11.04 - Mouse randomly stops working inside applications

[emastro]

This happens randomly after a reboot: I can move the mouse cursor and it works perfectly only on the Unity sidebar or whatever it's called. I can fire up applications, but once they're up they completely ignore any clicks or mouse movements (the main menu does not appear on the top bar if I move the cursor in the location that usually makes it appear). They only recognise a click on the close/iconize/maximize buttons.

The mouse works: as I said I can move the cursor and it recognises clicks on the sidebar and the window control buttons; plus, it's connected via a KVM switch both to the Linux box and to a Windows box (from which I'm writing this) and in Windows it works perfectly.

The pattern used to be this: usually while running Firefox, the mouse and keyboard stop responding, and sometimes the whole desktop graphics become corrupted. I can Alt+F1 and go to a text-mode console, but nothing short of a reboot "fixes" things. After the reboot, about two times out of five everything works, three times out of five I get the situation described above.

For the last few hours or so, however, no amount of rebooting and sacrificing goats to the gods protecting sociopaths and Linux software developers have been able to restore mouse functionality. I click on my username on the login window (there it works perfectly), enter the password and then only the Unity sidebar works: again, the mouse cursor moves, only clicks (right and left) are ignored, as are hotspots. In ubuntu classic there is no place where I can click and launch applications, btw - once I get in I'm basically blocked and can't do anything

Has anyone encountered a problem like this? Does it sound like a known bug? Or, at least, does anyone have any idea on where to find more info?

[emastro]

Something else I had not noticed previously. With some applications, once fired up the mouse only works inside those apps - e.g. Chromium. Once I start it, the mouse works perfectly, I can follow links and all, but it doesn't work outside the Chromium window (not even to close or iconize the app)

This behaviour is however random - if I close Chromium with Alt-f4 and start it again, it could work like before or in the opposite way, ignoring mouse clicks

[touf]

Hi,
I have the same problem (ubuntu 11.04 - laptop dell latitude e4300).
The mouse randomly stops working. The keyboard works still fine, so I have to manually close all the apps by alt+F4, then log out and log in, and it is working again.
It happens two times a day, so it's not pleasant
Touf

[damouton]

Hi,


I have the exact same problem. I'm using Wubi and installing Ubuntu over Win7. Never had this problem before with previous versions. I tried to reinstall several times using both the 32 and 64bit versions.


The only way to fix for now is with the reboot but then the problem comes back only after a few clicks. This makes using the interface with the mouse impossible.

Using the keyboard only, I was able to install all the updates and drivers for my ATI graphics card but that doesnt help one bit.


Help!


System used:
I7 860 on ASUS P7P55D
8Go RAM
ATI 5850
Res: 1080P
Installed OS on a 1TB drive

[eastFire]

I see the same problem with my Dell Laptop Latitude E6510. However, I see it only in the docked mode and connected to Logitech mouse.

I can use Laptop touchpad fine. All clicks with touchpad respond as expected.

Thanks for any help.

-Kishore

[lunarexplorermodule]

Did anybody of you fix this problem? Did an update fix your problem? I seem to have similar symptoms of this mouse problem. I am using a wireless logitech mouse connected to sandy bridge desktop computer.

[mp035]

Same here, randomly the mouse clicks stop responding. On my laptop running unity, the unity taskbar still responds, but on my desktop running Gnome, nothing responds to clicks. I can still move the mouse, and switching to a VT and killing X, logging back in fixes the issue.

Both are AMD64 11.04 machines.

This is REALLY annoying.

Any hints?

[touf]

Hi,
I still didn't found how to fix it. In order to recover I need to close all opened apps with the keyboar ALT+F4, then the mouse allow me to log out from the applet panel. Logging back and it works again (during several hours only).
I noticed also lot of troubles with the applets panel. Often when logging I get a message that some of the applet on the panel have troubles and must be removed. Can it be linked with the mouse problem?
Cheers
Touf

[Gr.Turtle]

did anyone figure this out? usually there are more responses on the forum.

[braincookie]

I have exactly the same problem with Ubuntu 11.10 on a AMD Athlon PC with a GeForce 7300 graphic card, using Unity 2D. Initially I thought it was somehow related to the nvidia driver, but the posts in this thread show that it's not true. What happens is that randomly, the mouse stops interacting with the desktop and open application windows (no more clicking possible, no mouse-over effects), but the mouse cursor is moving correctly. The side-bar also keeps working correctly. The applications are not frozen, because they continue responding to keyboard input. It seems as if the desktop/application area suddenly simply stopped receiving mouse events.

In fact, this problem started to appear about a week ago on Ubuntu 10.04 with a gnome desktop, then I upgraded, but the problem remained.

The only solution when this problem happens is to kill the X-server and login again, which is quite annoying.

I would be grateful for any help! - Maybe somebody knows how to trace event propagation in the X-Server?

Edit: I tracked it down to some relationship with keyboard / mouse:
I exchanged the input devices with my other PC (running Ubuntu 10.10) and suddenly the same problem appeared on the other PC (mouse event propagation suddenly seems broken in some windows / on the desktop). I managed to get it back working by pressing randomly all mouse buttons (4 buttons and scroll wheel). My wireless mouse and keyboard are connected to the PC through one single USB stick.


