touchpad buttons almost automatically double-clicks, can't click

[Benjamin Thyreau]

Hi,
Since i updated Gutsy to Hardy Alpha 5 on a laptop, the touchpad buttons seems to automatically double-click, instead of normal clicking, making, for example, the window shade when i just want to grab it to move. The exact behaviour is that lowering the touchpad-leftbutton send the first click, and moving the trackpad while the button is still down will surprisingly send a second click.
The laptop (DELL D430) has to set of tracking device : touchpad+twobuttons and trackpoint+two other buttons. Only the touchpad buttons has this bug. Note that this never occured in Gutsy. I tweaked most of the options of the Gnome Mouse Preference GUI, and some of the gconf too.

Linux 2.6.24-10-generic, Metacity (no compiz)

Thanks

[Dereck Wonnacott (dereck)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in linux.

[Benjamin Thyreau (benji2)]

Further comment on another, probably related, weird behaviour : on the desktop background, after i left-clicked once, i can't click any desktop icons to select it anymore. Only dragging over the icon works, altough the right click is unaffected. This is especially frustrating as i can't use the mouse anymore to use the icons from the desktop

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Benji2,

You mentioned you "tweaked most of the options of the Gnome Mouse Preference GUI, and some of the gconf too." Just curious if you would try running from a LiveCD which would have the default options and see if this makes any difference. Refer to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . Thanks.

[Benjamin Thyreau (benji2)]

Hi,
I tried on the Ubuntu Alpha 6 Live CD, and this still occurs on this Dell Latitude D430.
This happens both with Compiz and with Metacity wm. And sorry : what I meant earlier was that i tweaked most of the Gnome options (including a11n ones) without success in fixing that behaviour. May be a driver issue.

[Benjamin Thyreau (benji2)]

More info. It seems that both my old Gutsy "xorg.conf" file, and the Hardy-Alpha6-LiveCD generated one contains, in Section "Server Layout":
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
This may have been necessary under the previous Xorg version, but it seems it triggers the bug on the current (Hardy) one.
When commenting this line on the LiveCD generated xorg.conf, the bug goes away (and the touchpad still works of course).

I don't know the exact procedure by which this xorg.conf is generated at boot time, but maybe those scripts are out-of-sync with the current Xorg packages ? I'll try to investigate that further. (If you have some relevant links it may be helpful)

[Jean-Rémy Falleri (jrfaller)]

perhaps this bug is a duplicate of:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/164996
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/201436
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-mouse/+bug/196711

I confirm that I have the same bug on my DELL INSPIRON D830

[Elizabeth Greene (nerdygirl-ellie)]

I opened bug 203296 " [hardy] Drag fails with keyboard stick and touchpad buttons" yesterday that dupes this.

Jean-Remy, is it when you use the keyboard-stick and the bottom set of buttons? I too have a Dell, a D820.

Benji2, I have synaptics enabled. This driver enables the "palmcheck" that briefly disables the touchpad while you are typing. Without this feature it is really frustrating to type and bump the tp, sending the cursor to god-knows where.

[Elizabeth Greene (nerdygirl-ellie)]

Notes from my (now marked as duplicate and hidden) bug.

I have a Dell Latitude D820 laptop. This pc has both a touchpad and a keyboard stick in the following configuration.

   | -pointing stick (on keyboard)
@@ - First set of mouse buttons
{ } - Touchpad
@@ - Second set of mouse buttons.

It doesn't work if I try to drag something using the pointing stick and the second set of mouse buttons. Selecting the item-to-be-dragged works fine, but when I touch the stick to move it, it interprets the movement as a double click.

The pointing stick and upper set of mouse buttons work fine, and both sets work fine on a Windows LiveCD, which should eliminate any hardware problems. I have the synaptics driver enabled in my xorg, conf, but I am not passing any options.

Unfortunately, I cannot say if this is a new behavior since gutsy, as I just started using the stick.

Thanks,
Ellie

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Benjamin,

The following may help https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Debugging . Thanks.

[Alex Ruddick (alexrudd0)]

Changing from xorg -> xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

[Christoffer Gurell (orbit-0x63)]

I can verify this issue on a dell precision M70.

I get strange behaviour when using second set of mouse buttons together with the touch stick.

Commenting out InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad" in section "Server Layout" in xorg.conf gets rid of the problem for me to. However. Now I no longer have any touch pad options under System->Preferences->Mouse.

I did not have this problem in Ubuntu 7.10.

[Morten (morethan)]

Attaching the output/log files mentioned on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Debugging - plus my current xorg.conf (The problem exists also with a "fresh" xorg.conf, but still...)

Quoting myself from bug # 201436, a related bug:

Through experimenting with xorg.conf I have managed to enable/disable each of the devices, but bugs *always* occur when using driver "synaptics" for the touchpad (either with device /dev/psaux or /dev/input/mice) and driver "mouse" for the stick. It would appear pressing the mouse button on the touchpad whilst moving the trackpoint generates an extra click event. When I disable the Touchpad, I cannot press anything with the buttons on the touchpad *unless* I am moving the trackpoint... ^_^

[Christoffer Gurell (orbit-0x63)]

This bug is still present in 8.10. The problem now is that most people are running without an xorg.conf so disabling synaptics there is not an option any more. I dont know how to fix this on my M70 with Ubuntu 8.10

[Adamson H (adamson)]

I have the above mentioned problem with my Inspiron 1420 too. I read a lot of posts about the editing of xorg.conf file, but I gave up modifying it because I think this problem should be solved some day via a GUI interface. For now, I unchecked "Enable mouse clicks with touchpad" under System -> Preferences -> Mouse -> Touchpad.

[Niels Egberts (nielsegberts)]

I'm having this same issue with my Dell Latitude D830 on a fully updated Intrepid.

[Benjamin Thyreau (benji2)]

Trying on the Jaunty Beta Live CD, as far as i'm concerned, it seems the behaviour is back to correct again !
This is on the Dell D430, draging and clicking don't randomely mess anymore...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks for letting us know the issue is resolved.

[Peter Daalder (pdaalder)]

Hi sorry to ask, but can you point me to the information that tells me how I can install released fix. I would like to fix my touchpad if possible. Cheers.