Ubuntu 8.10 Mouse Clicking Issues

[Jick]

I'm not entirely sure when it started but, I do know it is a recent issue I've just begun to notice the last month or so. I think that means it's a regression of some kind.

Anyway, clicking is going haywire for me on my setup. At first I thought it was limited to Firefox because that was the only place I noticed it often. Then I realized that it is actually everywhere in Ubuntu. It seems to manifest itself at a seemingly random interval. The issue itself also seems to be random.

Here is a list (in no particular order) of some of the different things I've noticed: When I click once it actually ends up doing a double click.
When I right-click it will (seemingly) randomly just execute one of the context menu items rather than show the context menu.
When highlighting text it will sometimes just unselect what I had selected and move the text pointer to where my cursor currently is.
Clicking once inside a textarea (on the web or a text editor or what have you) will result in the entire word or line you clicked next to to become highlighted.
Clicking on an icon once and then clicking some empty area on the screen immediately after will cause the icon to execute rather than become un-highlighted.There are also several other similar issues related to this clicking issue but I just can't remember them all right now.

Some more info: Operating System: Ubuntu Linux version 8.10 (with all available updates)
Mouse: Logitech LX7 Optical Wireless Mouse
Configurations: Nothing special. Basically all my settings are still factory default.

As I said, these are random. They don't all happen at once and they all don't happen all the time. It all seems very random.

These issue are causing computing to be a major hell, to say the least. I'm almost thinking about downgrading to a previous version of Ubuntu since these problems didn't seem to be an issue for them. Or even as a last resort, maybe back to Windows again. :( I really hope to avoid that option, but it may be my only one if this all persists with no fix. They might have a fix for it in the next major release of Ubuntu (I don't know) but, I'm definitely not waiting that long. This issue is critical!

Has anyone else experienced some or all of these issues? Does anyone know of a possible fix?

I understand if there is no way currently to fix it. At the very least this thread can serve as a place for people experiencing these same issues to rant about it. :p

Oh, also... I've read some stuff from several people (all with different mice and setups) claiming to have these same issues so I don't believe this is merely a case of mis-configuration or similar.

[Mindzai]

I dont suppose you are running Ubuntu inside a VM?

[Jick]

I dont suppose you are running Ubuntu inside a VM?That would be a no.

Ubuntu is the only operating system I have on this computer right now. Fully wiped my entire drive and did a clean install of Ubuntu (from an official CD that I ordered from the Ubuntu people) to get where I am now.

[scragar]

see if reconfiguring the mouse works:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-input-mouse
log out and in again, see if that works(this is based on the idea that after the 8.04-8.10 upgrade some people wound up with a doubled up mouse driver, this should fix it if that's the problem).

[Jick]

Thanks scragar. I just executed that command (got no errors :)) and then restarted. I hope this works! I'll post back if not.

As a side note, I was experiencing this in 8.04 too from what I can recall. So you'd think this wouldn't be the answer. But, I'm giving it a shot anyway. Lets hope it works!

[Jick]

Nevermind... Problems persist. :mad::(

I'm trying to think back to when I first started noticing this... I think it started happening in 8.x. I don't think it was an issue in versions prior to 8.x. So, it must be some change that happened between 7.10 and 8.04 that is causing the issues. I just don't know what. Hmm...

[scragar]

This won't work for ibex(8.10) because they changed the whole Xorg config thing(go figure), but what does this line say on hardy(it should just list the mouse drivers, you can ignore any extra lines you have):
grep mouse /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Oh, and you don't need to restart to test driver changes or anything, all you need to do is log out and in again, Xorg, which handles all the drivers is reset when logging in or out.

[Jick]

Wow! That sure does spit out a lot of info... :p# Driver "mouse"So... what now?

[scragar]

There's a hash at the start of the line? That means it's commented out, which is confusing, because, you know, you can use the mouse...

[Jick]

Hmmmmm...... Interesting...

*feels even more confused now*

:p:(

[scragar]

OK, make a backup of it:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_
Then take a quick edit, I'm assuming you have gedit, which is the ubuntu text editor:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Remove the # from the line(might be worth posting the section with the mouse in back here), save, log out and in again, see if that fixes it.

