Mouse buttons and wheel not responding

[David Klasinc]

This is the problem either with xorg or gnome window manager. At random times mouse buttons and wheel stop responding. Clicks are not recognized, mouse cursor is still on the screen and can still be controlled. Also some keyboard combinations are not working. ALT-TAB works and also CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE is still functional. CTRL-TAB however is not working. Other single stroke keys work, so I can type normally.

This appears to be happening randomly with no apparent cause. Sometimes system will work for a week without any problems, sometimes this will happen three, four time in an hour. It is unlikely to be a hardware problem since it happens regardless system load.

I'm using Logitech S510 wireless USB keyboard and mouse. Nvidia 8800GTS with latest (177.80) restricted drivers. Most of the time I am running the following applications: ~10 gnome-terminals, two kdevelop instances, firefox, Evolution, Pigdin, Banshee and X-chat. Nothing that should cause this kind of problem.

I'm using two monitors that are configured as twin displays and using xinerama. Running on Ubuntu 8.10 with all the updates applied. I used 8.04 since its release and had no similar problems.

[David Klasinc (bigwhale)]

An interesting update. Running xmoto (some motorbike game) and then quitting it usually helps and mouse is again operational. Is it possible that some flash program running inside a browser 'grabs' mouse focus and doesn't let it go?

[Felix (apoapo)]

My mouse buttons are "deactivated" at random times, too. Restarting X helps.
I recognized this while using 2 displays with xinerama. (kubuntu intrepid; with one display i never had this failure)
Especially while doing this with the mouse: Dragging a window from one to another screen; Switching the focus between applications. Unfortunately this bug is not reproducable at any time as mentioned by David before.

This happens on the intern touchpad and the extern USB Logitech G5 (mouse).
I'm also able to type normally.

System:
up-to-date Kubuntu Intrepid 64bit (KDM running..)
Dell m1330 (laptop)

[Petur Ingi Egilsson (petur-unix)]

My mouse buttons deactivate if i right click a tab on the "GNOME Panel" and choose either Resize or Move.
I've also experienced the same problem while jumping in and out of Sun's xVM (VirtualBox).

I'm have 2 displays, nvidia 8800GTS with the 177.80 driver.
xinerama is enabled.
CTRL+TAB is still functional.

Running xmoto and quitting it did not "fix" the problem.

The only known solution is to hit CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to restart X.

kernel: 2.6.27-9-generic
Ubuntu 8.10 up-to-date

[Felix (apoapo)]

Since I noticed this bug on Kubuntu with KDE 4.1 and a X restart helps i think that it is Xorg related. In connection with Xinerama and multiple screens. Do you agree?

[David Klasinc (bigwhale)]

That was my first guess too. That it has to do something with Xorg or at least nvidia drivers. I never tried single screen setup, so I can't really tell for sure.

About running xmoto. When my mouse button freeze, I switch to gnome-terminal, if it's not already open use ALT-F2. Then run xmoto. Put it to full screen ALT-ENTER, mouse cursor will be locked in-game. Press on the up/down arrows few times, then put the game back in windowed mode, ALT-ENTER again. Now, move the mouse cursor (wich shouldn't be grabbed by xmoto) and move it right on top of the mouse cursor in xmoto which is a large grey arrow in the top left corner of game window. By some magic, both mouse cursors will 'merge' and you'll see only the xmoto cursor which will be working inside the xmoto window. It this doesn't help, put xmoto back in full screen and back again in windowed mode.

Yeah, it sounds like voodoo, but this actually works for me.

[Petur Ingi Egilsson (petur-unix)]

I tried to replicate your xmoto fix without luck.

[Felix (apoapo)]

Your fix doesn't work here, too. Should we mark this as confirmed?

[koshcu (kosh-aesaeion)]

I can confirm that this is broken also. I have dual 8800GTS configured for twinview each and then merged with xinerama. Under 8.04 and actually every version of ubuntu since these cards came out that works fine however with intrepid after a while the mouse just seems to get lost. It still moves around but not events from it register. I checked in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and no errors where reported in it. I can still alt-tab between apps and they are all working just fine. However the only way I have found to get the mouse back is to kill x (ctrl-alt-backspace) and then it works for a while again, usually a few hours. From what I have read it seems this is a xinerama bug with the new xserver, they broke something that used to work for years.

[Felix (apoapo)]

could you give a link for your source, please? (xinerama bug)

perhaps we can follow possible development there and therefore stop spamming here ;-)
thank you!

[m0sia (m0sia)]

Same problem right now with up-to-date ubuntu 8.10. I have Nvidia 8400G dual screen with xinerama.

Xmoto running in fullscreen(xmoto -fs) fixed the problem without restart of Xorg.

[m0sia (m0sia)]

i think it is same bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-177/+bug/296167
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18668

[Johan (tahaan)]

I have the same problem but I don't (intentionally) use Xinerama (It is not mentioned in my xorg.conf file, and I have only one screen, ie the laptop built-in display panel, connected)

Various Keyboard combinations stops working. Generally the one that concerns me most is Alt-Tab, though it is inconsistent (Alt-tab sometimes continue to work).

Ctrl-Alt-backspace sometimes stops working, but even when it does continue to work it does not solve the problem.

Mouse button events no longer get recognized, but the mouse cursor can be moved.

OpenSolaris on the same machine does not exhibit the same problem.

Only a reboot solves the problem.

I think the problem only occurs when running firefox, but then again, I am almost always running firefox.

[Gabriele N. Tornetta (phoenix1987)]

I'm having the same problem with Ubuntu 9.10 with Intel graphic card and touchpad. More rarely this problem affects even my desktop pc. Sometimes killing apps like amsn helps. In worst cases a X restart is required.