Touch-pad crazy with Ubuntu 10.04 on laptop Aspire 8530

[Claudio Pighin]

Binary package hint: nspluginwrapper

Few days ago I did a fresh install of 10.04 on my laptop Aspire 8530 and I experienced similar problems occurred with Ubuntu 9.10, while using the touch-pad.
As a matter of fact my touch-pad is frequently, not always, jumping around like crazy, opening windows, applications ... and it.s very hard to work in such a situation.
I checked for a fix on the web and I found that a strange behaviour of a mouse/touch-pad crazy with OS Ubuntu has been reported several times, but none could find a good solution.
The very strange thing to me is that the anomalous behaviour does not occur always, it's a random phenomenon and I started thinking of a capricious computer (with a soul?).
For example yesterday my touch-pad worked fine, but not now and I can't replay the situation on request.
My laptop Acer Aspire 8530G has windows 7 installed by factory and Ubuntu 10.04 in a separated partition. I would like to use Ubuntu always and for this it is essential to fix this bug.

Claudio :-))
---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MachineType: Acer Aspire 8530
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.2.2-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=62547a80-8bc9-47b9-b1b0-6288f10b50d4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Tags: lucid lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 10/07/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V2.04
dmi.board.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV2.04:bd10/07/2009:svnAcer:pnAspire8530:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnAspire8530:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-24-generic

---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MachineType: Acer Aspire 8530
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.2.2-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=62547a80-8bc9-47b9-b1b0-6288f10b50d4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Tags: lucid lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 10/07/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V2.04
dmi.board.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV2.04:bd10/07/2009:svnAcer:pnAspire8530:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnAspire8530:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-24-generic

---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
DkmsStatus: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MachineType: Acer Aspire 8530
Package: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 1.2.2-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=62547a80-8bc9-47b9-b1b0-6288f10b50d4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.43-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Tags: lucid lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 10/07/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: V2.04
dmi.board.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Rev
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrV2.04:bd10/07/2009:svnAcer:pnAspire8530:pvr0100:rvnAcer:rnAspire8530:rvrRev:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 8530
dmi.product.version: 0100
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] Nessun file o directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: lucid
 architecture: x86_64
 kernel: 2.6.32-24-generic

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Hello can you please update and if the problem persist then run in a terminal
apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 646860
Thanks
Fabio

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Fabio,
do you mean that I should update Ubuntu system than run the command: apport-collect -p xserver-xorg-input-synaptics 646860 ?
Thanks

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

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[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

As you can see above, I did what you requested. Please consider that during past days my touch-pad worked few times properly and more often was jumping on the screen and opening undesired windows and applications. During the activity to collect above reported data, my touch-pad worked apparently properly.

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Now my touch-pad appears crazy and I'm going to send actual data to Lanchpad.

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

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[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

This morning my touch-pad seemed to work fine, but now it's giving problems. However, a couple of hours ago I encountered difficulties with jumping cursor while writing an e-mail. Such a problem occurs very often (perhaps always) in Ubuntu environment. Until now I have not reported this strange behaviour since I was considering it as a minor problem compared to the opening of unwanted windows and applications, but now I suspect that they are different aspects of the same bug. So I recorded the attached movie to show what happens when I try to write an e-mail (or a text in a web page). In the example attached I was writing the word: "impegno" and the cursor jumped at a line below when I was just hinting the key: "o". Such a behaviour occurs several times during the editing of my e-mail and it was very frustrating. As a matter of fact, if I am not watching out the screen and so I do not realize to be writing in a wrong place, I cannot correct promptly my text which soon becomes unusable.
For your information, I tried to write the draft of this message with Gedit to test if the problem occurs as well and I experienced no difficulties on writing.
I asked to myself: Does the bug comes out only when a browser is involved?
So I closed the Browser and suddenly I verified that pointer of the touch-pad was crazy (jumping around and opening unwanted windows and applications) so I had the impression that the bug is independent from the use of a internet connection.

It should be considered that the difficulty on writing e text, together with the problem of crazy touch-pad has been the main reason to prefer Windows system to Ubuntu.
I hope that the bug be fixed to prefer Ubuntu soon.

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Few minutes ago I experienced that the jumping pointer sometimes gives difficulties on writing also with Gedit.
So what I wrote in the previous message is not correct.
For information, my intention is to install very soon the Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick on my machine and to report here if the bug is still present

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Yesterday I installed Ubuntu-10.10-desktop-amd64 and since now I have no experienced openings of unwanted applications or windows caused by a jumping pointer, but I found that the difficulty on writing, for example this message, is still present an maybe now I can describe better the strange behavior, yet shown in a short movie attached to message #65.
When one writes into a web page, for example, he can see and manage two pointers: the one (normally an arrow) of the Touch-pad/mouse and a little vertical bar in the text field he is using. Now what happens with my system is that such little vertical bar makes unwonted jumps from the point where I am writing to another one, while the arrow pointer remains steady.
I tried to check if the problem occurs even with a word editor like OpenOffice and I verified that it works slightly better (the phenomenon is present but less frequent).
Claudio :-)

[Gursimran singh (simar)]

Hi Claudio Pighin,
Thanks for reporting the bug and making Ubuntu a better OS everyday. You every effort in this regard is a great contribution to ubuntu in itself and we thanks you for that.

Does the bug exist in ubuntu 10.10 also?

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Yes, the bug exists in ubuntu 10.10 (see msg #67)!
In these days I am experiencing openings of unwanted applications or windows caused by a jumping pointer and severe difficulties on writing :-)

[Mike (bild85)]

Hi Claudio. I followed your link on the forum to this bug. According to Google Image Search, the Acer Aspire 8530G, like most laptops, has a 'Touchpad' in the middle of the palm rest. Is it possible that this 'capricious behavior' could be explained by resting your palms on the palm rest and accidentally activating the touchpad while typing? This is a very common behavior and there is a setting to reduce or eliminate this problem (look under System > Preferences > Mouse > Touchpad.)
Try placing a thick piece of cardboard on your palm rest (the touchpad might sense through a thin piece,) and see if the problem goes away. If it does, and the setting above doesn't make a difference, this may be a duplicate of bug #27541.

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Dear itismike,

thank you very much for your help, indeed the first helpful comment received on the web !!! :-)

Just now I, am trying your suggestions while writing. as a matter of fact I placed two sheets of paper on the palm rest and I did not experied capricious behaviours of the pointer which did not opened unwanted windows or application. Will this behaviour be permanent? I will report after a few days of work.

Than I red bug #27541 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/27541) discussion and I found it very useful since similar strange behaviours are reported.

In particular I found interesting comment #20.

I wanted to apply the solution given there, but I could not, because I do not know what to do in practice and which file has to be to modified.

I will ask Stanley Sokolow to explain how to do, considering that I am not an expert.

Thanks again

[Mike (bild85)]

Claudio, you must be new here. :-p
If you stick around I believe you'll find the Ubuntu forums are a warm community of people who all want their computers to 'just work.'
I'm marking this as a duplicate of bug #27541. Be sure to mark yourself as affected on the top of that bug report:
"This bug affects 1 person. Does this bug affect you?"

[Claudio Pighin (cpighin)]

Yes mike,
I'm new here and my mother tongue is not English, so be patient with me!
Any help is welcome.
Thanks