If you break anything press ctrl+alt+F1 to get a tty, and just restore the backup before loging out of the TTY:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf_ /etc/X11/xorg.conf
exitYou may need to press ctrl+alt+F7 to return to the gui, but depending on you're release it might do it automatically.

Also note that you always have the command line web browser w3m in case you forget the command:
w3m webdeveloper.com
ctrl+z to put it in the background, fg %w3mto restore it.

--- sorry that this post is a bit long, and it sounds complex, but honestly most of it is dealing with the risk of a problem and being able to restore it.

[Mindzai]

There's a hash at the start of the line? That means it's commented out, which is confusing, because, you know, you can use the mouse...

I've got a feeling they made some changes in 8.10 which involved not using xorg.conf for mouse/keyboard/monitor etc config now. Maybe something to do with updated HAL? I don't have any entry at all for keyboard or mouse in my xorg.conf (on a clean install of 8.10) yet everything works just fine. I did have an issue running it at work where I have to use VMWare under OSX, the mouse was not registering at the correct coordinates (hence my original question) but that was fixed with (I believe) a HAL update shortly after release.

[Jick]

Well, my current install is an upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10 (using the built-in upgrade functionality of Ubuntu) so maybe some wires got crossed somewhere along the way during the upgrade. I did want to do a fresh install of 8.10 when it came out but I wasn't ready so I just did the upgrade route. But now I have things backed up so I can wipe it and do a fresh install of 8.10. I'll give that a shot and post back my results. If that does fix things I'm going to be mad. We should be able to use the upgrade function without the fear that it's going to break things...

[scragar]

There normally is very little chance of something breaking during an upgrade, the mouse problems that have come about in 8.10 have almost universally been caused by the huge renovation of how they handled Xorg(which handles most of the input/output, without it you can only really access a command line, and there usage of usb keyboards would be dependant upon if your mobo supports legacy mode).

Anyway, no point me defending it, I've moved off ubuntu already(still keep the install disk around, and hang out on the forums, but I'm a knoppix man now :P).

[Jick]

Just wanted to post a little update...

I haven't yet done the new install. Been busy backing up my important files and such.

Anyway, the update is: I was doing some work with a GParted 0.3.9 live CD and noticed this same problem there! :eek: So that has to mean that the problem is coming from something that both Ubuntu and GParted use. Gnome maybe?

I think this actually makes it even more confusing for me. :p I burnt this GParted CD back when Ubuntu 7.04 was the latest. So I think that rules out the possibility that this is an issue limited to the new Ubuntu 8.xx series.

But, back when I burnt the GParted CD I never had these mouse issues.

So what could be consistent between GParted 0.3.9 and Ubuntu 8.xx? As far as I know they do things separately. So, a problem with drivers or whatever in Ubuntu would not carry over to GParted. So it has to be something they are both getting wrong independently of each other. And if they are both getting the same thing wrong independently of each other, why did it just start happening? If they're going to get something wrong wouldn't they have been getting it wrong from day one rather than just all of a sudden out of nowhere?

Of course, I guess these could be two totally separate problems... They just seem to be the same. And its a little too weird that I never noticed it in GParted until I started noticing it in Ubuntu.

I also don't think this is just a case of it always being there and me just now noticing it because this is a major issue. I would have noticed this before. This isn't an issue you can miss. It makes everything harder to do.

Now I'm even more confused! I think typing this message also made me more confused. Hopefully you can decipher what I'm saying. :p

This is nuts! :eek:

[Mindzai]

I dont suppose your mouse itself could be the problem? Have you confirmed it working in another system? I know it's not likely but still...

[Jick]

I'll go give it a shot on a Windows computer today and let you know. ;)

On another note, I got Ubuntu all re-installed and all my files migrated back but everything was the same with the mouse issues. :( So, I guess I just did a fresh install for nothing. Well, at least I cleared out some junk along the way. I guess that is a good thing. :o

One other thing I tried is I completely uninstalled Compiz (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Compiz) which comes installed by default in Ubuntu. I got the idea that it may have been causing the issues but alas, the problems persist. :( I guess there is an up side to that too though. I didn't really need Compiz. I don't need all those whiz-bang effects and it just takes up extra room on the drive.

One thing I have noticed though is that it seems like the issues have slowed some. Before I was REALLY noticing the issues and now I notice them somewhat less. Now, I don't know if something got "sorta" fixed along the way or maybe I'm just getting used to compensating for the problems but, that is something I'm definitely noticing. Or maybe I'm just going crazy over all this. That could be it too... :p

Anyway, I'll try the mouse on another computer today like you are suggesting and get back to you on it.

In the mean time, if anyone has any other ideas/more info/etc please let me know. I really want to get this resolved!

[Limos]

I was having the exact problems you describe and... discovered it was my thumbs getting too close to the touchpad (below the spacebar) on my laptop and creating random, spurious mouse activity (moves, clicks, mouse-down, etc.).

It was REALLY frustrating - until I (finally!!) figured it out and disabled the touchpad. If you're using a laptop with a touchpad, hit Alt-F2 to bring up the run dialog and run synclient TouchpadOff=1.

Hopefully that helps!


Notes:

Change the 1 to a 0 (zero) to re-enable the Touchpad.

The above is what I do on my Kubuntu 8.10 laptop. The run dialog hot-key may be different for Gnome. I've no idea, I'm a "KDE guy". :)

You can also open a terminal window and run it from there if you want. (But if you don't have a working mouse, knowing the run dialog hotkey is very, very handy. :)

You can run the above at any time as a normal user - no sudo required.

To make things even easier, I created a little script called /usr/local/bin/touchpad with the following:

------------------------
#!/bin/bash
# Get cmdline arg in upper-case
[ "$1" ] && OPT=`echo $1 | tr [a-z] [A-Z]`
if [ "$OPT" = "ON" ] ; then
synclient TouchpadOff=0
else
synclient TouchpadOff=1
fi
-----------------------

I now just press Alt-F2 and run 'touchpad off' to disable it or 'touchpad on' to re-enable. (Actually, anything other than 'on' disables it.)

Good luck!

[irrelative]

Jick: Just wanted to say that you're not alone. Just found this forum while searching for the issue... I experience the same problems, really sporadic and hard to figure out what's wrong.

It's not the touchpad sensor for me -- I'm running it on a desktop machine with no touchpad. Hope someone figures this out -- it's really frustrating.

[Jick]

I too am on a desktop. But, thanks anyway for the idea Limos. Maybe someone else will find that as a solution. :)

As a side note, I'm not noticing this issue right now. In fact, I haven't really noticed it at all today that I can recall. But, I'm not going to hold my breath because it'll probably start up again right after I submit this. :p

[Jick]

Just wanted to post an update...

It has been happening more still. But it has gotten a bit better. Not sure how/why. I also tried it on a Windows machine and I didn't notice any issues there.

Hmm...

[\\.\]

Theirs one rule I like in this world but many people ignore it, most of them are programmers and developers of things like linux and they all ignore it...

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

If it was, linux would have the market lead but because of the way it operates, its no wonder Win* wins outright.

So your not alone in the confused stakes.

[Jick]

Yeah! I've never really thought of Linux ever being a desktop until Ubuntu came out. But even with Ubuntu it's still far too complicated to do simple things. Almost every article you can find about doing something in Ubuntu involves some sort of command line stuff. Yikes!

I also don't like how it doesn't support very much software. I can't live without my Photoshop and the latest version that's even close to decent in WINE is CS2. :( But, I guess that's not their fault. Somebody should start a petition to get Adobe to release Linux versions of their software. I think that would be a HUGE step in the right direction for making Ubuntu more mainstream.

Another thing that grips me is theming in Ubuntu. I've been on Ubuntu for a few months and I've yet to find even a decent theme for Ubuntu. Most of them I can find make me want to throw up (seriously!). The default Ubuntu themes are no exception. I mean, I've been continually going back to the default theme but that's just because I can't find a better one and at least the default theme is somewhat usable.

I think what they need to do is hire a real good interface designer to give it a professional overhaul. It would probably cost a pretty penny but it would definitely be worth it! They could probably dramatically increase their market share just by getting a better default theme.

