I recently updated Qubes from 4.1 to 4.2 and I noticed a small difference when I unlock the screensaver.
In 4.1, I could unlock the screensaver by typing my password and pressing enter before any password prompt was shown.
Now with 4.2, the first character I type is used up to bring up the password prompt. Only then I can start typing my password.
I know it’s a very small thing, I could just type an extra character before filling in my password.
But I’m forgetting about this every time I unlock my computer, so maybe you know some way to restore the old behavior?
I just tap “shift” a couple times when I’m waking the screen before entering my password to bring up the dialog.
I agree it’s a change, but didn’t take long to get used to.
IMO, it’s a good idea to make sure that the screen is (a) awake, and (b) showing the expected password prompt before entering your password. Not doing those is a good way to eventually enter your password in something else by mistake, and if you are in the habit of “wake, password, enter,” if the screensaver lock screen ends up disabled for whatever reason (some updates do this, I’ve occasionally crashed things in ways that lead to this behavior on various Linuxes), you’ll have sent your password off to whatever has focus before you realize anything is wrong.
‘This is an inevitable consequence of the new security model introduced in XScreenSaver 6.00. The old behavior will not be returning, so get used to clicking the mouse or tapping “Shift” before you start typing your password.’
‘The old XScreenSaver daemon contained 14.5k lines of code in a single executable. The new one contains 12.5k lines across three different executables – a 14% reduction overall. But as I said earlier, the critical section – the process whose crash will result in an unlock – now contains only 1.8k lines – an 87% reduction. This is great not just because it reduces the attack surface, but also because it’s easier to understand and audit.’