Home → Feedback →

GPGSuite updater steals focus from X11 apps.

• Edit

Janne Johansson

18 Oct, 2017 08:55 AM

I have no idea what this program thinks it is doing, but it steals focus from X11/Quartz so that my typing goes into /dev/null.
There are programs to list where focus is going when it changes, and it looks like this for me:

$ /usr/bin/python act.py 2017-10-18 10:43:43.996 Python[58857:22034839] activated XQuartz (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11)
2017-10-18 10:43:50.119 Python[58857:22034839] activated Terminal (com.apple.Terminal)
2017-10-18 10:43:54.277 Python[58857:22034839] activated XQuartz (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11)
2017-10-18 10:44:12.112 Python[58857:22034839] activated GPGSuite_Updater (org.gpgtools.updater)
2017-10-18 10:44:22.181 Python[58857:22034839] activated XQuartz (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11)
2017-10-18 10:45:49.142 Python[58857:22034839] activated Terminal (com.apple.Terminal)
2017-10-18 10:45:50.490 Python[58857:22034839] activated XQuartz (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11)
2017-10-18 10:45:52.329 Python[58857:22034839] activated GPGSuite_Updater (org.gpgtools.updater)
2017-10-18 10:45:55.259 Python[58857:22034839] activated XQuartz (org.macosforge.xquartz.X11)
2017-10-18 10:45:56.082 Python[58857:22034839] activated Terminal (com.apple.Terminal)

so at random, within a minute or so, GPGSuite decides to not put up a window or GUI, but still steal my focus.
Version: 2017.1 on High Sierra

Googling for "steals my X11 focus" turns up a few programs over the years doing exactly this, and I guess GPGSuite felt they needed to join that list. 8-(
Since I need to actually work, I think I will have to uninstall this until solved, I have to use X11 and can't really have a program grab focus every minute.

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Luke Le on 18 Oct, 2017 01:21 PM

   

   Hi Janne,

   we are very sorry our suite is causing you problems.
   The updater should only run every 3 hours, so there's definitely something very wrong here.
   Could you send us the output of the following command:
   cat /Library/LaunchAgents/org.gpgtools.updater.plist

   Thanks!

   • Edit

2. 2 Posted by Janne Johansson on 18 Oct, 2017 01:47 PM

   

   I'm somewhat sorry for my tone, I was slightly upset from having
   my focus grabbed at "random" intervals, making my remote-X11 console
   stop accepting input. Took me rather long to find good search terms
   to find others with same issue (though other causes that GPGtools in
   those cases), which of course didn't help my moods either.

   • Edit

3. Support Staff 3 Posted by Luke Le on 18 Oct, 2017 01:48 PM

   

   Oh please, this is absolutely understandable. I just want to assure you that we definitely don't do something like this on purpose. Do you have other cases with the same issue and GPG Suite at fault? We are very interested in learning more.

   • Edit

4. 4 Posted by Janne Johansson on 18 Oct, 2017 03:39 PM

   

   No, not a single one with GPG found, just "random" updaters,
   like google chrome, some apple.com location preference thing
   that fired off every X (low values of x) minutes and so on.

   The common part seemed to be X11 programs were losing focus,
   and mostly crontab-style updaters or periodic programs being
   the culprits, found by that python script.

   Perhaps this is super common, except most updaters run every
   2 weeks or so, which means you'd never notice it for years unless
   you always have a certain style of program up exactly when it
   would run.

   • Edit

5. Support Staff 5 Posted by Luke Le on 18 Oct, 2017 03:42 PM

   

   Ah ok, would have been strange since this is the first time we hear of this problem, which makes me believe that your installation might be corrupted.
   Would you mind sending the output of cat /Library/LaunchAgents/org.gpgtools.updater.plist and launchctl list org.gpgtools.updater
   The only reason why the updater might be restarted so often is if it crashes for some reason.

   • Edit

6. 6 Posted by Aryeh on 12 Dec, 2017 10:07 AM

   

   I am having the same problem. I don't see how you can claim you have never heard of the problem, when this thread from July mentions the same.
   https://gpgtools.tenderapp.com/discussions/beta/2049-gpgpreferences...

