Why a modal dialog for authentication?

[asinbeer]

With 22.1 I'm confronted with a modal dialog box for authentication. Nothing can be done until a password is entered. Including copy/paste, which is how I enter my long password.

I've been a user for a long time of LM. Since Ubuntu & Gnome decided to blow up the UI years ago. I chose Mint then. I'm not a programmer, just a user who expects his desktop to do what I ask.

Anytime you think a modal dialog is the answer, you should think some more. You need a very good reason to interrupt the user. What is gained?

I am, as always, a fan.

[billyswong]

I guess the rationale may be so that no other software may steal focus when the user is typing password.

But there are some instance where an user may NOT want to confirm or cancel the password prompt immediately, but want to work on other tasks first, even if they don't need to copy & paste passwords as in your situation. Similar for any other WM-induced dialogs. In my opinion, it will be best if these dialogs be non-steal-able but still possible for an user to un-modal it by a click of button and/or certain key combination, until the keyboard focus is back to the password field in the prompt.

[cplittlfield]

I am not a fan of system-modal dialogues. They are completely disruptive and not called for in most cases. As someone posted in the LM forums, "If you think a modal dialogue is called for, then you should think some more."

What, for example, is so important about authenticating an update that the user must interrupt everything else to respond? Authentication at startup, or when recovering from a locked screen, or when shutting down the system, are very different situations, where using a system-modal dialogue is justified, even required. But for a normal task, such as updating? Come on, folks!

A system-modal window in such a case feels a lot like the "nanny-ism" of Microsoft products. Since switching to Linux Mint, I have grown accustomed to being treated as an adult again. I don't want to lose that.

[billyswong]

What, for example, is so important about authenticating an update that the user must interrupt everything else to respond? Authentication at startup, or when recovering from a locked screen, or when shutting down the system, are very different situations, where using a system-modal dialogue is justified, even required. But for a normal task, such as updating? Come on, folks!

I agree with you mostly. If the purpose of modal password prompt is to prevent other software stealing focus from the password prompt, the password prompt shouldn't steal focus from other software either. A software may request admin right in the middle of itself running in background. Such request and such password prompt shouldn't steal focus from what I am doing in foreground.

[bigboipete]

See #12691.

[Secret-chest]

Workaround: MATE

[asinbeer]

I find the modal dialog to be so offensive that I am considering moving to another OS. Maybe MATE.
I also thought about removing the password requirement completely through the magic of cut and paste. Also, I can make my password so short and easy that it is very typeable.
For now, I've retreated to LM 21.3.

[bbbbbr]

Just encountered this after an update to 22.1. 100% not a fan of modal dialogs that block all other system interaction. It has not yet caused a problem for me (though I guess it has already has in 12691) but I would not be surprised if it does in due time.

Password entry is not sufficient grounds for blocking out all other apps. If it was, then does the same logic eventually apply to any sudo invocation in terminals such that they also forced system wide modality? (please, don't answer yes to that 😅 )

For me the only modal dialog that is vaguely justified is the alt-f2 cinnamon command entry.

Would love to see the modality removed.

[cplittlfield]

Yes. There is nothing wrong with an _application-_modal dialogue; it's the system modality that is the problem. What happens if you work in a call center and have to answer a phone call, or you have to stop a runaway print job on a shared printer in another room? And these are not the only examples of urgent needs that could occur when the authentication dialogue is blocking all other use of your computer. Not to mention people's accessibility issues, for heaven's sake.

[bigboipete]

Issue #12691, that I mentioned above is a duplicate. The initial issue is #12636.

[saka1029]

This is clearly a bug. I can't enter passwords on the tablet using the virtual keyboard "onboard". I need to have a physical keyboard connected.

[Xenophobe-01]

Have to agree, for those of us that multitask it's a pain when the distro dictates what we must do in order to continue doing anything else. I settled on Mint 4 years ago because of the simple freedom to do what I want, the way I want and when I want to. If this is the direction Mint is headed then maybe it's time to start looking for a new distro.

[Secret-chest]

Try Mint with MATE.

[Xenophobe-01]

My concern is that this is one of their first steps down the corporate dark side path like canonical (the microsoft wannabe of linux) ... may be better to just find something else, as once the distro level control freak aspects start they just get worse.

[Secret-chest]

It is just a GNOME backport.

[bbbbbr]

While it's not surprising this kind of UI paternalism came from GNOME, Cinnamon intentionally does not follow everything that GNOME does and in this case should consider once again not doing so.

[SteegHobland]

When I need to address something that needs my attention, like a system update, or installing a program, I typically find I'm already paying attention to the thing that needs my attention enough. The way it worked on 21 was fine with me, and I want to go back to that way. I don't like that both of my screens go dim, and I can't do anything else but address the dialog. I don't want it to be that way. This doesn't respect my preferences, my user autonomy, at all.

I don't question why a modal, I don't care why.

I question: How do I get rid of this undesirable behavior? How do I get it to behave as it did in the prior version? How do I get my computer to do what I want it to do, not what you want it to do?

My opinion on this change is that it is user-hostile, not respectful, and not a path that Linux Mint ought to continue on.

[Xenophobe-01]

I had to do a timeshift back to 21.3 myself, only way to make it stop. If this is the direction Mint's Cinnamon is going to continue on, then once Debian Trixie is released as stable I'll be switching to Debian with KDE Plasma.

Edit: looks like KDE6 is doing the modal dialog crap too, Xfce it is ...

Edit 2: looks like Xfce is also joining the Wayland push and this system modal dialog is just how it's done ... getting the feeling microsoft placed some of their people in Linux desktop environment development areas just to try and make Linux desktop environments feel as user unfriendly as windows ...

[Jopp-gh]

Wow, I'd hate this feature. And I really mean hate, which is a term I don't use lightly or often.

I'm still happy user of Mint Virginia.

[Secret-chest]

I have come to the realisation that Cinnamon is a monster. It is GNOME in a different shape and with themes. The panel, modals and so on don't use GTK, they use Clutter with JavaScript, like GNOME. MATE is the real classic desktop, it is based on GNOME 2 and everything is GTK.

[MisterShifty]

Is there a fix or a workaround for this yet? This is causing lots of problems for me and I haven't found any mention anywhere of an ETA for when this is going to be corrected.

[Xenophobe-01]

This is Cinnamon's new 'modern' look/feel ... I doubt they intend to remove it.

[sonicSMASH]

For whatever reason, mine just disabled the vignette itself so it does what the OP wanted, unfortunately I can't get it back or tell you how it got in this state.....

[SteegHobland]

Interesting, and tantalizing report, though. I hope others can fill us in with more.