Natty: GUI occasionally does not register mouse / touchpad clicks (with NVidia graphics)

[Ibrahim Numanagic]

System: Natty 11.04
Configuration: HP 8710p notebook, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 320M with NVIDIA binary driver
Environment: Ubuntu Classic (same applies even on Unity) +Compiz
Affected: All sorts of GUI applications (Swing, GTK, QT)

Mouse clicking frequently stops working for few seconds. This applies for both wireless mouse / touchpad. No such problems in other OS-es (so it is not a mouse problem). During this "mouse freeze" I can navigate GUI controls via keyboard.

[Julian Andrews (jandrews271)]

I am experiencing the same bug with a Lenovo SL500, NVIDIA GeForce G 105M with the NVIDIA binary driver under Unity - I haven't tested classic. The touchpad worked fine in Ubuntu 10.10 (and still works fine under windows 7). If I don't move the pointer at all, but continue to click it doesn't start working again. Usually clicking only stops working for a second or so if I'm moving the pointer.

In case it's relevant, the system also claims that the NVIDIA binary driver is installed but not in use, but compositing works, the proprietary NVIDIA configuration tool works, and the default Ubuntu monitor configuration tool does not work, so, I'm reasonably sure that the binary driver is being used (this is another bug, but I mention it in case they're related).

[Julian Andrews (jandrews271)]

Switching to the experimental graphics driver seems to have fixed the problem for me (and also made the system substantially more responsive).

[Steve Franks (bahamasfranks)]

+1, and I'm on a mobo with a builtin Intel VGA chipset, so it ain't a nvidia issue for me.

description: VGA compatible controller
product: 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0

[Gorgonilla (lviggiani)]

Same issue here with nVidia GeForce 8400M. I'm using nVidia dirver 270.41.06 on Natty 64 bit.
I've read that someone seems to have fixed it by using nvidia-173 but to me is not an option as that driver is slow with desktop effects etc.
Any idea?

[Gorgonilla (lviggiani)]

ANother info: the same appears for ubuntu classic session, so I guess it has nothing to do with Unity.

[isatis39871 (isatis39871)]

+1

More precisely, the cursor doesn't seem to even detect he is over a clickable element such as a line in a text editor or a link in the web browser. It just act like the ordinary pointer.

This is a very serious bug because, while it is not completly preventing you from doing anything with patience, it suddenly blocks you without any obvious logic. I can imagine a new comer to Ubuntu reacting very badly to this experience.

My config is a fresh ubuntu 11.04 with the recomanded nvidia proprietary driver on an Asus U6.

[Ibrahim Numanagic (ibrahimpasa)]

Just to report that this problem was absent from previous Ubuntu releases (also used nvidia proprietary drivers 190.xxx).

[Julian Andrews (jandrews271)]

Confirming that isatis39871's description exactly matches what I was experiencing. It was very frustrating when trying to play minesweeper!

[Gorgonilla (lviggiani)]

Hi,
an update from my side.
I've added the ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates repo and updated my system (it actually only updates libva and nvidia-settings packages). However since then (after a reboot) I didn't experience the mouse problem any more.
At least so far... :)

[Waterman (waterman)]

Hi,
I have been having this problem, and I fix it when it happens by hitting WinKey+D twice (to show the desktop and then to bring my windows back). This seems to restore the cursor's function in my session without needing to update any repos or log out and back in. It is not related to unity because I tried unity --replace which didn't fix it. I have a netbook (dell mini 10v), with an integrated chipset. Again to confirm, the bug didn't occur in 10.10.

[Julian Andrews (jandrews271)]

A quick update - the bug has manifested again on my system. It seems much less common now than with the proprietary nVidia drivers but apparently can still happen.

[IKT (ikt)]

Highly likely duplicate of:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/709461

[Gorgonilla (lviggiani)]

Hi,
I've been using Natty for few days after posting comment #9 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/773014/comments/9) and I can confirm that updates from ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates actually seems having fixed the problem to me as it never showed again since then.
I hope this will help.

