mouse pointer moves cursor while typing

[Peter]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-mouse

System:
- Fujitsu S6410P
- Intel Core 2 Duo Centrino T7500
- RAM: 2Gig
- kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Tribe-5

1. Select a document for typing, eg KNotes
2. Begin typing in the notes window, for example "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog <>"
3. After a bit of typing move the mouse pointer to be sitting between <>.
4. Continue to type at the end of the line while the mouse cursor is above <>.
5. After continually typing, the problem is a bit intermittent. It may require further typing till it performs the trick.

While typing this report, the incident did not occur. Even though it happened numerous times a little earlier.
Regards
Peter

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

I would like to upgrade the importance to medium or high. I am finding that the cursor disappearing to somewhere else in the text extremely frustrating and making the system unusable. Glad to provide any testing.

[linuxnerdgirl (dmgrose-deactivatedaccount)]

I have this same problem running Ubuntu on my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. Please help!!

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

This problem is still occurring as with Gutsy Tribe-5 with all updates as of 2007-09-26

[brendan (talikarng)]

I couldn't get this to occur in knotes, openoffice etc in Gutsy (updated as at 31/12/07)

[TWO (two)]

System:
- Dell Inspiron 1300
- Intel Celeron M processor
- RAM: 1GB
- Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10

(This has been a continuous problem throughout the 5 or so months that I've been using Ubuntu. Right from 6.06 to 7.10, I've always had issues with the cursor moving and subsequently changing where I am typing. If the touch pad is disabled, the problem goes away but that's only a short term solution. I think the importance should be medium or high too because it isn't fair that we laptop users should have a second rate experience of Ubuntu and purely down to the fact that this is a persistent issue.

The problem occurs in Firefox, OpenOffice and Gedit for me.

I also get an additional problem in that sometimes the mouse pad will occasionally click onto hyper links or Live Bookmark links close to where my cursor is. As you can imagine, this too is also very problematic.

[TWO (two)]

The problem has just occurred again, this time selecting an icon from my panel.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please try with Hardy alpha3 livecd or alpha4 which is released later this week.

[TWO (two)]

Is there a chance that this bug might be corrected in (K)Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon?

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

TWO, It's unlikely to be fixed in Gutsy. Hopefully it will be fixed in Hardy.

I've installed Hardy Alpha-6 on my Fujitsu laptop and the problem still occurs. All updates have been applied up to 15 Mar.

[Paul (paultmanwell-gmail)]

I have the same issue -

Acer Aspire 5920
Intel Core 2 Duo Y5450
Ubuntu 7.10

Its really really really really annoying - affects Firefox, OpenOffice, Pidgin. I can't type for more than 1-2 mins before my cursor is moved to another location on the screen. Would really appreciate a fix.

thanks,

[TWO (two)]

I think you can edit the xorg.conf in order to disable the touch pad and that seems to help with the jumping cursor. I found out how to do this via an Ubuntu help page:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad

You can read the link, but I think the instructions pretty much go something like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open the xorg.conf file via the Terminal/ Konsole,

Find a part called "InputDevice" with: Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" written underneath.

Before the text "EndSection" add the following line: Option "SHMConfig" "on"
(Make sure it's set out in the same way as the rest of that section.)

Save, exit then restart your X server, which can be done by pressing ctrl + alt + backspace

Once you are back on your desktop, open the Terminal/Konsole and enter the following command:

synclient TouchpadOff=1

That will disable the touch pad. Enter the same command again with a value of 0 to re-enable the touch pad.

**Make sure to do this correctly as messing up the xorg.conf file will cause problems.**
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As an alternative to entering the disable command in the terminal every time, you could make a shell script file or assign keys to those commands to make it easier to execute. I think that within Ubuntu, you can just write that command in a text editor, save it and run it as an executable via the prompt when you click on the file.
 I think that: #!/bin/sh is required at the start of the text file to make it executable in Kubuntu- though please correct me if I am wrong.

