Bug 1369880 - Unable to Lock: lock was blocked by an application
Summary: Unable to Lock: lock was blocked by an application
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: gnome-session
Version: 24
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
urgent
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ray Strode [halfline]
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2016-08-24 15:16 UTC by rockdeworld
Modified: 2022-01-18 15:04 UTC (History)
10 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of: 1229523
Environment:
Last Closed: 2017-08-08 16:46:08 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description rockdeworld 2016-08-24 15:16:31 UTC
+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1229523 +++

I have reproduced this bug on Fedora 24. 

I just installed Fedora with the version from this link: https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/

The only change I've made was installing gnome-tweak-tool.

I had Firefox open (if that matters) and hit Alt+L to lock the screen and left. When I came back the next day, the screen was still showing my Desktop and this error.

I hit Alt+L again and it did lock my screen, so this is inconsistent.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Leave for a few minutes
2. Come back

Comment 1 Jason Haar 2016-08-24 20:43:21 UTC
I too can confirm it's still occurring on F24. I was feeling a vague correlation with "screen" applications like remmina and virt-manager - but I must admit I run firefox too - so who knows!

There are really two issues here. 

1. Unable to Lock: lock was blocked by an application

This is useless for diagnosing the problem. Can't it be augmented with the name of the application holding the lock? Also, it's *never* a long-term problem. So when this fault occurs, when I notice (minutes or hours later) and explicitly try to lock it - it always works. So this smells like a race condition, maybe a retry loop is all that is needed to correct 99% of this corner case? More of a hack than a fix - but I'm totally happy for a screensaver to take XX+1 minute to lock instead of XX minutes.

2. Security. Security. Security.

Basically the Gnome screensaver is not guaranteed to work. I'm surprised this issue doesn't get more press? I have an encrypted laptop - do all I can to protect my data - and yet the screen won't lock. So now I have to rely on my aging brain to remember to do is explicitly - well that ain't working either ;-)

Comment 2 rockdeworld 2016-08-25 05:27:13 UTC
Good thought about the screen applications - I was also installing a virtual machine on "Boxes" when I left. Could it be that having a VM open caused the problem?

Comment 3 Douglas Clowes 2016-09-22 22:31:35 UTC
Me too.

It seems to occur regularly when I leave a VM up (with focus) in virt-manager but not if it's minimized. The VM is running F23, the host was F23 and now F24 and it's still happening. If I Cmd-L to lock the screen, the VM screen locks (not the host), if I just walk away, this happens.

Comment 4 Ezhik 2016-11-12 04:23:48 UTC
This issue is definitely caused by virtual machine software. 

I suffer from this myself with VMware Workstation, and can reproduce this very easily: Just close the laptop lid when a virtual machine is in focus. The system will not lock, and I so far have not been able to find an answer to this. A workaround I'd like to try is somehow catching the "unable to lock" notification, then pressing the VM escape sequence (Ctrl-Alt) with xdotool, then trying to lock again with gnome-screensaver-command.

Comment 5 Kamichr 2016-11-28 11:19:36 UTC
Hi all. I don't run any VM software and face this issue too.

All I found in information provided by journalctl is:

Nov 28 11:33:09 <hostname> org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1550]: Gjs-Message: JS LOG: pushModal: invocation of begin_modal failed
Nov 28 11:33:09 <hostname> org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1550]: Gjs-Message: JS LOG: pushModal: invocation of begin_modal failed
Nov 28 11:33:09 <hostname> org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1550]: Gjs-Message: JS LOG: error: Sperrung fehlgeschlagen: Sperrung wurde von einer Anwendung blockiert

Comment 6 Grant Gainey 2017-01-05 14:54:48 UTC
Found a blog-post with a suggested workaround (and some snark about Gnome...):

https://mikeb.org/2016/02/06/gnome-screensaver/

Is there any way we can get the priority of this issue raised? It really is a security exposure :(

Comment 7 Fedora End Of Life 2017-07-25 22:37:28 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 24 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 2 (two) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 24. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '24'.

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version prior this bug is closed as described in the policy above.

Although we aim to fix as many bugs as possible during every release's
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Comment 8 Fedora End Of Life 2017-08-08 16:46:08 UTC
Fedora 24 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2017-08-08. Fedora 24 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
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