Touchscreen can't be used to scroll anymore. Instead it will select everything on its way.

[Compiler]

Ever since I upgrade to 20.10 from 20.04, I have been experiencing this issue.
There are times when a user might want to scroll their screen by touching their screen. But I can't do this anymore.

I want to know what went wrong? What can I do?

Any info is appreciated.

Note:
Currently, I can scroll without in issue in Nautilus. But I can't do the same in Firefox, Tor browser, Libre Office, etc. Except Nautilus, all apps select words on screen whenever I touch my screen to scroll.

But we all know, SCROLL ≠ SELECT.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.10
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.8.0-26.27-generic 5.8.14
Uname: Linux 5.8.0-26-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: zfs zunicode zavl icp zcommon znvpair
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu50
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Nov 10 09:25:39 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-10-28 23:47:17,717 ERROR got error from PostInstallScript ./xorg_fix_proprietary.py (g-exec-error-quark: Failed to execute child process “./xorg_fix_proprietary.py” (No such file or directory) (8))
DistroCodename: groovy
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus: virtualbox, 6.1.14, 5.8.0-26-generic, x86_64: installed
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 [8086:1616] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell HD Graphics 5500 [1028:0641]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-16 (267 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 5548
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/BOOT/ubuntu_i45x0v@/vmlinuz-5.8.0-26-generic root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_i45x0v ro quiet splash vt.handoff=1
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to groovy on 2020-10-28 (12 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 05/28/2019
dmi.bios.release: 5.4
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A10
dmi.board.name: 0FFJC4
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A10
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA10:bd05/28/2019:br5.4:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron5548:pvrA10:rvnDellInc.:rn0FFJC4:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA10:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 5548
dmi.product.sku: 0641
dmi.product.version: A10
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.102-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.2.1-1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 20.2.1-1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.9-2ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200714-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Evan Driscoll (evaned)]

I am running LO 4.3.3 (tried upgrading from 4.2.2) on Windows 8 on a Thinkpad Helix.

For almost every program on Windows, trying to pan using the touchscreen scrolls. This is a very useful behavior.

However, on the LO applications (and Apache OOO as well), it acts like a traditional mouse drag, simply changing the selection.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

Thank you for your bug report.

[Patrick Smits (batavist)]

Same problem here under Windows 10. The only way to scroll through an open document is the little scroll bar on the right of the document's window, however this was designed to be accessed by a mouse/trackpad/trackball. It's a real pain to use by fingertip.

Now that Windows 10 on <14" touch screens are the new standard, it would be nice if LibreOffice could distinguish between a swipe gesture to scroll a document up and down and a tap-hold-drag to select text within a document.

[Floydwaters67 (floydwaters67)]

I can verify this behavior on a Windows 8.1 ASUS T100 tablet. Additionally to swiping highlighting instead of scrolling, it is impossible in a spreadsheet to copy a formula by touch into a series of cells with a click and drag, the way you can do in MS Word.

This is a pretty big quality-of-life issue with using this program. Please update to include true touchscreen compatibility ASAP.

[Krasnaya Ploshchad’ (krasnayaploshchad)]

I can also verify this behavior on a Lenovo Yoga 13 ultrabook (upgraded to Windows 10). In this case touch the page can swiping highlighting texts in LO Writer instead of scrolling, but touch the scrollbar can scroll page, that’s so uncomfortable for touch screen devices.

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

*** Bug 99331 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Krasnaya Ploshchad’ (krasnayaploshchad)]

A file previewing utility QuickLook, which uses macOS like quick preview feature to view the file on Windows, have already made an implementation for this, so let’s how does it get the solution:

https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/commit/b0e8a29f856cf6b9d3c8da52754240e7875b64e3

[Krasnaya Ploshchad’ (krasnayaploshchad)]

A file previewing utility QuickLook, which uses macOS like quick preview feature to view the file on Windows, have already made an implementation for this, so let’s see how does it get the solution:

https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/commit/b0e8a29f856cf6b9d3c8da52754240e7875b64e3

[Mikecgoss (mikecgoss)]

I can verify this behavior on my 10 inch Asus tablet using LO 5.4. I am really surprised by this. MS Office 2007 fully supported touch screen yet in 2017 Libre Office does not.