$ xinput listyields:



⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ MLK Trust Deskset 15176 id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ MLK Trust Deskset 15176 id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]


When using xev, I see that no events outside the taskbar are shown (no event inside the xev window neither)

The funny thing is, that this keyboard/mouse worked for years. Maybe this issue appeared somewhere around kernel 2.6.35-31-generic and stayed on in later kernels.

Can anybody confirm this? Should I file a bug?

[PayPaul]

Occasionally but not always my mouse responds by my hitting the ESC button. So far in the past 2 days the mouse has behaved itself. On Monday of this week I took a chance because of this bad behavior of restarting the machine and booting to Win7 again. After 2 months of using Ubuntu Win7 must have learned its lesson by its being banished and started working again. 2 days later I booted up again into Ubuntu and so far the mouse has behaved itself. I love that command that you've posted above and tried it. This is the output. If it makes any sense to anyone as a direction to a possible solution can someone let me know?


paulw@ubuntu:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ USB Mouse id=8 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ UC-LOGIC Tablet WP8060U id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ UC-LOGIC Tablet WP8060U id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
paulw@ubuntu:~$

[cov]

This is honestly a complete pain.

Once the touchpad stops working the only solution is to reboot.


dave@SNECCI:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ CNF7129 id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Asus Laptop extra buttons id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]

[cov]

Nothing on this?

It's incredibly annoying to have to reboot continuously because the touchpad stops working.

[typhoon_tip]

I had that problem on 11.04 when using FileZilla. App wasn't blocked, but mouse click were totally gone (not responding anymore). After a while, I found that it was related to the new scrollbars, somehow it was stucked around a scrollbar and clicks were not working anymore, and had to close the window with ALT+F4. Chrome and Chromium are not using overlay scrollbars, that could be the key.

Is anyone of you who have this problem using the new overlay scrollbars or the older ones ?

If you want to give it a try if they fix the problem (might be related, but I am not sure 100%), these commands remove the scrollbars alltogether and return to normal ones:

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar
sudo su
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

[cov]

I can Alt+F4 all day long, the mouse remains unresponsive, evem with no apps open.

I haven't noticed it happening with any particular app; it seems entirely random for me.

Many of us started using Linux because we were a bit tired of the BSOD with Windows, but I have had to reboot my computer five or six times this morning and it's kind of taking away the fun of using Linux (to put it mildly!)

[braincookie]

I had that problem on 11.04 when using FileZilla. App wasn't blocked, but mouse click were totally gone (not responding anymore). After a while, I found that it was related to the new scrollbars, somehow it was stucked around a scrollbar and clicks were not working anymore, and had to close the window with ALT+F4. Chrome and Chromium are not using overlay scrollbars, that could be the key.

Is anyone of you who have this problem using the new overlay scrollbars or the older ones ?

If you want to give it a try if they fix the problem (might be related, but I am not sure 100%), these commands remove the scrollbars alltogether and return to normal ones:

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar
sudo su
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

Well, this might be a solution for some of you, but in my case problems started appearing when I was still on the classic Gnome desktop, without fancy scrollbars. My guess is that some keyboard / mouse breaks the event propagation…

Just one hint for those who talked about rebooting the system: just check if killing / restarting the X-server doesn't do the job. In order to enable the Ctrl + Alt + Backspace shortcut to kill the X-Server, just do the following (from http://deviceguru.com/enabling-ctrl-alt-backspace-to-kill-the-x-server-in-ubuntu/): (http://deviceguru.com/enabling-ctrl-alt-backspace-to-kill-the-x-server-in-ubuntu/%29:)


Go to Menu > System > Preferences > Keyboard
Select the Layouts tab
Click the Options button
Click the Triangle to the left of the line that says “Key sequence to kill the X server”
Check the box to the left of Ctrl + Alt + Backspace

Take care: When killing the X-Server, all your unsaved data will be lost!

[genjix]

I am having this issue too. I run Awesome WM, but also have gnome-settings-daemon running. So the problem is probably something to do with that.

When I close the WM (which also restarts X) then the mouse is working again. Really annoying though since it can happen twice a day to once every 2 days.

[Mindrix]

I've been having this problem for the last few days. Not sure what exactly I installed that caused it, but I have found one trick to get around the problem.

After you log in, simply log out, via Ctrl + Alt + Del, then log back in. Then I don't have any issues.

I'll try the scroll bar thing.

[dpc.ucore.info]

I am having this issue too. I run Awesome WM, but also have gnome-settings-daemon running. So the problem is probably something to do with that.

When I close the WM (which also restarts X) then the mouse is working again. Really annoying though since it can happen twice a day to once every 2 days.


Exactly same setup, exactly same result. I'm going insane because of this.

[dpc.ucore.info]

It seems that this problem is being triggered by using Nautilus. I mean: if I don't use it at all for some time I don't seem to get the this bug.