   • Edit

7. Support Staff 7 Posted by Luke Le on 13 Dec, 2017 02:57 PM

   

   Hi Aryeh,

   I have personally not seen this problem, and didn't find the ticket referencing it at the time. Unfortunately we have yet to receive more detailed user feedback. We have never been able to reproduce the issue ourselves.
   It would be very helpful Aryeh, if you could run the commands I mentioned in my last post and post the output here.

   Thanks!

   • Edit

8. Support Staff 8 Posted by Steve on 13 Dec, 2017 05:28 PM

   

   We have a ticket for this problem. I connected this discussion with the existing ticket. That means, should this discussion get closed, it will be re-opened as soon as the ticket is closed. That way you'll stay in the loop and get notified as soon as we have news. Feel free to open a new discussions should you run into further problems or need assistance.

   • Edit

9. 9 Posted by Aryeh Abramovit... on 13 Dec, 2017 08:46 PM

   

   cat /Library/LaunchAgents/org.gpgtools.updater.plist

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "
   http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

   <plist version="1.0">

   <dict>

   <key>KeepAlive</key>

   <false/>

   <key>StartInterval</key>

   <integer>10800</integer>

   <key>WatchPaths</key>

   <array>

   <string>~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports</string>

   </array>

   <key>Label</key>

   <string>org.gpgtools.updater</string>

   <key>ProgramArguments</key>

   <array>

   <string>/Library/Application
   Support/GPGTools/GPGSuite_Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/GPGSuite_Updater</string>

   </array>

   </dict>

   </plist>

   Note: before I took away the executable bit of gpgsuite_updater to stop it
   from driving me up the wall, the output of the lastexitstatus was 0.

   {

   "LimitLoadToSessionType" = "Aqua";

   "Label" = "org.gpgtools.updater";

   "TimeOut" = 30;

   "OnDemand" = true;

   "LastExitStatus" = 19968;

   "Program" = "/Library/Application
   Support/GPGTools/GPGSuite_Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/GPGSuite_Updater";

   "ProgramArguments" = (

   "/Library/Application
   Support/GPGTools/GPGSuite_Updater.app/Contents/MacOS/GPGSuite_Updater";

   );

   };

   • Edit

10. Support Staff 10 Posted by Luke Le on 14 Dec, 2017 09:26 AM

    

    Hi Aryeh,

    thank you for the debug info. This is in fact very curious, since both files look file. The updater should only check every 3 hours. Are you using Quartz/X11 as well by any chance?

    • Edit

11. 11 Posted by Aryeh Abramovit... on 19 Dec, 2017 04:17 PM

    

    Yes, xquartz

    • Edit

12. Support Staff 12 Posted by Luke Le on 19 Dec, 2017 04:27 PM

    

    Hmm... I wonder if this is somehow related. For the last couple of days, I had a script running which informs you via speech at what point which app takes focus, and there were no anomalies I could make out.

    I just wanted to send you the commands to update the interval or disable the update check entirely and came across something else, that might be launching the updater/crash-reporter: The launch agent for the updater/crash-reporter is configured to listen to changes in your ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports folder, in order to send us crashlogs of Mail (if allowed in System Preferences -> GPG Suite). There's a possibility that you have a process which is crashing a lot. That in turn might launch the updater more often than usual. Could you your ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports for processes that crash often?

    • Edit

13. 13 Posted by Aryeh Abramovit... on 19 Dec, 2017 10:14 PM

    

    Here's a month of crashes, they are not every 3 minutes to say the least.

    rw-r--r-- 1 arabramo staff 187590 Nov 13 19:11
    CiscoJabberForMac_2017.11.13.19.11.17.hang

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12517 Nov 20 12:53
    notif_2017-11-20-125331_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10264 Nov 20 17:48
    notif_2017-11-20-174801_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55378 Nov 21 18:35
    jamf_2017-11-21-183504_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-r--r-- 1 arabramo staff 160771 Nov 21 18:50
    CiscoJabberForMac_2017.11.21.18.50.07.hang