[aman toor (aman-toor)]

I am also facing the same problem, Its every where. But i found a workaround to get working with it. if in a window you are unable to click some where just move the window around and you'll able to click.

[Aleksandar Urošević (urosevic)]

Check out my comment #111 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/709461/comments/111 with dirty temporary workaround.

[thinkpad (fellowsgarden)]

??? Duplicate ???
of
??? "Application windows can sometimes fail to display and will mask regions of the screen" ???

Maybe I know too little about these things, but I'm only experiencing the _mouse_ issue clearly described above.

As far as I'm concerned (on my X41 natty system), _nothing_ fails to display and _no_ regions are masked on the screen.

So why would this constitute duplicate status? Sth pertaining to "under the hood" mechanics (which I don't understand)?!

tp.

[thinkpad (fellowsgarden)]

? where did my post go ?

[Kevin Cole (kjcole)]

The description of bug 709461 doesn't sound at all like what I'm experiencing. This bug does...

I will have a window open. No other windows are open or opening and failing to display. The mouse will simply choose to stop registering clicks in specific areas of the window.

It appears to be that it loses its coordinates. (For example, in some applications, it registers the object to be clicked slightly higher on the screen than where it actually appears -- e.g. the mouse pointer changes its shape from pointer to grasping hand not when hovering on an object, but when hovering slightly above it.)

Sometimes clicking outside of the window and back into it will fix things for a short time. Also moving the window around seems to re-calibrate the sense of where the mouse should be within the window, but only very temporarily.

[Peter T (peter-thetyrrells)]

This is not a duplicate of bug #709461. It needs to have its Importance upgraded. It needs to be fixed - and soon. I'm trying to do development that requires extensive use of the mouse. This bug makes it impossible to do so.

[Luigi Casella (luigicasella)]

Me too... it happens randomly but often.
Video hardware and drivers: Intel 4500M, nVidia (both nForce and nouveau), ATi FireGL (radeon/gallium)
Input devices: mouse, touchpads and Wacom tablets.
Programs: gtk, qt or else (LibreOffice, Firefox, Evolution, desktop applications...).
I even had to reach "Post comment" below with tab :-(

[Bob Tanner (bob-tantlinger)]

Same issue here on (although i am running Mint 11).

Every once in a while a mouse click won't register, as if something is blocking input to the region of the screen I am clicking on. I can confirm that comment #14 (move window around), will then register the click.

In addition, I notice an odd problem with window focus that sometimes occurs too (seems related). For example if one window is partially covering another window, clicking on the partially hidden window does not bring it to the forefront, but it does seem to grab focus.

I am running the recomended proprietary nvidia driver 270.41.06 with a Geforce 9500 GT

[Jim McKean (jimmckean)]

I am having the same problem with a EEEPC 901 running Natty with Unity and Intel integrated graphics. I have been running Natty for a while without the problem It manifested about a week ago. I cannot pin the time down better than that.

No other windows open. Happens across applications.

Kevin Cole's experience matches mine perfectly.

I would not say this is a duplicate of 709461, although I could see how they _might_ share a root cause.

[Tim te Beek (timtebeek)]

Just a note to say I've delisted this bug as duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/709461, as that bug seems to be fixed, while this bug affected me as recently as last week. By delisting this bug as duplicate I'd like to prevent this bug from being closed when the 'duplicate' is closed.

From the comments above this bug seems to affect mouse clicks for users of NVidia graphics cards anywhere on the screen, whereas the former duplicate seems to only affect a single window and also causes distortions on the screen.

[Bart (ahverbeek)]

+1
I experience the same problem. What I do not understand is that this bug has been reported first 7 month ago! It is a really annoying bug.
I'm using ATI/AMD non-free FGLRX driver installed via Jockey on kernel 2.6.38-12-generic.