[Miguelangelrv (miguelangelrv)]

*** Bug 121000 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Martin-plamondon-g (martin-plamondon-g)]

LibreOffice 6.1.3.2 on Windows 10 and it is still an issue. This is very annoying with TouchScreen where we're used to use fingers to scroll everywhere. How can a bug like that not fixed after 4 years opened.

[Vstuart-foote (vstuart-foote)]

*** Bug 125096 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Vstuart-foote (vstuart-foote)]

As noted, the touch screen behavior on Windows now selects under touch pointer, rather than panning x/y (to ranges of scrollbars).

So while two finger swipe vertical scroll, and <shift> two finger swipe horizontal scroll behaviors are correct with track pad--single finger swipe is not with touch screen panels. Guess that should probably be expected, they are different hw driver and os/DE integration.

@Tomaž, Mike K. -- with some generic support for gestures in VCL now for bug 124146, could we possibly support the screen touch scrolling here without the dev overhead of a full implementation of Windows Touch API (WM_TOUCH, WM_GESTURE messaging)[1]?

MSDN suggests it is possible [2], and we seem to use some elements already in the gdi/salnativewidgets-luna for Windows builds.

=-ref-=
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/wintouch/windows-touch-portal
[2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/wintouch/improving-the-single-finger-panning-experience

[Quikee (quikee)]

That "generic" gesture support was only to transport the events around, but responding to the event is only implemented for some widgets (ComboBox).

Also what is needed is the backend support to recognize the gesture and send the event, so we need to implement Windows Touch API.

[RussianNeuroMancer (russianneuromancer)]

Could you please clarify if this bugreport only about Windows touchscreen support, or about generic solution for supported platforms? Just want to remind that bug 121000 was marked as duplicate of this bug.

[Quikee (quikee)]

Well this one is marked for Windows, but I guess it could be all platforms. I don't think it matter much at this time.

[L'Africain (lafricain79)]

I have the same problem on Ubuntu 18.04, on a Lenovo Yoga 300 with touch screen. the scroll and zoom don't work.

[L'Africain (lafricain79)]

I use the LO PPA with 6.3 version.

[Xiscofauli (xiscofauli)]

Changing priority back to 'medium' since the number of duplicates is lower than 5

[Trowelandmattock (trowelandmattock)]

An End-user, with Libre6.3 on win10/ubuntu Surface2, 10" touchscreen:

> touch screen will not control vertical scroll without selecting actual scroll-bar (which is thin and not expandable)

> furthermore, use of the main srcoll-bar with a stylus is very jerky.

> comparable issues with Linx7, 7" touchscreen device

> presumably same issues on similar devices also (IDK)

This is a BIG issue for use of LibreBase Forms with handheld devices (something I have been looking into) - making them almost un-useable without a mouse or touchpad.

This is a real shame and something I really hope can be addressed, particularly because android/linx/windows multi-boot cross-over devices have very many uses as advanced field-data collectors ... assuming a viable interface :/

End-user Solutions might look like:

1 - a page-control-scroll-bar to place directly in a LibreBase form !!! :)
2 - customizable width/princedom of the main Libre app-document vertical scrollbar, or at least an 'Extra_Wide' setting to toggle-on for small form factor touch screens...

Thanks Libre - keep it loose, keep it open :)

[Trowelandmattock (trowelandmattock)]

(sorry about the rouge horizontal scroll bar up there :O)

[Trowelandmattock (trowelandmattock)]

(In reply to trowelandmattock from comment #20)
> (sorry about the rouge horizontal scroll bar up there :O)

SOME VIABLE WORKAROUND NOTES FOR USERS OF SMALL TOUCH SCREEN FORMS:

1) - use virtual touch pad, place in corner of screen so buttons are hidden but just enough visible for 2-finger scroll-gesture
[a bit of a fiddle for people who dont use touch screens often, or have more limited finger mobility/sensitivity]

2) - use 'finger-mouse' or hand-held roller-ball style thumb-controller with scroll-wheel. Quite functional for outdoors and situations where touch screen is not wanting to be touched ... but requires additional external device.

3)BEST SOLUTION =
Use the 'jump-to' action of a text/control box when selected to focus that item in center screen : e.g. place long-thin dummy text-boxes alongside real form boxes and have them run as a thin chain down the screen at appropriate sizes> when a dummy box is tapped on that section of the page is focused mid-screen !!!

This method seems to work very well :) !!! - but users may need to be instructed as to functionality (ie the control is now neither an easily recognizable scroll-bar nor directly intuitive touch-control.

Hopefully this may be of use to somebody also exploring interesting possibilities of linux+libre in data-logging for cultural heritage/field-work, but also suggests another possible developer solution - ie a new function for "push_button_control" = "jump_to_section" ....

THANK YOU LIBREOFFICE - I LOVE YOU :) !!!

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Are you using Xorg or Wayland? The bug report tag says Wayland, but you filed it under Xorg...

Please try both 'Ubuntu' and 'Ubuntu on Wayland'. You can select the session type on the login screen just before entering your password.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It sounds to me like the problem is with legacy apps using Xwayland. But maybe you can avoid it by using a pure Xorg session (the one called 'Ubuntu').

[Compiler (pranav.bhattarai)]

Q. Are you using Xorg or Wayland?
ans: I am using Wayland.

Q. The bug report tag says Wayland, but you filed it under Xorg?
ans: Because typing "ubuntu-bug" in terminal will launch Apport which default shows an option "Display(X.org)", not "Display(Wayland.org)" regradless of what actually user is using. This create a confusion and probably select xorg package Xorg on this website. We need to fix Apport to recognize what user is actually using while showing its option.

Q. Please try both 'Ubuntu' and 'Ubuntu on Wayland'. You can select the session type on the login screen just before entering your password.
ans: I have restart my laptop. Choosed pure "ubuntu" and log in. Opened Firefox and LibreOffice, and tried to scroll. The result is same. It only select all words.

Q. But maybe you can avoid it by using a pure Xorg session.
ans: Are all Wayland issue/problem ignored by Ubuntu-devs?! And for how long?

[Compiler (pranav.bhattarai)]

"It sounds to me like the problem is with legacy apps using Xwayland."
ans: So if developers of LibreOffice, Firefox, etc use Wayland instead of Xwayland, this problem get solved? If that's the reason I have having this issue, than I'm sorry for saying "Are all Wayland issue/problem ignored by Ubuntu-devs?! And for how long?". Don't get me wrong but I usually get that kind vibe from past bug reports.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the clarification. Although assigning the bug to 'wayland' is incorrect because that source package is for the protocol only. No binaries come from 'wayland'.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

For Firefox, this is a duplicate of bug 1312376. The fix/workaround is to use environment MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 or MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 in your /etc/environment.

For Tor Browser, if that did not come from Ubuntu then we can't track its bugs on this site.

For LibreOffice, there doesn't seem to be a bug for this yet that I can find, so this bug is now about LibreOffice.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Since Tor Browser is a modified version of Firefox I am guessing the same fix works there:

MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 and/or MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1

[Compiler (pranav.bhattarai)]

"For Firefox, this is a duplicate of bug 1312376. The fix/workaround is to use environment MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 or MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 in your /etc/environment."

Currently I'm using Firefox 82.0.2, the workaround doesn't make any differnce.
I tried putting MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1 and/or MOZ_ENEABLE WAYLAND=1 in my /etc/enviroment. But it doesn't make any differnce. I am using Wayland.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Please try to put all future comments about Firefox and Tor Browser in bug 1312376 instead.

