[artful] mouse clicks are completely ignored both in Gnome's gdm and once logged in to the desktop

[Swâmi Petaramesh]

After upgrading from 17.04 to 17.10, I encounter strange mouse issues, namely :

- The mouse cursor moves allright

- But mouse clicks are completely ignored both in Gnome's gdm and once logged in to the desktop, they are also ignored in all the Gnome panel and lef side dock.

However, once started using keyboard, mouse DOES work INSIDE applications allright (all the times), and SOME windows can be moved by dragging their title bar when focus is given to them (i.e. I currently have a gedit window that I can move around with the mouse, while I cannot move a gnome-terminal or the firefox in which I type this text).
Also, a directory/file selection dialog for the "save" action in gedit works perfectly well with the mouse.

This is definitely not a hardware mouse issue.

But I cannot change focus with the mouse, I have to [Alt]-[Tab] to change window.

Also if I shift focus to the desktop, I can interact with icons on the desktop and the right-click on the background *may* work.

I've purged all the .something config dirs in my homedir to no avail (and I don't believe it relates to it because gdm shows this behaviour even before I actually login).

I've seen the exact same problem (after upgrade from 17.04 to 17.10) being reported on miscellaneous forums by at least 3 other people. So I'm not alone, but I have no clue.

Trying to investigate this I checked a big part of my system's configuration and fell upon im-config.

I have noticed that, when completely uninstalled (all the files that it refers to being removed), then reinstalled, this package actually FAILS installing any of its configuration files (but without any error message), resulting in the following situation :

root@totor:~# dpkg -r --force depends im-config
dpkg: im-config : problème de dépendance, mais suppression comme demandé :
 language-selector-gnome dépend de im-config (>= 0.29-1ubuntu10~).

(Lecture de la base de données... 387605 fichiers et répertoires déjà installés.)
Suppression de im-config (0.32-1ubuntu3) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu5) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...

root@totor:~# apt-get install im-config
Lecture des listes de paquets... Fait
Construction de l'arbre des dépendances
Lecture des informations d'état... Fait
Les NOUVEAUX paquets suivants seront installés :
  im-config
0 mis à jour, 1 nouvellement installés, 0 à enlever et 0 non mis à jour.
Il est nécessaire de prendre 0 o/24,5 ko dans les archives.
Après cette opération, 365 ko d'espace disque supplémentaires seront utilisés.
Sélection du paquet im-config précédemment désélectionné.
(Lecture de la base de données... 387551 fichiers et répertoires déjà installés.)
Préparation du dépaquetage de .../im-config_0.32-1ubuntu3_all.deb ...
Dépaquetage de im-config (0.32-1ubuntu3) ...
Paramétrage de im-config (0.32-1ubuntu3) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Traitement des actions différées (« triggers ») pour gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu5) ...

root@totor:~# dpkg -V im-config
??5?????? c /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70im-config_launch
??5?????? c /etc/X11/xinit/xinputrc
??5?????? c /etc/default/im-config
??5?????? c /etc/profile.d/input-method-config.sh

Any help greatly appreciated, my desktop being currently quite unusable.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: im-config 0.32-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Nov 5 09:42:24 2017
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
JournalErrors:
 Error: command ['journalctl', '-b', '--priority=warning', '--lines=1000'] failed with exit code 1: Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
       Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
       turn off this notice.
 No journal files were opened due to insufficient permissions.
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: im-config
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-21 (14 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.X11.Xsession.d.70im-config_launch: [deleted]
modified.conffile..etc.X11.xinit.xinputrc: [deleted]
modified.conffile..etc.default.im-config: [deleted]
modified.conffile..etc.profile.d.input-method-config.sh: [deleted]

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

See exactly similar mouse issues described by other people in :
https://askubuntu.com/questions/971647/17-10-mouse-cant-click-on-gnome-elements-keyboard-misbehaving

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[proteus (proteus)]

I tried the 'sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall' recommendation from the thread that was linked here, but it didn't work in my case.

The behaviour is erratic. Sometimes a reboot would help, though mostly not. Sometimes the applications bar is responsive (can start applications), other times it's not. Sometimes the items on the Desktop are clickable, other times not.

One interesting behaviour I noticed once (though was not able to repeat) was that I had two partially overlapping windows with a file manager (Thunar), and the click events seem to go to the window that was UNDER (I could see the files being selected and could start them) - like the window on top was "transparent" to click events.

[proteus (proteus)]

To add to the above something I forgot to mention: the mouse I normally use is a Logitech M705 wireless. If I start with the mouse turned off and with a simple wired mouse plugged in, the mouse behaves OK. I can then start the M705 wireless mouse and it will work a bit better (i.e. not working full, but some more elements will be clickable).
It's really crazy.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Thanks for your report.

Odd mouse behavior has reasonably nothing to do with im-config. Changing the affected package to gnome-shell for now.

If you need help to fix your desktop, this is not the right place. This is a bug report. Please ask for support instead at e.g. <https://askubuntu.com>. (But maybe you'd better try a fresh install of 17.10 instead...)

[proteus (proteus)]

Yes, I am posting this as a bug (already browsed extensively the forums for support). Of course, if this isn't a wide-spread issue or if it's specific only to this specific mouse model, I can understand if it's not going to be prioritized.

(And no, not going to re-install the OS just to fix a mouse issue, I'll just try different mice until I get one that works).

[ariko (ariko-andikabina)]

I also experienced mouse issue, can't click on wayland, while on Xorg works as normal,

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

See also similar bug 1181666, and the general class of bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bugs?field.tag=noclick

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

I could narrow this bug with a 100% certitude (and confirm it also on Manjaro Linux on the same machine) with using the NVidia 304 proprietary driver.

My machine has a NVidia C77 [GeForce 8200] (rev a2) which is unsupported with latest NVidia 340 drivers (the system justs freezes).

It used to work perrfectly using NVidia 304 "legacy" driver until upgrading to Ubuntu 17.10, but something must have recently changed in the way Gnome or Xorg handles the mouse and the legacy NVidia driver has probably not been updated, alas.

THe bug does *NOT* exist when using the "nouveau" driver. Unfortunately, its doesn't perform as well as the proprietray NVidia did... But at least the mouse works again.

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

Detail of my the affected machine :

Motherboard
       produit: M3N78-VM
       fabriquant: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

BIOS
          fabriquant: American Megatrends Inc.
          identifiant matériel: 0
          version: 1406
          date: 10/30/2009

Video
          NVidia C77 [GeForce 8200] (rev a2) (integrated in NVidia chipset)

Chipset as identified by the nouveau driver
          NVidia NVAA

[Enigma (enigma0)]

Same issue... Still broken.

X.org works - Wayland doesn't let you click on anything. This includes the login screen.

Running kernel 14.5-rc7.

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall did nothing.

[Enigma (enigma0)]

This resolved the issue for me:

https://askubuntu.com/a/968265/89202

"If you wish to do it permanently, edit

/etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment the line

#WaylandEnable=false by removing the # in front.

Save the file and then on reboot you will never see the cog asking for which session to use."

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

@swami-petaramesh,

Can you confirm if the problem only occurs for you in Wayland sessions, and not if you log in to "Ubuntu on Xorg"?

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

Hello,

I cannot test it anymore in Ubuntu, as I have removed Ubuntu from this machine, but I do *not* believe that it related to Wayland and I'm positive that it relates to the NVidia proprietary driver on my machine as explained above.

For I discovered the same issue after installing Manjaro with Cinnamon (that does *not* use Wayland) on the machine :

- Immediately after install (with the default free "Nouveau" driver, the mouse was working correctly)
- I installed the NVidia 304 proprietary driver, and immediately the problem appeared : mouse clicks not working anymore.
- I then reverted back to nouveau, and the problem was solved.

I have all the reasons to believe that seing the exact same problem in Manjaro that I had with Ubuntu shows that the problem has the same cause...

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

@swami-petaramesh,

With nouveau, Ubuntu will default to Wayland. And if you install the Nvidia proprietary driver then that generally disables Wayland and forces you to use Xorg. Although the difference is usually invisible to the user.

So actually it sounds like Xorg was causing your problems... which is a very different code path for mouse handling in mutter, compared to Wayland.

If you're not interested in this bug any more then it will close automatically after 60 days of inactivity.

---

@enigma0, please log your own separate bug since you appear to have the opposite problem.

[Enigma (enigma0)]

Ehh... Not really worth the trouble at this point as I've resolved it myself by just disabling Wayland.

Since Wayland won't be default in 18.04 anyway, there's a good chance the issue will be fixed by 18.10.

I've posted the same solution on an Ask Ubuntu question so it may help others.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

@enimga0,

Wayland may not be the default in 18.04 but if it's going to be in better shape by 18.10 then we really have to stay focussed on fixing it.

Judging by the bug reports I'm seeing, I don't share your confidence that your particular issue will fix itself before October. Because nobody else is reporting the same issue, so nobody else is working on fixing it yet.

[Enigma (enigma0)]

If you can instruct me on how to gather the pertinent information, I can make a report.

Honestly though, it seems like the chances of some unique rare issue that few have is going to get much attention. If it comes to it that I need Wayland on this system, I'd sooner just reinstall which typically resets weird elusive configuration issues of which there could be many.

It's too bad there isn't a financially backed bounty system somewhere for fixing bugs? I might pay into some reward to fix these odd issues that aren't likely to get much attention.

[Enigma (enigma0)]

Here it is: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1747568

[PTra (ptram1)]

Affects me as well. Mouse(Logitech G402) movement is fine but I can't click on anything in gdm3 login screen and gnome-shell itself. Only changing to Xorg instead of wayland fixes it.

As suggested above if it is related to Nvidia driver I don't think so because I am using AMD Radeon R7 370 (with xserver-amdgpu, so no "old" radeonsi; but that shouldn't really matter and it works with Xorg)

Not sure what additional info to provide.

Sys:

Ubuntu 18.04 /w all proposed updates
FX8320
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P FX Mainboard
16GB Ram
Radeon R7 370
Asus Xonar DX
Logitech G402 Mouse

[Max Rumpf (maxr1998)]

This bug also affects me. However, I don't use nvidia drivers, but mesa, since I have a AMD Radeon Vega 56.
Setting EnableWayland to false fixed the issue for me.
The bug occurred after updating a lot of packages today, including dbus, mesa, etc. I'm using the mesa drivers from the joe-yasi ppa.

[Max Rumpf (maxr1998)]

Update: So, no, EnableWayland=false didn't really fix the issue here. Instead of the mouse being not clickable in gdm and gnome shell, gdm works fine, but once I log in, I have artifacts all over the place (greenish squares, single pixels from the normal image, etc). Leaving EnableWayland=false commented out, but starting a X.org session from the gear menu in gdm makes it work again.

[Calin (calinuswork)]

I have the same issue, I can't drag and drop any windows in Gnome / Wayland, kernel 4.15, ubuntu 17.10

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

This bug has become a little overloaded.

Everyone please log your own bugs, and/or review the related bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bugs?field.tag=noclick

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Per comment #15, the original reporter can't test this any more.

But I feel bug 1747568 might be a better description of the problem for most people. Moving there...