Mouse pointer flicker or disappear when moving it with left mouse button down

[wonder.mice]

Acer Aspire One D270 (Intel Atom N2600, Intel NM10 Express, Intel GMA 3600).
Xubuntu 12.04 (also reproduced on Ubuntu 12.04).
Fresh install with latest updates.

Problem appears when moving mouse pointer with left mouse button down. For example, when moving window by dragging its caption. Or when performing rectangular selection on Desktop. Or when dragging the scrollbar handle.

When mouse pointer moving that way it flicker (blink) on every move. When I stop moving it (still holding left mouse button down) it disappears and appears again when I continue moving.
Also it just disappears when I left-click without move and appears again only after mouse move.

Interesting, that issue doesn't reproduces directly after the boot (or Xorg restart). No flickering when dragging windows, for example.

However, after some program changes mouse cursor shape to animated "rotating progress indicator" (something like this http://cur.cursors-4u.net/cursors/images6/cur593.gif) the curso begins to flicker when moving with button pressed (until next reboot or Xorg restart). Such program can be Update Manager or Ubuntu Software Center - they both switch mouse pointer shape to animated "in progress" indicator.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic 3.2.21
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Aug 8 20:10:39 2012
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-intel
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Wal (trees5353)]

I too am using exactly the same netbook with Ubuntu 12.04 installed. I also have a similar problem with a cursor that flickers randomly and sometimes disappears for a short time. Particularly when hovering over website links or or icons particularly in System Settings. It can be quite annoying at times. Googling the problem it appears that some others are also having similar problems. I am aware that in Ubuntu there are no Graphics Card drivers for this particular Netbook as yet and as such it can only run in 2D mode. Maybe the issue is there with the Grapics Card.

[wonder.mice (wonder-mice)]

I also thought that reason was unsupported hardware.
However, as I mentioned, pointer begins to flicker only after some application changes cursor to animated one.
Before that mouse cursor is very smooth and behaves without any glitches.
So it looks like there is bug or problem that is triggered by setting cursor.
I am not very experienced in graphics, but for me it looks like after boot or X restart Ubuntu using hardware cursor.
But after some app shows animated cursor Ubuntu switches to software cursor (render it by itself). But probably my assumption is wrong.
Near the same problem I can see when running Ubuntu/Xubuntu inside Parallels virtual machine (without Parallels Tools installed).
But in Parallels vm cursor flicker all the time when moved (even without any button pressed) and disappears when non moving (cursor can be visible only when moving). I think that's another problem, but possibly related.

[wonder.mice (wonder-mice)]

Sorry, I was wrong about Parallels VM:

> Near the same problem I can see when running Ubuntu/Xubuntu inside Parallels virtual machine (without Parallels Tools installed).
> But in Parallels vm cursor flicker all the time when moved (even without any button pressed) and disappears when non moving
> (cursor can be visible only when moving). I think that's another problem, but possibly related.

No, in Parallels VM is exactly the same problem. Cursor doesn't blink after reboot, X restart or resolution change(!). But after launching Software Center (switches cursor to animated) mouse pointer begins to flicker. After reboot, X restart or resolution change cursor begins to behave normally again.

So it looks like problem is in "default" driver that is used when nothing better is available.

[wonder.mice (wonder-mice)]

~$ sudo lshw -c video
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Atom Processor D2xxx/N2xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:86000000-860fffff ioport:50d0(size=8)

~$ glxinfo | grep -i "vendor\|rendering"
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.

~$ grep LoadModule /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[ 93.683] (II) LoadModule: "extmod"
[ 93.685] (II) LoadModule: "dbe"
[ 93.686] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[ 93.687] (II) LoadModule: "record"
[ 93.689] (II) LoadModule: "dri"
[ 93.690] (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
[ 93.691] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[ 93.693] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 93.694] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[ 93.697] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[ 93.698] (II) LoadModule: "vbe"
[ 93.699] (II) LoadModule: "int10"
[ 93.719] (II) LoadModule: "ddc"
[ 93.964] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[ 93.965] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[ 93.967] (II) LoadModule: "int10"
[ 94.173] (II) LoadModule: "evdev"
[ 94.196] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"

~$ find /dev -group video
/dev/fb0
/dev/video0

Looks like it affects fbdev more that psb.

[wonder.mice (wonder-mice)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-psb/+bug/1034470/comments/5

[Wal (trees5353)]

I can confirm that I have just installed th GMA3600 driver for the Acer Cedarview from the Proposed Restricted Releases Repository and this cursor proplem has been fixed with that update. This update has also fixed brightness and resolution problems that that go hand in hand with the cursor problem.

[keghn (keghn)]

I am having the same problem on my Mint 13 maya mate. On my
Ubuntu 12.04 dose not have this problem. Which is on a different
partition.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[James Johnson (jamie-johnson)]

I have this same issue, the problem is seen most often when hovering over a link on a web page. Acer AO725-0687 Ubuntu 12.04 lts.

[Martin (ub71-martin)]

I have this same issue with ubuntu 12.04.1 / unity-2d / MGA G200eW graphic card.

[Rasmus Lyngby Kristensen (rasmus-kristensen)]

I experience the same problem with Ubuntu 12.04 and Unity-2d on my Intel dn2800mt motherboard with Intel Atom N2800 with Cedar Trail graphics. Installing the proprietary drivers for the Cedar Trail fixes the mouse pointer flickering, but it leaves the system practically unusable. The Xorg process eats the CPU to a degree where even simple browsing ans text editing tasks becomes impossible. It seems that especially Firefox is causing problems on this configuration.

[Thomas Richter (tomri2012)]

Similar problem here: mouse flickering when moving over links or clicking, sometimes only re-appears when I move the mouse again. This problem first appeared when I installed a new ATI 7750 gfx card which forced me to switch from Unity 3D to Unity 2D.

[eexcellent (handy-man)]

I have the same mobo as rasmus, using the fb driver (xubuntu 12.04 32bit) causes some cursor flicker. It is really bad on the Scribus work area ( i.e. the page plus side area), making the program unusable.