[vegastrey]

I too am having this issue on my desktop. I tried upgrading from 11.04 to 11.10 and have the same issue. Restarting X causes the issue to go away for a little while but it does come back. Reinstalling unity from the command line and starting x will keep the problem from happening until the next system reboot. I have noticed it does happen more often when I launch the file browser and the problem happens in Unity, Gnome Classic, and Gnome 3.0.

[MBybee]

I have the same thing on both 11.04 and 11.10, but *not* on Xubuntu, if that results in any ideas for anyone.

For me I find that a alt+f2 then r seems to fix it. Practically a reboot though, depending on what you had running.

[73ckn797]

I have the problem when in Firefox. Closing FF and re-opening fixes it for a while. I use Nautilus all day long. It is only happening on a Toshiba laptop with touch pad.

[supernac]

Any update on this? I'm having the exact same problem, 11.10 x64 logitech mx1000.

[andyba]

I am having a similar problem.
ubuntu 11.04 64 bit. A4tech mouse stops responding to left clicks.

[thed0ctor]

I also have a similar issue. Real quick my setup is:

Ubuntu 11.10 x64 on an HP Touchsmart tm2t-2050ca

My keyboard is completely usable, when my mouse goes out only the right click is recognized (along with moving the mouse around). I noticed if I held down the windows key and pressed the number corresponding to the application, they recognize me highlighting different things with the mouse (for example the close 'x' button or clicking a link in Google) but left click doesn't work.

This first started happening after I installed Virtualbox (the most recent one NOT from the software center). I noticed that using seamless mode in virtualbox made the problem appear more quickly. Upon rebooting my computer and NOT using virtualbox the problem happened again.

Most times logging out and logging back on works but other times it doesn't. I also have a stylus that is recognized as input and the same thing happens with it. Sometimes the stylus isn't being recognized either.

Should someone file a bug or? Is there something we all have in common with our computers? Programs installed, settings, etc?

[Shenarah]

I am having this as well. If I cannot sort it out soon I wil have to install Windows! :-(

[pontook]

I installed 11.10 yesterday and had symptoms of the problem during the installer, after installing, whenever a new window should take focus, alt-tab stops working and the window does not take any notice of my mouse.
Sometimes the window below it responds, while the window that should does not.
I would have to unplug my mouse and plug it into the usb again to make it work ( oddly my last mouseclick seems to go through when i do ).

I tried the re-install of 'inputattach': did nothing for me.
However in one of the threads it suggested restarting metacity. Tried that.. Did not have much luck.

Some threads suggested disabling effects in compiz. Did so, thought it worked, but after i got back from work it was just back to no mouse again.

I try out ubuntu at least once a year, this is by far the worst experience i had with it thus far.
Normally i can solve most of the fun stuff within a few days, but with no mouse there is nothing fun about it.

Its off until next year. Not the best situation for an OS trying to compete.

[jayzymill]

Same problem in 11.10 with a HP G62.

I'm using a USB mouse and can restore the mouse click by simply using the touchpad to go to a text input and then left click on the touchpad to put the cursor in the input field.

[thed0ctor]

I haven't had this problem in a while but what I have had is my mouse stop clicking. I have a touch screen and what I do is touch the screen and for whatever reason that fixes the clicking issue. Almost as if it was locked on that input or something. Just thought I'd share.

[KoolPal]

Weird! So many have reported this problem but none seem to have found a fix for this :(

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 on my old ThinkPad r52. Often & randomly my touchpad as well as the pointer will suddenly stop responding.

I have Windows XP as dual boot and the only solution is to reboot into Windows, use the mouse for some time and then reboot into Ubuntu.

Can any enlightened soul kindly put us out of our misery???

Thanks a ton!!

[73ckn797]

The mouse problem is no longer a problem. I feel that my issue was due to using the latest Firefox obtained from Mozilla. Using the version available from the repositories does not cause the problem. I was only having this occur when using Firefox. Using 12.04 now with no issues.

[tbzep]

I'm having the problem with Firefox 13.0. It happens when I click the back button in FF. I can't recall if it has happened when doing anything else as the first couple of times were weeks apart I wasn't paying attention. It has now done it twice in the last couple of days.

As with everyone else, the keyboard works, and I can move the mouse pointer around, but can't click with any button or scroll wheel. I've ended up rebooting each time.

I'm running 11.04, Phenom II x4 965, Asrock board, microsoft optical mouse, FF 13.0.

[nstraz]

I got into this state while running Awesome on Fedora 17. I found a way to get out of it without rebooting. Use the xinput reattach command to reset your mouse.


[nstraz@tin log]$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB RECEIVER id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell Dell USB Keyboard id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
[nstraz@tin log]$ xinput reattach 9 2



After I did that I could click inside applications and resize my windows again.

[biot023@gmail.com]

That just fixed the issue without needing to reboot for me -- thanks!
I'm on 13.04, but same problem.
Of course, it doesn't answer why the issue occurs, and is hardly something one could expect a non-technical user to be able to confidently resort to.
But for me, for now -- thankyou! :)