[scragar]

Yeah! I've never really thought of Linux ever being a desktop until Ubuntu came out. But even with Ubuntu it's still far too complicated to do simple things. Almost every article you can find about doing something in Ubuntu involves some sort of command line stuff. Yikes!

I also don't like how it doesn't support very much software. I can't live without my Photoshop and the latest version that's even close to decent in WINE is CS2. :( But, I guess that's not their fault. Somebody should start a petition to get Adobe to release Linux versions of their software. I think that would be a HUGE step in the right direction for making Ubuntu more mainstream.

Another thing that grips me is theming in Ubuntu. I've been on Ubuntu for a few months and I've yet to find even a decent theme for Ubuntu. Most of them I can find make me want to throw up (seriously!). The default Ubuntu themes are no exception. I mean, I've been continually going back to the default theme but that's just because I can't find a better one and at least the default theme is somewhat usable.

I think what they need to do is hire a real good interface designer to give it a professional overhaul. It would probably cost a pretty penny but it would definitely be worth it! They could probably dramatically increase their market share just by getting a better default theme.

Hey, the theme get's better from year to year, Hoary, one of the earlier releases looked like mud.

Anyway, have you any idea what you want for a theme? If you know what you want and could draw it out you could make it yourself, it's not an impossibly complex procedure.

And there are petitions for adobe to consider linux, they tend to fall on deaf ears.

[Jick]

Hey, the theme get's better from year to year, Hoary, one of the earlier releases looked like mud.Yeah, they have been getting better. I can't argue with that. I kind of like the new darker theme they included in the latest version of Ubuntu. But, it still leaves something to be desired.

Anyway, have you any idea what you want for a theme? If you know what you want and could draw it out you could make it yourself, it's not an impossibly complex procedure.I've actually been trying to figure out how to make themes. However I haven't really been able to find a decent tutorial on the subject. The one that most people point you to (http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials/) leaves some things out and is overall, well, lacking to say the least...

And there are petitions for adobe to consider linux, they tend to fall on deaf ears.Oh? Well, that sucks! :(

[LeeU]

But even with Ubuntu it's still far too complicated to do simple things. Almost every article you can find about doing something in Ubuntu involves some sort of command line stuff. Yikes!

Wow, I'm not sure what articles you are reading. They may be mentioning installing software, but you can always use the Synaptic Package Manager. I almost never use the command line and I use Ubuntu for 98% of all the work I do. It's very easy to use. If I do need to use the command line, it's no different than using the one in Windoze.

I also don't like how it doesn't support very much software. I can't live without my Photoshop and the latest version that's even close to decent in WINE is CS2. :( But, I guess that's not their fault. Somebody should start a petition to get Adobe to release Linux versions of their software. I think that would be a HUGE step in the right direction for making Ubuntu more mainstream.
First of all, "it doesn't support very much software" is not a correct statement. I believe that you mean Windoze software, because there are tens of thousands of software programs for Linux.

Photoshop is supported using Wine. I know several people who use it for professional purposes and don't really have any problems. It just sometimes takes a bit of tweaking. Also, I have read many people state that once that made the switch to Gimp, it was just as easy, if not more, than Photoshop.

I have to say that I did have to make a few adjustments when i switched to Ubuntu but it has MORE than made up for all the problems with Windoze and its related viruses, etc. I set-up my wife's new laptop with Ubuntu and she can't really tell the difference, she is not not that great with computers to begin with.

There must be something to Ubuntu as many governments are switching part or all of their computers to Ubuntu (the US - part; Japan-all; EU - all, China - all etc.), many large school systems are switching as they can no longer afford the Windoze licensing scheme, as are many large, medium, and small corporations. Oh well, sometimes old habits die hard. Do you remember the learning process you went through when you first started using DOS/Windoze?

[scragar]

Do you remember the learning process you went through when you first started using DOS/Windoze?

I know I did:

win 3.1
my first windows, it was easy enough to work out, although I had a hard time following the file structure when I wanted to run a program that wasn't in the applications dir(which for some reason included paint and notepad, yeah, go figure on that one).
DOS:
for gaming, accessibility curve to be feared, cd to change directory, but c would return you to the root directory, c:\file.exewould run file.exe, but cd c:\folder wouldn't cd to the folder. Confusing.

