sporadic PS2 mouse jumps

[Mateusz Adamowski]

I have a strange problem on my laptop computer running Ubuntu.

When I use built-in touchpad (which is internally conected as PS/2) and GNOME,
my mouse pointer sometimes goes crazy and jumps around the desktop, "clicks"
everthing he points, moves and opens windows, drags toolbars etc. It's
unpredictible and happens about once minute. After that crazy behaviour mouse
pointer is always on the edge of the screen, sometimes in corners.

The most interesting fact, is that it DOESN'T HAPPEN when I use external USB
mouse. (using external PS/2 mouse causes the same problem). That would suggest
it's a hardware problem, but when I switch to XFCE4 instead of GNOME or when I
use gpm in textmode, the problem DOESN'T occur! I have no idea, what's the
reason of that. I tried to adjust mouse properties in gnome configuration, but
that doesn't help.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I've no idea of how GNOME could do this, it does nothing specific on the pointer

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

Well, I confirm I had this on one computer. Sometimes, I cannot understand why,
the pointer simply goes to a corner of the screen.

The problem was discussed here in french :
http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=8410

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

maybe that's due to the mouse driver, can you try an another one?

[Mateusz Adamowski (mateusza)]

(In reply to comment #0)

Everytime it happens, the following message appears in /var/log/syslog:

($ grep "psmouse.c" /var/log/syslog | tail)

Aug 12 12:01:28 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
Aug 12 12:01:29 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.
Aug 13 01:20:00 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - timeout
Aug 13 01:20:01 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.
Aug 13 01:22:22 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
Aug 13 01:22:23 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.
Aug 13 01:25:31 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
Aug 13 01:25:33 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.
Aug 13 01:27:48 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
Aug 13 01:27:49 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.

[Lionel Dricot (ploum-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug seems also describe here : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=303795

[Ben Reeves (webmaster-veoda)]

I have the same problem and i know other people have:
http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=11631

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

*** Bug 17641 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #0)
>
> Everytime it happens, the following message appears in /var/log/syslog:
>
> ($ grep "psmouse.c" /var/log/syslog | tail)
>
> Aug 12 12:01:28 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
> Aug 12 12:01:29 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
> synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.

Ben, does that say anything to you? Is it a hardware issue or a driver bug?

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

(In reply to comment #8)
> (In reply to comment #4)
> > (In reply to comment #0)
> >
> > Everytime it happens, the following message appears in /var/log/syslog:
> >
> > ($ grep "psmouse.c" /var/log/syslog | tail)
> >
> > Aug 12 12:01:28 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: bad data from KBC - bad parity
> > Aug 12 12:01:29 localhost kernel: psmouse.c: Mouse at isa0060/serio4/input0 lost
> > synchronization, throwing 2 bytes away.
>
> Ben, does that say anything to you? Is it a hardware issue or a driver bug?

I'd surely say it was a hardware issue. Could be something loose in the laptop (making it sporadic).

Let me do some searching on this to see what else might be around (specific to the dmesg output, not just
the type of problem, as expressed in the mentioned bug reports).

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

If possible, please upgrade to Dapper's 2.6.15-7 kernel. If you do not want to
upgrade to Dapper, then you can also wait for the Dapper Flight 2 CD's, which
are due out within the next few days.

Let me know if this bug still exists with this kernel.

[Matt (mcgowan-orcon)]

I have seen at least five occurences of this bug, since a fresh install of Flight 4. These all occured within 2 hours.

It seemingly occurs when ever Firefox is open, for me on a fresh flight 4 install, that is firefox 1.5.0.1.

I believe i saw an occurence of the bug when i was not using the mouse. In this instance, i saw the pointer remain still, however, flash in quick succession perhaps a dozen times, then firefox by itself navigated back one page. I'm not sure if this affected all the tabs i had open or just the current tab. I didn't think to check that at the time.

Anyways are others still expierienceing this glitch?

[Ben Collins (ben-collins)]

Everything I have read and found says this is a hardware issue. The messages that the kernel is showing is a result of getting bad data from the mouse. It's this bad data that is causing the sporadic behavior.

It may be caused by different things (maybe even noise from the video output). Who knows.

[Vitor Boschi (vitorboschi)]

I'm having this problem with the stable release of Feisty (64 bits). Looks like it only occurs when I move the mouse faster. My syslog show the same kind of errors.

[Mladen Jablanović (jablan)]

I have the same error (same behaviour, same errors in the log) in Ubuntu 8.04

[Mladen Jablanović (jablan)]

Forgot to say, I really don't think it is hardware issue, the bug doesn't appear in Windows XP installed on the same machine.

[Andres Mujica (andres.mujica)]

Marked as duplicate of bug #119194