[Heather Ellsworth (hellsworth)]

Thanks for reporting this! Seems it's been an issue in the upstream Libreoffice project so we'll consume a fix from them.

[Vstuart-foote (vstuart-foote)]

*** Bug 139452 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Miguelangelrv (miguelangelrv)]

*** Bug 140243 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Esteban (turtle320)]

Same problem here. In MS Office you can scroll using touchscreen input but here it has no similar option.

Please include this important option for touchscreen users.

[Derba-janos (derba-janos)]

Same issue here. On Lenovo T470, Fedora 34. LO Version: 7.1.4.2

[N-rottgardt (n-rottgardt)]

Same with Win 11. Will Never be implemented even the amount of touch laptops is increasing….

[Servalli-sa (servalli-sa)]

Any LibreOffice applications are unusable in tablet mode also on Ubuntu 18.04 - 22.04 on a Dell Latitude 2-in-1.
The scrolling works neither via dragging nor using the scroll bar. The latter is not a touchscreen sensitivity issue as it works in Firefox.
Another desired behaviour for a touchscreen device would be zooming by pinch, also not implemented.

At the same time, touch scrolling works in drop-down menus, such as font style.

[Stephane-guillou-i (stephane-guillou-i)]

*** Bug 140721 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Authorpeytonreese (authorpeytonreese)]

Need this too. Wordpad scrolls when swiped, does not select text. (Not that Wordpad is the definitive model, but consistency in user interaction is a good thing.) Wordpad does pinch zoom, too, but that's a lower priority to me. Google Docs scrolls when swiped, too.

[Krasnaya Ploshchad’ (krasnayaploshchad)]

Jarte is already sot support for this.
https://www.jarte.com/help_new/tablet_word_processing.html

[Toahodges (toahodges)]

Same issue, Using a touchscreen monitor, should be able to scroll using two fingers but it only highlights text. Scrolling works fine in other apps, chrome, word, etc. Just not in Libra. I love libra but really need to be able to scroll.

using LibreOffice 7.6

[Christian (christian-pietzsch)]

i can confirm tat LO is not really usable with a touchscreen at the moment. laptops with touch screen seem to become more and more common these days, i therefore think it would be great if LibreOffice would be able to assign this a higher priority.

[Mmeichenlaub (mmeichenlaub)]

HP Spectre Notebook using Windows 11 with touchscreen. Touchscreen using finger pressure will move any application up or down except LibreWrite. Please advise.

[R3ckhrfqg (r3ckhrfqg)]

Same problem on Dell Inspiron 16 7620 2-in-1, Linux Mint 23.1 Cinnamon (x11 session).

LibreOffice Writer Versions tested:

Version 24.2.1.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: db4def46b0453cc22e2d0305797cf981b68ef5ac
Flatpak

Version: 7.3.7.2 / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 30(Build:2)
(This is the version that Mint 23.1 includes by default.)

Both versions show CPU threads: 16; OS: Linux 5.15; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3; Locale: en-CA (en_CA.UTF-8); UI: en-GB

Cannot scroll vertically by swiping up or down on the touch screen with one or two fingers. Same problem in Normal or Web view. It works on the touch pad but that can be difficult to use, due to disabilities or when the laptop is inthe "easel" configuration (keyboard and touch pad on the bottom, facing the desk, screen upright, rotated 180 degrees compared to regular laptop configuration).

Also, cannot move the vertical scroll bar up or down by touch on screen, in Normal or Web view. Touching and holding the "handle" icon does not allow dragging it up or down. Tapping above or below the "handle" icon on the vertical scroll bar works but it's an imprecise way to move through the document - usually moves more than a few lines at time.

By comparison, OnlyOffice Document (word processor) and Firefox browser on the same platform also does not allow one or two finger swipes up/down on the touch screen to scroll, but at least the vertical slide bar on the touch screen works as expected.

The Mint text editor, xed 3.4.5, allows vertical scrolling with one-finger swipe on the touch screen.