Gnome 4xx breaks accessibility > Zoom
Situation
I'm visually impaired and always use the magnification accessibility feature in Gnome. As of Gnome 4xx, it unfortunately became unusable. Gnome crashes when you enable magnification with my standard settings.
Affected version
OS: Any popular Linux distribution using Gnome 4xx. Tested on...
- Ubuntu 21.10
- Pop_OS 21.10
- Manjaro Gnome 21.2
Gnome version: 4xx (Gnome 3xx works as expected)
Compositor: Xorg, Wayland not tested
Bug summary
When activating Desktop Zoom with my standard settings, the desktop freeze and then crash.
Steps to reproduce
- When logged in to Gnome desktop. Open Settings.
- (In Ubuntu 21.10) Choose Accessibility > Zoom > Magnifier tab > Magnifier Position > Screen part > Full Screen.
- Choose option "Magnifier cursor pushes contents around"
- Activate Zoom.
What happened
Desktop freeze and then crash. You have to log out and/or reboot.
What did you expect to happen
Desktop zoom working without crash (as in Gnome 3xx).
Notes, workarounds
If you choose other options than "Magnifier cursor pushes..." there in no crash. But this setting (cursor pushes...) are default in accessibility tools on MacOS, Chrome OS, MS-Windows for example. The reason for this is that visually impaired users prefer this setting so you are free to move your mouse without shaking the screen content around.
The workaround i can suggest to me and my Linux friends depending on desktop zoom, are this for now:
- Stay on Linux distributions with Gnome 3xx and NOT upgrade.
- Change desktop to KDE/Plasma or Cinnamon. These zoom tools are not as good as Gnome 3xx, but still usable.
- Have multiple Linux distributions on the same computer/drive to monitor future improvements.
Relevant logs, screenshots, screencasts etc.
Unfortunately I can not attach crash stack trace from live usb. I will try to update this report after reinstalling on real hardware.
Of course i can provide more information to help improve this issue.