how to stop gnome holding a lock on auth popups

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   When an auth popup comes (ssh for example) asking for a password - it
steals the focus and I  cannot move focus away from that window - how do
I turn off this behaviour and allow me to enter that window when I am
ready - and not let it be so dang rude and not let me do anything else
... I may have other more urgent things I need to do on the computer ...
than give all my attention to that auth window ..

  I prowled the window registry editor but found nothing obvious ..

  thanks ...

  gene/