Ubuntu
gnome-system-monitor package

Ubuntu: there is no easy and evident way to run task manager.

Bug #234884 reported by PowerUser
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-system-monitor (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Ubuntu (x64 version).Gnome based desktop(pretty default Ubuntu).

Bug is awfully simple.When some GUI app has hanged there is no simple and evident way to kill it.
Ctrl-Alt-Del offers a bunch of shutdown and system options.Unfortunately all good things EXCEPT starting task manager.
At very best user will find task manager in quite unevident place: System -> Administration -> System Monitor
Also I was not able to find in timely manner if there is any keyboard shortcut to run task manager and\or if it can be changed.In KDE and Kubuntu at least Ctrl-Alt-Del or any other hotkey can be assigned to starting task manager (ksysguard).However not so simple, too.

Expected behavior:
 There should be easy, evident and quite stable (in sense of application failures) way to run task managers in both Ubuntu and Kubuntu.
 Task manager and method of it's starting should not hope other apps are behave fair, etc.So method of starting shoule be reliable and easy, window should be unconditionally on top of all others.
 Kubuntu can acheive all this due to great KDE flexibility with some manual configuration (though you have to configure keyboard shortcut to run ksysguard and "above others" enforcement yourself but KDE at least allows all this).
In Ubuntu I found no convenient and evident way to kill hanged task.Actually when using task manager I will not expect that hanged or misbehaving app will be fair enough to allow me to enter system menu, walk it and start task manager and that failing app for example does not tries to be "above of others" itself.

In short, there should be some simple and "die-hard" method to run task manager and it should try to obtain boosted priority and draw winbdows above others to survive even if some app misbehaves in unfair manner.

See original description
PowerUser (i-am-sergey)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Thomas Kluyver (takluyver) wrote :

Ctrl-Esc works in Kubuntu--does that work in GNOME?

Revision history for this message
PowerUser (i-am-sergey) wrote :

Hmm, in [some another operating system] this shortcut does a way different thing so it is unlikely that too much users will figure this out.
And no, this doesn't works in Gnome.I'm pressing ctrl+esc, nothing happens.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Kluyver (takluyver) wrote :

I suggest this is a wishlist item (unless there's a shortcut I don't know about).

Whether any shortcut should work the same way as MS Windows, to make new users feel at home, is debatable.

Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

You can also access it thru Applications / System tools, but it still might be not obvious for many.

Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)
Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported, but feel free to report any other bugs you find.

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

that's similar to bug #41186 for example

Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

Don't mark a bug as invalid without a good reason. It doesn't matter that bug #41186 is similar, it's not the same! Besides, marking bugs as duplicates of bugs which are duplicates itselves is not a good idea either (and Launchpad won't allow you to do that).

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: Invalid → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

what change do you suggest which has not been request in an another bug already?

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

I suggest to add a "Run task manager" entry to gnome's panel context menu, just like in Windows. This would be much easier to discover for users than any keyboard shortcut.

The bug you linked is marked as a duplicate of a bug #11160 which was about Gnome misbehaving when ctrl-alt-del was assigned as a shortcut, not about just using that shortcut by default.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

the context menus already have too many items and this function is not used enough to add one there, if you add a system monitor applet to your configuration you can just left click on it to open the gnome-system-monitor, if you really want other changes you should discuss those on the ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list and get opinions

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
PowerUser (i-am-sergey) wrote :

Context menu is unsuitable. Task manager should be a die-hard thing. In Windows ctrl-alt-del either runs taskmanager or unconditionally pops up dialog allowing to run task manager. Therefore, it IS die-hard here. Ctrl-alt-del is very diehard shortcut in Windows, virtually no prog's can override it and it unconditionally brings task manager or special system dialog.

Ubuntu is another story. Once some app has encountered problem and gone mad, you may have trouble launching task manager.

Context menu? Menu of what? Task panel? What if problematic program managed to put itself over task panel? And what if someone does not want to see task panel over other apps at all? In Windows this is secondary method to run task manager. If this will be here secondary method, I see no prob's. But primary method should be something else.

Let's repeat: there should be easy and die-hard way to run task manager (ideally, this probably should be customizable and die-hard keyboard shortcut). Task manager should not assume that problematic tasks are friendly, so it have to put itself sticky over all windows, it should boost own priority over other prog's, etc. All this just to avoid scenario when failed or misbehaving program overrides task manager appearance. Normally, nobody starts task manager just for fun. It's rather started as emergency thing to deal with hanged or resource hog programs and in similar scenarios. Surely, skilled users can switch to console and this IS quite diehard. But "average Joe" will have hard times here.

Revision history for this message
PowerUser (i-am-sergey) wrote :

Marked bug as 'New' because: mentioned bug #41186 is not the same thing. In 8.04 Ubuntu there IS reaction on ctrl-alt-del keypress - system menu appears. However it does not provides way to run task manager. Hence, it seems to be different bug.

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: Invalid → New
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

how the software is started is not a bug in the software, you should rather discuss that on the mailing lists

Changed in gnome-system-monitor:
status: New → Invalid
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