Stuck cursor and other annoying random issues

[Red Squirrel]

I switched to Linux (Xubuntu) so I don't have to reboot so damn often. I do lot of coding and can have 10+ windows open sometimes. I find myself rebooting way more often now.

First issue: In order to have 3 monitors, one of them has to run a separate X session. There are work arounds but it involves treating 2 monitors as one and it's just so messed up I don't even want to consider that. Basically maximizing a window spans both etc... it's really not a proper way to do things and is a real hack. So I opted for the separate X session.

This session often bugs right out, I will start to see all kind of artifacts and junk, things will start to act up, I wont be able to open stuff, it will just delay for ever and eventually error out with "cannot open the folder" it's just overall very buggy.

Second Issue: The main X session, which has two monitors, works well while the system is running. However when I reboot (which is often because of issue 1 and 3) then it's all screwed up. the theme is some weird black theme that I cannot read any of the text. I keep having to go change it. Occasionally all the bars will be all over the place too, but this seems to have settled in the last couple reboots.

Third issue: This happens mostly in firefox and thunderbird but also other apps: Randomly a cursor such as the hand icon, or the "I beam" cursor will get stuck in that position. I also loose all keyboard functionality when this happens. I can move the mouse but cannot click on anything or do anything with it. This forces me to hit the reset button.


This 3 issues are making me contemplate going back to Windows, but I really hate the direction it's going. Seems there's no good OS anymore.

Is there anything I can do to fix these issues? It is extremely annoying.

[Red Squirrel]

Did it again. This is really annoying. Anyone?

[helpee]

What kind of hardware do you have? Do you have the graphics card, acceleration, memory for this?

There are other ways to maximize the amount of workspace you have besides just getting bigger screens. You could use the workspace switcher ( control+alt+arrow key ), which is pretty fast and greatly increases my productivity. If you don't like the layout, you can change that, too. You could also make your whole desktop a 3D cube with translucent panels if you need to see everything all the time.

[Red Squirrel]

I need to be able to see everything at once, so I need the multiple screens. I already do use the workspace switcher on top of that.

I have 2 Geforce GTX 560 TI's, Core i7 processor, 12GB of ram.

The stuck cursor issue also happened before I added the 3rd monitor. It just does it more now. But the other issues only surfaced when I added the monitor.

[helpee]

Have you tried this
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/inde...t-1999966.html
?

I'm not trying to be patronizing here, just trying to cover all the bases.

[Red Squirrel]

The issue with using those type of work arounds is they do not support any 3D acceleration. While they're arn't many games for Linux, I do plan to possibly start coding one, and there are a few I do play. I don't want to completely remove my ability to game.

[black veils]

2 of those issues only started after you added the 3rd monitor, what is the make and model of it ?

[Red Squirrel]

2 of those issues only started after you added the 3rd monitor, what is the make and model of it ?

It's a LG Flatron E2442TC.

[Red Squirrel]

Did it again... what a pain. It screwed up the theme again too. What seems to happen is it actually looks like the theme I had but things go all black.

What if I try another distro? Are these bugs something specific to Xubuntu?

[Red Squirrel]

Have you tried this
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/inde...t-1999966.html
?

I'm not trying to be patronizing here, just trying to cover all the bases.

Just tried this, and it did not do anything but disable the 3rd screen (like it was originally)


This is the resulting config file:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 304.43  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-13)  Sun Aug 19 21:19:28 PDT 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "BaseMosaic" "True"
    Option         "MetaModes" "gpu-0.crt-1: 1280x1024+0+0, gpu-0.crt-0: 1920x1080+1280+0, gpu-1.crt-0: 1280x1024+3200+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection