Can't click on UI elements in gimp (intermittent)

[lcampagn]

Binary package hint: gimp

Using kubuntu/9.10 on a lenovo x60 tablet PC (wacom).
When using gimp, I find that drawing with extended input devices causes all UI interaction outside of the drawing area to stop. For example, I can not click on menus, toolbox, etc. No other programs are affected, and I can usually restore UI interaction by switching the active window (specifically, clicking the title bar on the image window and then the toolbox window restores interaction. I do not have this problem when using the mouse, only the tablet pen.

Here is an exact sequence that produces this result:
 - start gimp, create new image
 - select paintbrush tool
 - draw in image
 - now I can no longer click on menus or toolboxes (although they do respond to the mouse pointer rollover w/hilighting, tooltips, etc)
 - click the image window title bar (focus switches from toolbox to image window)
 - now I can interact with menus and toolbox again
 - repeat!

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Apr 6 12:50:18 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: gimp 2.6.7-1ubuntu1.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-21.59-generic
SourcePackage: gimp
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-21-generic i686
XsessionErrors: (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:17580): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

[cy (foren-cywhale)]

Similar problem here, I was not able to use touchpad-/mouseclicks e.g. in "Save as"- and "Scale layer"-windows.
The solution for me was to set the mode of all devices to "disabled" in the extended input devices options, only device working in "window"-mode is the Wacom Graphire4 stylus. Now everything seems to work fine here.

[cy (foren-cywhale)]

Correction: Stylus set to "screen"-mode. Sorry.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Ugh, I have this problem too. It might be even worse; right now for me, if I make a paintbrush stroke in GIMP using the stylus, the UI will not recognize my next stylus action, even if that action is to draw another stroke. Also, I’m getting a similar bug in Inkscape, so I think this must have to do with an underlying, common library.

So:

- I make one paintbrush stroke using the stylus
   - If I try to make a second stroke immediately after, GIMP will not recognize it. It will, however, recognize a third stroke, but not a fourth, a fifth, but not a sixth, etc. GIMP will only recognize every other stroke I make; I suppose it’s requiring me to click on the canvas area again so that it knows I’m still painting.
   - If I try to click something in the UI, like a menu or the sliders in the tool options, immediately after the first stroke, GIMP will not recognize it. Clicking the title bar doesn’t even work for me; usually, I minimize and then restore the entire GIMP window, or click on the titlebar for one of the mini windows, and then the UI works again. (Making a paintbrush stroke after I restore the window or click a mini-window title bar also works, though with all the described caveats.) (I have the mini windows set to “utility” in the “Window Management” settings, by the way—I’m not sure if that’s the default.)
   - If I make a second paintbrush stroke immediately after the first, and then after _that_ click on something in the UI, the second stroke will not work—but the UI will. Apparently, it goes into “UI mode” after every brushstroke.

Additionally, sometimes I’ll be using a window like Preferences or the Save As dialog and suddenly nothing in the window will respond to a click. For that, I usually click the main window title bar—which will, oddly, work—and then click back on the window I’m using, and it will work.

And, as I said, the copy of Inkscape I’m using is having similar problems. I don’t really know what the two have in common in terms of underlying extended-input tech, though the input device settings UI for GIMP and Inkscape both use identical identifiers and terminology. These problems have not, however, appeared in MyPaint, which also takes extended input (including differentiating between the stylus tip and the eraser), so perhaps it’s something shared by Inkscape and GIMP but not by MyPaint.

Oh, and disabling all input devices in GIMP except for the stylus didn’t work for me (and besides, even if it did, not having the eraser would be a serious drawback). And, all of these problems happen only with the stylus, not the mouse, but the stylus being nigh unusable in a professional graphics program is a major problem.

I’m using Ubuntu 10.10 on a Lenovo ThinkPad X61 tablet. The versions of the packages I’m using are:

GIMP: 2.6.11-1~getdeb1~maverick (from the GetDeb repository, though I’ve also tried with 2.6.10-1ubuntu3.1 from the Ubuntu repository and the same problems occur)
Inkscape: 0.48.0-1ubuntu1 (from the Ubuntu repository)
MyPaint: 0.9.0-1~lffl~maverick~ppa (from this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ferramroberto/+archive/maverick )

Please help!

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Because I get this problem in GIMP and Inkscape but not MyPaint, I decided to make a list of dependencies shared by GIMP and Inkscape _but not MyPaint._ Here is the list, with each package name followed by the version I have installed (all are from the official Ubuntu repositories):

libatk1.0-0 (1.32.0-0ubuntu1)
libcairo2 (1.10.0-1ubuntu3)
libfontconfig1 (2.8.0-2ubuntu1)
libfreetype6 (2.4.2-2ubuntu0.1)
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (2.22.0-0ubuntu1)
libgtk2.0-0 (2.22.0-0ubuntu1)
liblcms1 (1.18.dfsg-1ubuntu2.10.10.1)
libpango1.0-0 (1.28.1-1ubuntu3)
libpoppler-glib5 (0.14.3-0ubuntu1.1)
libx11-6 (2:1.3.3-3ubuntu1)
zlib1g (1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3ubuntu1)

Of course, this doesn’t include dependencies _of_ dependencies... for instance, MyPaint requires PyGTK, and I’d imagine that in turn requires libgtk. Anyway, this is what I have for now.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Well, I just used apt-rdepends and a spreadsheet and came up with the same sort of list but with recursive dependencies included. Again, these are packaged required both by GIMP and Inkscape but not by MyPaint. No version numbers this time... I’m tired...

awk
base-files
base-passwd
libaspell15
libdbus-glib-1-2
libenchant1c2a
libhunspell-1.2-0
libice6
liblcms1
libpam-modules
libpam0g
libpoppler-glib5
libpoppler7
libsm6
libuuid1
libxslt1.1
libxt6
passwd

Hmmm, this may have been a red herring... I don’t see any that jump out at me as being related to extended input or UI rendering. But, maybe I’m just not familiar enough with these libraries. (libxt6 is, at least, related to the UI, being the X Toolkit Intrinsics library, but I can’t say I know any more than that...)

[zachery sharon (zacherysharon)]

I have a similar problem described here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1662300

Quote:

First some background:

Lenovo Thinkpad x61 tablet
Xubuntu 10.10 64-bit
Gimp 2.6.10
xf86-input-wacom 0.10.8
three (3) pointing devices total
---wacom
---thinkpad trackpoint
---logitech G5

While using GIMP, several of the dialog boxes have an odd problem, including Save and Preferences. When I open the Save dialog, no mouse inputs (any of the three) are received unless I first hover over the open image and the brush/tool/etc registers on the image.

These steps reproduce the problem:

1. Open new image.
2. Click File then Save, do not hover over the image window itself.
3. The Save dialog box does not receive mouse inputs.
4. Move the Save dialog out of the way and hover over the image briefly so that the tool registers and the mouse pointer changes.
5. Go back to the Save dialog and now mouse inputs are received.

This glitch does not arise if the Save dialog is opened via keyboard commands.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Just to cover my bases, I tried going into Synaptic and reinstalling every single package with “gtk” in the name, and/or “gdk” in the name or description. To my surprise, it worked; I no longer got this bug in GIMP or Inkscape.

That was a week or two ago. By now, the bug has recurred, with the same symptoms. I could do the same thing I did before to make it go away again, but I hope this helps get to the bottom of why this bug is occurring in the first place so we can fix it.

[Vincent Hatakeyama (vincent.lhote)]

I have the same problem in Gimp that the one described in comment #4: when using the pen, one stroke out of two is not working.
But I don’t have any trouble with Inkscape.
I’ve tried recompiling gimp 2.6.11 from source without results. I also tried 2.7.2, and still had the bug.
I tried Gimp in Fedora 15 beta and didn’t add the problem so kept searching.
I tried using GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS, having add to do that for Cellwriter to work properly but it made Gimp misbehave.
I found that using compiz either in Unity (Ubuntu at gdm login) or with gnome (Ubuntu classic at gdm login) seem to cause the problem. When using KDE, or Ubuntu classic without effect (no compiz), the input is working correctly. As Fedora 15 beta uses Gnome 3 with mutter, in sound logical it would not be affected by the problem.

Ubuntu 11.04, amd64

[Daniel (daniel3ub)]

Same problem here, no clicks in UI elements, have to navigate by keyboard.
Using a Wacom Bamboo MTE-450, Ubuntu 10.04, GIMP 2.6.11.

[Sylvain "Greewi" Dumazet (greewi-feerie)]

I have the same problem with the following configuration :
- ubuntu 11.04
- gimp 2.6.11
- wacom graphire 3

I used the default unity environment, but I manage to "solved" this, by using the unity2d environment. So it confirm that compiz or unity are interfering with the tablet.

