lxqt loses natural scrolling

[js1]

Occassionally, LXQt will lose the Natural Scrolling config for no apparent reason. Have to go back into the Keyboard/Mouse configs to check the Natural Scrolling checkbox.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: lxqt-core 30
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-59.65-generic 5.4.78
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-59-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.14
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: LXQt
Date: Sun Jan 10 17:23:20 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-02 (343 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: lxqt-metapackages
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.14
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: LXQt
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-02 (358 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017.1)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
Package: lxqt-config 0.14.1-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-64.72-generic 5.4.78
Tags: focal
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-64-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[Leó Kolbeinsson (leok)]

I am unable to reproduce the bug.Can you be more specific as to how often this occurs i.e. after a few minutes or hours etc...?

What hardware are you running? Also noticed that you have no upgrade log present and system installed 10 months ago. Is that correct?

[js1 (sujiannming)]

The change is on the order of days, though I don't leave this particular
system on all the time. It's odd because one moment the Natual scrolling
is working as configured, then the next time I'm behind the desktop, it's
been reverted to regular scrolling. This has happened twice now in the
last few weeks, which prompoted me to file the report.

It's an old Dell Precision T7500 workstation; the Xeon processor age well.
I updated to 20.04 LTS ten months ago, but apt-get updates on a weekly
basis.

On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 4:00 AM Leó Kolbeinsson <email address hidden>
wrote:

> I am unable to reproduce the bug.Can you be more specific as to how
> often this occurs i.e. after a few minutes or hours etc...?
>
> What hardware are you running? Also noticed that you have no upgrade log
> present and system installed 10 months ago. Is that correct?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1910934
>
> Title:
> lxqt loses natural scrolling
>
> Status in lxqt-metapackages package in Ubuntu:
> New
>
> Bug description:
> Occassionally, LXQt will lose the Natural Scrolling config for no
> apparent reason. Have to go back into the Keyboard/Mouse configs to
> check the Natural Scrolling checkbox.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
> Package: lxqt-core 30
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-59.65-generic 5.4.78
> Uname: Linux 5.4.0-59-generic x86_64
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
> ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.14
> Architecture: amd64
> CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
> CurrentDesktop: LXQt
> Date: Sun Jan 10 17:23:20 2021
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-02-02 (343 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64
> (20191017.1)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> SourcePackage: lxqt-metapackages
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lxqt-metapackages/+bug/1910934/+subscriptions
>

--
Jiann-Ming Su

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Unfortunately, without clear steps to reproduce, detailed information about your hardware, and system logs, it's hard to take any sort of action.

To try to resolve this issue, please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect BUGNUMBER

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

[js1 (sujiannming)]

apport information

[js1 (sujiannming)]

apport information

[js1 (sujiannming)]

apport information

[js1 (sujiannming)]

Please see attached screenshot. Notice the Natural Scrolling checkbox is unchecked. This is why I filed this bug report. I certainly did not change it. I have since checked it, and Natural Scrolling is working again, for now.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

So what I'm hearing you say is it's a behavior that happened but upon filing the bug report is no longer a problem?

[js1 (sujiannming)]

I filed this bug report to help figure out why the Nature Scrolling checkbox is getting unchecked by itself. It's still a problem because the screenshot I attached in the previous comment happened today.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Well, I do see one rather concerning part of your bug report:

CasperMD5CheckResult: skip

This means that you didn't allow the system to check the files being installed, which is to say you may have a corrupt installation.

Did you verify hashes of the ISO/installation media in some way? If not, I suspect that's where your problem lies.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Oh, actually, looking deeper, I didn't notice you were on 19.10 to begin with. I'm not sure that we were enforcing file checks then. My comment is still relevant though.

If you can confirm that you did indeed verify the hashes of both the ISO and installation media, then perhaps the next step might be to use something like auditd (https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/focal/man8/auditd.8.html) to figure out what process is changing the file and how often.

[js1 (sujiannming)]

I'm going straight to auditd. Where is the keyboard/mouse configs stored for LXQt?

[Dan Simmons (kc2bez)]

Regarding comment #13 that setting is stored in `~/.config/lxqt/session.conf`

[Dan Simmons (kc2bez)]

By any chance are you using different devices when you are experiencing the change? The natural scrolling setting is a per device setting and not global.

