from blinking e.g. in gnome-terminal. Unfortunately I can't cope with things blinking on the screen - I get a debilitating headache or migraine. See https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/commit/?id=b2e666bf8f297eb998331fa8ce0062ce7a5198fa for where the control was removed and defaults were imposed that for me are not usable, for medical reasons. e.g. gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-blink false no longer works. Please at least introduce an accessibility setting to disable blinking. Note that some people function better with a slow blinking cursor and others with a fast blink, and others with a solid cursor, and that it's about biology and perception and not a "crack feature" :D Thanks!
A bit of search brought me to: http://citrixblogger.org/2008/02/08/cursor-blinking/ Microsoft recommends turning off the cursor blinking to avoid seizure. Cursor Blink-Rate Options Users who have seizures might be sensitive to the blink rate of screen images, such as the cursor. You can use the Keyboard option in Control Panel to adjust the rate at which the cursor blinks, or you can prevent it from blinking at all. On the Speed tab, move the Cursor blink rate slider all the way to the left to prevent the cursor from blinking. The document for a11y in Technet is: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457128.aspx See section "Options for Users Who Experience Seizures" There was another reason, as well, which I am pasting here in case anybody presents issues: In a Terminal Services environment (including Citrix), the cursor blinking can actually be a drain on the system and network.
In IBM's "Human Ability and Accessibility Center" I found the following recommendation for blinking objects: "Do not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz. Rationale The purpose of this checkpoint is to ensure the software is developed so that it does not induce seizures due to the use of blinking or flashing. Text and objects that blink or flash can cause photosensitive epileptic seizures in susceptible individuals, particularly if the flash has a high intensity and is in the frequency range between 2 Hz and 55 Hz. This includes flashing text, turning graphics on and off or repeatedly changing between different images on the screen. " It has some examples and test techniques that people might want to check: http://www-03.ibm.com/able/guidelines/software/swblinking.html
the gtk settings have been brought back.
(In reply to comment #3) > the gtk settings have been brought back. Can you refer to the git commit please? Thanks!
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > > the gtk settings have been brought back. > > Can you refer to the git commit please? Thanks! It is this one: https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/commit/?id=f8412eca34be6e2e655ad3e09bd97fa2bdcbdae0
So this is "fixed" right?
(In reply to comment #6) > So this is "fixed" right? Yeah, though we still need an a11y option to disable it completely.
Is this fixed? I don't find that changing the blinking option in gnome-control-center, or using "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-blink false" as recommended on your wiki, has any effect. Neither gedit nor chromium nor gnome-control-center change the way cursors blink in text fields as a result of changing this setting using either method.
(In reply to Bastien Nocera from comment #7) > Yeah, though we still need an a11y option to disable it completely. Settings > Keyboard > Cursor blinks in text fields ? Or am I missing something? (In reply to Frederick Eaton from comment #8) > Is this fixed? I don't find that changing the blinking option in > gnome-control-center, or using "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface > cursor-blink false" as recommended on your wiki, has any effect. Neither > gedit nor chromium nor gnome-control-center change the way cursors blink in > text fields as a result of changing this setting using either method. That setting works just fine on any gtk+ 2 or 3 application here including gedit and gnome-control-center. chromium/chrome doesn't use gtk+ anymore so it doesn't follow the setting but that's a chrome bug that should be reported on their issue tracking system.
(In reply to Rui Matos from comment #9) > (In reply to Bastien Nocera from comment #7) > > Yeah, though we still need an a11y option to disable it completely. > > Settings > Keyboard > Cursor blinks in text fields ? Or am I missing > something? It should be a Universal Access feature. I don't think that it has its place in the Keyboard panel.
Thanks for the quick replies. I'm running gnome-control-center --version 3.16.2 on Arch Linux. I see some warning messages: $ gnome-control-center --version (gnome-control-center:2580): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: The property GtkCellRendererPixbuf:follow-state is deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore. It will be removed in a future version. gnome-control-center 3.16.2 I don't have a full install of Gnome, but I have all the dependencies of gnome-control-center installed. I would prefer to have only e.g. gsettings (package glib2?) installed - I installed gnome-control-center hoping it would help gnome applications to recognize the cursor blink setting, but it didn't. I am not a Gnome expert and would appreciate some guidance - if I should update the Wiki, or submit a new bug, or what. I notice that gconf-editor displays very few settings, just the one I created following https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Terminal/FAQ#How_can_I_stop_the_cursor_from_blinking.3F plus two entries for gconf-editor bookmarks. However, dconf-editor has a large number of settings and I checked that gedit reflects changes to some of them, e.g. changing the wrapping mode from word to char. I don't know what the difference between gconf and dconf is. I noticed that changing other gnome-control-center options such as the pointer speeed doesn't seem to produce an effect. In the past I ran a program called gnome-settings-daemon, but although there is an Arch package by this name, it appears to contain no executables.