[adoomer (adoomer)]

I experience a similar problem - can't click UI elements in save/load dialog in gimp, although I don't have any problems with drawing or other dialogs. I have no issues in Inkscape or MyPaint. I checked also the sav/load dialogs in other programs, like OpenOffice.org - no issues.

I use: ubuntu 10.04, gimp 2.6.11, Wacom Bamboo Pen&Touch (configured with xsetwacom, following this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9496609 ).

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

@Tina (and others) - Does anyone experience this problem in Inkscape 0.48.1?

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Alex: Yes, sadly.

[Ricardo Graça (devius)]

I'm also having the exact same issue, which makes it almost impossible to draw anything. System is Ubuntu 11.04 with all the latest updates, Gimp 2.6.11 and a Wacom Bamboo Pen CTL-460 using driver xserver-xorg-input-wacom version 0.10.11-0ubuntu9. The strange thing is that sometimes it does work, but I'm still not sure what triggers the correct behaviour. Very very annoying!

[Ricardo Graça (devius)]

Funny. Setting the mouse to "screen" in the extended devices configuration also causes drawing with mouse to exhibit the same symptoms. The first stroke is drawn, the second one not, and so on. What this means I don't know.

[JPi (ajuanpi)]

Hi,
Same problem here it started happing when I installed xf86-input-wacom-0.11.1
Ubuntu 10.10
Gimp 2.6
Wacom Bamboo Craft

[JPi (ajuanpi)]

Ok,
I found a solution for my case. I hope it works for others.

If you were using the standard xsetwacom.sh script that is given here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=25151

When you use xf86-input-wacom-0.11.1
by removing the definition of the buttons I manage it to work properly.
That is the new .xsetwacom.sh in my home folder is just

## stylus = "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" rotate HALF
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" Suppress "2"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" RawSample "4"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" Threshold "6"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" PressureCurve "5 10 90 95"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen stylus" Button 4 8

## eraser = "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen eraser"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Pen eraser" rotate HALF

## pad = "Wacom Bamboo Craft Finger touch"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Finger touch" rotate HALF

## pad = "Wacom Bamboo Craft Finger pad"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Bamboo Craft Finger pad" rotate HALF

(Note: The rotate HALF commands are because I am left handed).

Good luck

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

JPi: Thanks for your input, but... I have no idea what you mean :( I’ve never used a script called “xsetwacom.sh,” nor is there one that I can find on the thread you linked to, nor do I know what you mean by “removing the definition of the buttons.” Please explain, thanks!

(Also, this sounds like a workaround, rather than a “fix released”—but still valuable, obviously, since workarounds let us know what might be causing the problem and provide some relief for us users)

[zorgzorg2 (mraspaud)]

JPi's solution doesn't work in my case. I had no use for the xsetwacom.sh script before, the tablet being recognized automatically (intuos 3).
Setting it as an extended input device in gimp produces the problems described by the original poster. And as mentionned, setting the mouse as an extended input device produce similar problems.

[Fyodor Ananiev (tedmx)]

Funny thing - when Compiz settings in Unity are set like these of Classic-no-effects, the rate of bug occurrence decreases. Now brush freezes after 9-10 strokes.

Namely, I checked these ones in Utility section of Compiz (others should be unset): Bailer, Detection, Regex Matching, Session Management, Compiz Library Toolbox, Mouse position polling.
... in Windows Management section: Place Windows, Grid, Move Window, Resize Window.
... in General, OpenGL unchecked all flags and set Texture Filter to "Best".

[Fyodor Ananiev (tedmx)]

Sorry, post above is messy and misleading. Rate of brush freezing is changing every time, so I have no confidence about Compiz settings changing freeze-rate.

[Alan Lockwood (alanlock001)]

The status for gimp says "Fix Released". Is there a fix then? How do i get it? :S

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

I’m still having this problem with Natty, and this bug should never have been marked “Fix Released”; look above, it was changed in regard to a workaround that doesn’t really seem to work.

[zorgzorg2 (mraspaud)]

I agree, to my knowledge it isn't fixed. I tried the workaround, with no success...

[Generalster (generalster)]

Experiencing the same issues with the latest Ubuntu 11.04, Wacom Bamboo tablet and latest GIMP.

Bug not fixed by any margin.