XP:
I managed to get my head around XP easy enough, lot's of options are hidden though, and those that aren't hidden are not exactly made easy to use(anyone volunteering to guide someone through the process of partitioning a USB device on windows? Anyone? Didn't think so), sure, most things have a GUI, but it's far from intuitive.

Linux(GUI):
My first go at using linux was an Ubuntu 6.06 live CD, I fell in love immediately, applications on the bottom, menu's and buttons on top, the resolution was 1024, I didn't even need to search out and graphics drivers, fantastic. I played around for a while, loving every minute of it, I couldn't get sound working, but over all almost everything was working fantastic without any effort(where windows needed me to configure my internet, intall an antivirus and spybot, install drivers etc).

Linux(CLI):
wow, I was confused when I first tried using the command line, I tried all the usual dos commands, nothing made much sense, so I tried something that windows couldn't get right, help wow, a list of inbuilt commands, great, I played around for a while, easy enough, some of them didn't appear to do anything, but I was confident I would figure them out, when I ran across the man command, great, so help gives me inbuilt commands, including man, which gives me man pages on other commands, not bad to say I was guessing at random stuff to begin with.

Now, I've been using linux for over a year, loving every moment of it, I've tried 4 different distro's on my main box(ubuntu(first), debian(second, was faster, but it wasn't stable for some reason), knoppix(third, and I would still be using it if a powercut while I was recompiling my kernel hadn't left me with a somewhat unbootable system(there's a warning for ya, never recompile the new kernel over the old one, there's a reason make complains about it, adding the force option does not make everything better)) and gentoo(which just took too long to install, I got it installed, came to install a few more programs, realised how long it would take, and gave up on it)).

[Jick]

Wow, I'm not sure what articles you are reading. They may be mentioning installing software, but you can always use the Synaptic Package Manager. I almost never use the command line and I use Ubuntu for 98% of all the work I do. It's very easy to use. If I do need to use the command line, it's no different than using the one in Windoze.Yeah, but I never used the command line in Windows. :p Except for on very rare occasions.

First of all, "it doesn't support very much software" is not a correct statement. I believe that you mean Windoze software, because there are tens of thousands of software programs for Linux.What I meant was it doesn't support lots of the mainstream software that lots of people have come to reply upon. But like I said, that isn't Ubuntu's fault. More of just a personal gripe/wish.

Photoshop is supported using Wine. I know several people who use it for professional purposes and don't really have any problems. It just sometimes takes a bit of tweaking. Also, I have read many people state that once that made the switch to Gimp, it was just as easy, if not more, than Photoshop.Yeah. I just wish they reliably supported the newest version of Photoshop. But, I guess it is kind of hard to keep up with Adobe. They keep releasing new versions and the WINE crew has to keep up with all of them at the same time pretty much.

I have to say that I did have to make a few adjustments when i switched to Ubuntu but it has MORE than made up for all the problems with Windoze and its related viruses, etc. I set-up my wife's new laptop with Ubuntu and she can't really tell the difference, she is not not that great with computers to begin with.

There must be something to Ubuntu as many governments are switching part or all of their computers to Ubuntu (the US - part; Japan-all; EU - all, China - all etc.), many large school systems are switching as they can no longer afford the Windoze licensing scheme, as are many large, medium, and small corporations. Oh well, sometimes old habits die hard. Do you remember the learning process you went through when you first started using DOS/Windoze?I completely agree! I wasn't trying to diss on Ubuntu. I think it's wonderful! All it does and it's 100% free and anyone can contribute to it! Just awesome! Can't say that for Windows...

[LeeU]

@Jick: Ah, it's just me, then. As a writer, I tend to see things more specific. I realize now that you were being more general. Gotcha! Yeah, I have a program, NoteTab Pro, that there are a few minor glitches I have to over look, using Wine.

@scragar: I remember when Windows 1.0 first came out. (But I'm not old ;-> ) I was wondering why the salesman (who I knew) was so insistent that I try it. Then, once I got it loaded I found out. It was sooooooooooooooo slow. I dropped it and went back to my old DOS menus. That was back when Windows wasn't the operating systems, DOS still was. Windows was only a navigational system,. for the most part. It was competing with Apple.