(In reply to Frederick Eaton from comment #11) > I noticed that changing other gnome-control-center options such as the > pointer speeed doesn't seem to produce an effect. In the past I ran a > program called gnome-settings-daemon, but although there is an Arch package > by this name, it appears to contain no executables. If you don't have gnome-settings-daemon running, you're in an unsupported configuration and most settings won't work/be applied. GNOME isn't a bag of bits: either use the whole desktop or you're on your own.
Thanks for the info. When you said the daemon was necessary, I realized that it is actually present but stored under /usr/lib. When I run it, gedit no longer blinks the cursor! Yay! > GNOME isn't a bag of bits: either use the whole desktop or you're on your own. I'm not sure what is meant by "whole desktop" - I have the gnome-desktop Arch package installed. Presumably you don't mean that I should use gnome-display-manager, mutter, and gnome-terminal just to run gedit? What is the recommended way to run gnome-settings-daemon, or what should I use? Others recommended mate-settings-daemon or xfce4-settingsd or xsettingsd as more lightweight. I just start one of these with "&!" in ~/.xinitrc? Is there anything else that needs to be done, other than running the daemon, to get GNOME applications to work properly?
(In reply to Frederick Eaton from comment #13) <snip> What is > the recommended way to run gnome-settings-daemon, or what should I use? Any XSettings daemon. Those are the properties it exports and that applications should follow: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/XSettingsRegistry/ > Others recommended mate-settings-daemon or xfce4-settingsd or xsettingsd as > more lightweight. They're likely to be "more lightweight" if they don't actually do anything (they're not, really). > I just start one of these with "&!" in ~/.xinitrc? Is > there anything else that needs to be done, other than running the daemon, to > get GNOME applications to work properly? GTK+ applications expect the cursor blink time to be exported via XSettings (under X11), so you'll need an XSettings daemon.
By the way, I don't know how much my opinion is worth, but: > It should be a Universal Access feature. I don't think that it has its place in the Keyboard panel. I disagree with this. The text cursor is something that shows where keyboard input is going to go. I'm used to finding it under keyboard configuration. If I wanted to change some aspect of the mouse pointer shape, I would look for that under mouse configuration. If the screen font is too small for me to read, I'd want to change that under general appearance configuration. I wouldn't waste time trying to separately classify those configurations which are said to be useful for people with disabilities, and those which are useful for "normal" people. E.g. maybe those of us who use the "dvorak" keyboard layout are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, and maybe people who use "qwerty" are suffering from debilitating conservatism. These could both be moved under "Universal Access" someday. Soon we won't have a keyboard panel at all.
(In reply to Frederick Eaton from comment #15) > By the way, I don't know how much my opinion is worth, but: > > > It should be a Universal Access feature. I don't think that it has its place in the Keyboard panel. > > I disagree with this. The text cursor is something that shows where keyboard > input is going to go. I'm used to finding it under keyboard configuration. > If I wanted to change some aspect of the mouse pointer shape, I would look > for that under mouse configuration. We don't have themes for the mouse cursor. As such, the only reason to change the shape/size/colour of it would be for the cursor to be better visible. So "Universal Access". > If the screen font is too small for me > to read, I'd want to change that under general appearance configuration. We don't have appearance configurations in GNOME. > I > wouldn't waste time trying to separately classify those configurations which > are said to be useful for people with disabilities, and those which are > useful for "normal" people. We move the settings if they are only useful for accessibility reasons. The majority of our users don't have any reason to change the cursor blinking, or its rate, but plenty of folks with disabilities, or old age, will. > E.g. maybe those of us who use the "dvorak" keyboard layout are suffering > from carpal tunnel syndrome, and maybe people who use "qwerty" are suffering > from debilitating conservatism. These could both be moved under "Universal > Access" someday. Soon we won't have a keyboard panel at all. Seriously. Don't bother entering bug comments if you're going to build strawmen like that.
Ouch!
it is now there