Bug#611299: GNOME clock applet sometimes skips seconds when set to display seconds

[Aryeh Gregor]

Package: gnome-panel
Version: 1:2.30.2-1ubuntu3

Steps to reproduce:

1) Add a clock to your GNOME panel.

2) Right-click and choose Preferences.

3) Enable "Show seconds".

Expected behavior: Every second, the clock's display should increment
by one second.

Actual behavior: Sometimes the clock freezes for a second.  E.g., it
will read 3:36:16 PM, then 3:36:17 PM, then it won't change for two
seconds, then jump straight to 3:36:19 PM (skipping 18).  Note that
this is caused by a race condition, so it might not actually occur for
everyone, but clearly a number of users hit it.

Upstream bug report: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=585668
Ubuntu bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-panel/+bug/364089
Red Hat bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=581026

This is clearly an upstream problem.  I submitted a one-line patch
upstream in July at the bug report I linked to, and have received no
response.  I've tried to contact the relevant upstream maintainer
(Vincent Untz) repeatedly both on IRC and by e-mail, but he hasn't
responded.  I also bumped the upstream bug a few weeks ago and have
gotten no response.  If anyone here can get upstream to look at my
patch, please do so so that this can be fixed upstream.  Otherwise,
since upstream is unresponsive, I'd like to ask that Debian consider
picking up the patch.  (I use Ubuntu myself, but would prefer the
patch to help as many users as possible.)  I've used it for a few
months on my own system and noticed no ill effects.  In the upstream
bug report, I explain what I believe the problem to be and why my
patch fixes it.

I'd like to CC Vincent Untz on this, but Gmail doesn't let me add
custom headers and I'm apparently not supposed to do regular CCs here,
so I'd appreciate it if someone could do that.