[js1 (sujiannming)]

No, same Dell USB Laser Mouse. I just turned on my workstation and natural scrolling is lost again. My ~/.config/lxqt/session.conf hasn't been touched since Jan 25, and looks like this:

[General]
__userfile__=true

[Environment]
BROWSER=firefox
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
TERM=qterminal

[Touchpad]
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\accelSpeed=@Variant(\0\0\0\x87\0\0\0\0)
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\naturalScrollingEnabled=1
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\scrollingMethodEnabled=0
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\tapToDragEnabled=-1
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\tappingEnabled=-1

And, for good measure, the relevant parts of the audit.log:

type=PATH msg=audit(1611969338.904:104): item=0 name="/home/js1/.config/lxqt/session.conf" inode=1181319 dev=fd:00 mode=0100664 ouid=1000 ogid=1001 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL cap_fp=0 cap_fi=0 cap_fe=0 cap_fver=0 cap_frootid=0
type=PATH msg=audit(1611969339.392:105): item=0 name="/home/js1/.config/lxqt/session.conf" inode=1181319 dev=fd:00 mode=0100664 ouid=1000 ogid=1001 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL cap_fp=0 cap_fi=0 cap_fe=0 cap_fver=0 cap_frootid=0
type=PATH msg=audit(1611969340.736:106): item=0 name="/home/js1/.config/lxqt/session.conf" inode=1181319 dev=fd:00 mode=0100664 ouid=1000 ogid=1001 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL cap_fp=0 cap_fi=0 cap_fe=0 cap_fver=0 cap_frootid=0
type=PATH msg=audit(1611969823.498:465): item=0 name="/home/js1/.config/lxqt/session.conf" inode=1181319 dev=fd:00 mode=0100664 ouid=1000 ogid=1001 rdev=00:00 nametype=NORMAL cap_fp=0 cap_fi=0 cap_fe=0 cap_fver=0 cap_frootid=0

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Unfortunately without any information on what process changed it, all that tells us is that something happened. So that number before the colon in parentheses after audit is the date/time in based on the Unix epoch. There are a bunch of ways to convert that to normal time. That said, looking at your logs, where along in the boot process does that happen?

[js1 (sujiannming)]

Walter, thanks for your efforts, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Notice my session.conf has naturalScrollingEnabled=1, unchanged since last boot on Jan 25 when it natural scrolling was working. The issue seems to be that lxqt-config is picking up naturalScrollingEnabled from somewhere other than my ~/.config/lxqt/session.conf, or is not honoring my local config.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Ah yes, you're right. That's rather remarkable. I wonder if you don't have some sort of permissions issue or something. I would suggest deleting the file, logging out and back in again. It should regenerate the config.

I should also mention one other thing: I wouldn't recommend ever editing any of the LXQt config files. They are meant to be changed via the GUI. I'm used to editing text files so it's a bit of a strange thing to me, but I've seen strange behaviors from doing so with LXQt so I avoid it.

If none of that helps, you might want to use `strace` to see what's opened when.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

One other thing: "scrollingMethodEnabled=0" disables scrolling, natural (it's not, IMHO) or not. That's typically for trackpads and so with a normal mouse all of the other options would be greyed out, and in that sense, the "disabled" option is more like "not applicable," but you actually have a button option. So that may be worth looking into.

[js1 (sujiannming)]

The suggestion to delete the existing session.conf and let lxqt create a new one was good. It worked for a while, but natural scrolling broke again today (2021-02-20). Last time I had the computer on (2021-02-18) natural scrolling was working fine.

Could this be a problem with the USB bus?

The session.conf file has a date stamp of 2021-01-30, so it has not been altered.

[General]
__userfile__=true

[Environment]
BROWSER=firefox
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=qt5
TERM=qterminal

[Touchpad]
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\accelSpeed=@Variant(\0\0\0\x87\0\0\0\0)
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\naturalScrollingEnabled=1
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\scrollingMethodEnabled=0
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\tapToDragEnabled=-1
DELL%2520DELL%2520USB%2520Laser%2520Mouse\tappingEnabled=-1

[js1 (sujiannming)]

Interesting, natural scrolling works after staring a new lxqt session (log off and log back in).

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

I could imagine that a failure in the bus could result in similar behavior since the settings are device-based and not general. In other words, if you had 5 touchpads, you'd really have 5 different natural scrolling options to select. So if you have deviceX and the bus has a hiccup, causing the device to be re-enumerated, you may then have deviceX+1, which has its own setting. At some point, I would imagine that trying to connect to deviceX would time out and it would get dropped. Logging out and back in again would likely force LXQt to re-read the devices, leaving only deviceX+1.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for lxqt-config (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]