My computer doubles as a server, so I leave it turned on and not asleep, but logged out, most of the time.

In 10.6, if I logged out of the computer for an extended period of time, I could log back into it without touching the mouse or without the screen having come on yet by pressing any key to get rid of the screen saver, then typing my password and hitting return.

In 10.8, if I log out of the computer for a short period of time then this is still possible; when you log out, the keyboard focus (blinking cursor) is on the password field. However, if I log out for a long period of time - I don't know how long exactly, maybe just enough for the display to turn off - then it doesn't work; after waking the screen, the keyboard focus is nowhere. The only way I can log in again is by using the mouse to click on the password field, which puts focus back so I can type there.

For reasons too complicated to go into, this is highly annoying to me and I would like to be able to login using the keyboard only (without using a mouse or looking at the display). My questions:

Is this standard behaviour or something I have set up wrong somehow?

Is there some key combination I can press to focus the login field?

Is there a setting that will mean the login field always stays focused?

By the way, I only have a single account on the computer (that is visible on that screen, I mean).