[zorgzorg2 (mraspaud)]

Hi all,

I investigated a bit further the issue:
In my case, the second stroke is not working, but the following ones are.
After the first stroke, it seems the brush stays locked on the sheet (the indicators on the rulers are not moving when I move the cursor), and no ui is clickable. However, if I get the cursor out of the drawing window and back in, the brush starts moving again and I can click on the ui elements (anywhere).

I couldn't get gimp to be verbose on the console however... That could be usefull though, so if anyone has a hint on that...

[zorgzorg2 (mraspaud)]

One more thing: loging in in classic mode with no effects solves the problem for me. Could it be a problem in compiz or such ?

[Ricardo Graça (devius)]

This is definitely a problem with the way compiz interacts with extended input devices since using Unity-2D also solves this bug.

[Tina Russell (tinarussell)]

Sorry, I get this bug in classic mode w/o effects as well... in fact, that’s what I mainly use.

[Roberto Suarez (robe-allenta)]

I've just upgraded to Natty from Maverick, and I'm also affected by this bug. It didn't happen before, though I had compiz activated. I have a Nvidia card and I'm using the binary drivers, in case it matters.

I confirm that the problem disappears if I use the Classic Desktop without effects (i.e., no compiz).

[JesseD (dazedjay)]

I had the same issue of every other brush stroke not registering with my Wacom Intuos4 medium tablet in gimp under Ubuntu 11.04. And i know I'm about a month late on this post here.

After playing around with everything, including logging in with no effects and tweaking tablet settings, I think i found a little work around for me.

If you disable all your components then it doesn't give you the tablet/stylus effects like fading out and what not. But, if you have all of them set to 'screen', and set the pad itself to 'disable' it works out fine for me(and i still get all the perks of using my tablet!) and I don't get the dreaded freezing/not registering every other brush stroke, and sometimes not able to use UI elements.

Hope this helps someone.

[Alan Lockwood (alanlock001)]

Not working here. =(

In my device list my genius tablet appears twice with the exact same name (UC-LOGIC Tblet WP8060U). The first one is useless (if i set it to "screen", the tablet won't draw anything, although, it moves the pointer). The second one I have to set it to "screen" or "window", otherwise the tablet will work as a mouse (no pressure/fading effects). So it doesn't matter whether the other devices are "disable", "window" or "screen"; I need to put the tablet as "window" for it to be usable. But the the problem persists.

I had to kill the-gimp with xkill command, since I wasn't allowed to click the "don't save" option when trying to close the application.

This bug sucks big time. /cry

[Kenzie Bottoms (knzgrl)]

GIMP was working, no spotty brushstrokes, until I went through http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1515562 trying to figure out how to configure the tablet. I tried uninstalling all the crap I installed from that page, but the glitch remains, even after I rebooted.

[Danny Worms (dannyworms13)]

I had the same problem Tina Russell was having. I solved it by going into Ubuntu Classic (no effects)
im using ubuntu 11.04 Natty
my tablet was a bamboo pen CTL-460
latest version of gimp and followed the guide to set up the tablet that was here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11325831

[Louis Moureaux (louis-m-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello,

I couldn't click anywhere except in the drawing window (menus working fine). It wasn't a Compiz issue because it occured using both Unity, Gnome 3, KDE, E17 and Xfce.

I managed solving it by removing my ~/.gimp-2.6 folder, then restarting Gimp with the tablet plugged in. I had installed Gimp from this PPA : https://launchpad.net/~grumbel/+archive/gimp/+packages

Hope this helps

----
Ubuntu 11.10
Wacom Intuos 4 L

[Gastón (givanse)]

is not fixed, there are some workarounds

[ALinuxUser (buntulongername-new)]

Somewhat similarly, I found that, on a laptop with no external input device (only the touchpad), the file menu would not drop down from the toolbar, though all the other menus did. Odd. It lasted about a minute. Gimp 2.8 on Mint 18 x64.

[adrian (adrianh-bsc)]

I had this, but it was with my mouse. Don't know why, but I had to go into Edit > Preferences > Input Devices > Reset Saved Input Device Settings to Default Values.

Seems that that part of the configuration got corrupted somehow.

[adrian (adrianh-bsc)]

That was running under Windows 8.1.

[Mattia Rizzolo (mapreri)]

Nobody ever reproduced this bug in inkscape, so I'm closing those tasks.