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54961 Nov 26 22:56
    jamf_2017-11-26-225644_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12317 Nov 27 00:43
    notif_2017-11-27-004318_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12317 Nov 27 11:24
    notif_2017-11-27-112406_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54972 Nov 27 13:27
    jamf_2017-11-27-132745_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54961 Nov 27 21:46
    jamf_2017-11-27-214622_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55200 Nov 28 15:59
    jamf_2017-11-28-155929_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55047 Nov 28 16:53
    jamf_2017-11-28-165329_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55138 Nov 28 20:08
    jamf_2017-11-28-200859_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10264 Nov 28 20:23
    notif_2017-11-28-202343_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55373 Nov 28 20:50
    jamf_2017-11-28-205041_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10291 Nov 28 22:01
    notif_2017-11-28-220129_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12887 Nov 29 07:03
    notif_2017-11-29-070346_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55301 Nov 29 09:55
    jamf_2017-11-29-095523_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55133 Nov 29 12:09
    jamf_2017-11-29-120944_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55132 Nov 29 14:49
    jamf_2017-11-29-144941_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54967 Nov 29 20:47
    jamf_2017-11-29-204708_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54969 Nov 30 16:46
    jamf_2017-11-30-164635_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55133 Nov 30 18:34
    jamf_2017-11-30-183449_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55375 Nov 30 18:38
    jamf_2017-11-30-183835_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55133 Dec 1 09:27
    jamf_2017-12-01-092756_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 55139 Dec 1 11:02
    jamf_2017-12-01-110242_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12377 Dec 1 11:48
    notif_2017-12-01-114834_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10266 Dec 1 13:19
    notif_2017-12-01-131919_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12505 Dec 1 14:26
    notif_2017-12-01-142610_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10194 Dec 3 11:14
    notif_2017-12-03-111449_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 11733 Dec 4 09:43
    notif_2017-12-04-094344_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 11808 Dec 4 14:20
    notif_2017-12-04-142013_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12168 Dec 5 09:08
    notif_2017-12-05-090839_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10264 Dec 6 13:52
    notif_2017-12-06-135204_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-r--r-- 1 arabramo staff 198691 Dec 7 09:22
    CiscoJabberForMac_2017.12.07.09.22.44.hang

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 47505 Dec 7 09:28 Brackets
    Helper_2017-12-07-092821_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 54426 Dec 7 09:28 Electron
    Helper_2017-12-07-092822_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 12647 Dec 7 10:34
    notif_2017-12-07-103430_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 156414 Dec 8 12:37 Cisco
    Jabber_2017-12-08-123720_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10262 Dec 11 11:59
    notif_2017-12-11-115911_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10311 Dec 12 16:48
    notif_2017-12-12-164848_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10313 Dec 12 17:56
    notif_2017-12-12-175608_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-------@ 1 arabramo staff 10287 Dec 13 13:45
    notif_2017-12-13-134522_ARABRAMO-M-D086.crash

    -rw-r--r-- 1 arabramo staff 149034 Dec 13 22:21
    CiscoJabberForMac_2017.12.13.22.21.12.hang

    -rw-r--r-- 1 arabramo staff 152589 Dec 13 23:48
    CiscoJabberForMac_2017.12.13.23.48.15.hang

    • Edit

14. Support Staff 14 Posted by Luke Le on 22 Jan, 2018 12:12 PM

    

    Hi Aryeh,

    thanks for the update. It looks like the crashes are not at fault then. We are still looking into this but have not yet managed to reproduce the issue on any of our machines.
    So the easiest solution for now, would be to disable the launch agent altogether. You can either delete the /Library/LaunchAgents/org.gpgtools.updater.plist or disable it by running the following command:

    launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/org.gpgtools.updater.plist
    

    Hope that helps for now.

    • Edit

15. Steve closed this discussion on 28 Mar, 2018 11:49 AM.

16. Support Staff 15 Posted by Steve on 24 Jun, 2020 01:28 PM

    

    Just an update on the reported issue about the GPG Suite Updater stealing focus from X11: GPG Suite 2020.1 fixes this problem.

    Have a great day,
    Steve

    • Edit

17. Steve closed this discussion on 24 Jun, 2020 01:28 PM.