There might be some programs that do this for you as well- QSynaptics??- but I remember it not working so well for me a few months ago.

These commands however do resolve the problem temporarily, though of course, it means that the touch pad is disabled for the duration of your current session.

It might be a bit futile me posting these commands up in that whilst it is a temporary solution to the annoying jumping cursor problem, it doesn't actually solve the problem, as I'm sure that the aim of this bug report is to find a way to stop the touch pad from messing with the cursor, without having to disable it.

I do hope this problem gets fixed soon.

[TWO (two)]

This problem is also apparent in Kubuntu Hardy Heron.

[rfrerebe (remy)]

System:
- Inspiron 1525n
- Ubuntu Hardy Heron

This problems also occurs on my laptop.
This problem is quite annoying and disable a touchpad is not a solution on a laptop
:-)

Would be happy to help to track this bug

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

Changing this to new, as it seems this has enough information. I'd like to remind that this is a bug related to touchpad problems in Dell systems only. I have a customer reporting this same issue and looking forward to provide any further information needed to advance this through resolution.

TWO, would you mind sharing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file ? Can you also install gsynaptics and see if any parameters you can adjust with it improve the situation ?

[rfrerebe (remy)]

Here is my xorg.conf

I will install gsynaptics and tell I can tweak anything

Remy

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:30 PM, Fabián Rodríguez <email address hidden>wrote:

> Changing this to new, as it seems this has enough information. I'd like
> to remind that this is a bug related to touchpad problems in Dell
> systems only. I have a customer reporting this same issue and looking
> forward to provide any further information needed to advance this
> through resolution.
>
> TWO, would you mind sharing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file ? Can you also
> install gsynaptics and see if any parameters you can adjust with it
> improve the situation ?
>
> --
> mouse pointer moves cursor while typing
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/135062
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
-----------------------------------
http://frerebeau.org/weblog

[TWO (two)]

Here is my xorg.conf file. I will install gsynaptics and see if it helps.

[TWO (two)]

Installng gsynaptics does not solve the problem for me. I tried using the program in previous version of (K)Ubuntu but to no avail.

[TWO (two)]

So far, I've tried to reduce the sensitivity under the 'general' tab in the gsynaptics program, but this just becomes an inconvenience as the touch pad obviously becomes less responsive. Doing so did not stop the cursor from jumping and affecting my text input either.

This is not the only problem though, as the touch pad issue also selects hyperlinks that I didn't intend to click sometimes.

We're soon coming onto Intrepid Ibex and this would make the 4th distribution in a row where the touch pad on my Dell Inspiron 1300 has been an issue.

If I were to disable the touchpad and then just use a mouse with the system, the problem doesn't occur.

Why is this bug's status invalid under the 'Ubuntu Dell Project'? Shouldn't this bug be assigned to them as well?

Also, what about someone upgrading the bug's status to 'critical'? This bug was reported over a year ago and there hasn't been any movement on it at all. It really does affect the user experience of Ubuntu.

[Peter (sunspots-deactivatedaccount)]

I've installed Intrepid Ibex 8.10 with all updates as of 16 Nov 2008. Have found that the touchpad sensitivity has been fixed. Over a period of 30 - 45 minutes of various typing have not encountered the cursor moved.

- Fujitsu S6410P
- Intrepid Ibex 8.10

I hope this issue will be rectified for the other systems that have been reported as it really does affect the user experience.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thanks for letting us know the issue is resolved.

[Yani Raafezaj (ytraaf)]

This has been a constant problem for me both onUbuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 AND Jaunty Jackalope 9.04 running on a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop. I've attached my xorg.conf file, though it doesn't look like it'll help.

[TWO (two)]

The status of the bug needs to return to incomplete as it is still an issue for some users. It remains a problem on the system that I have mentioned in earlier posts under all KDE 4 releases of Kubuntu and even the 3.5.10 candidate release of Jaunty.

[Yani Raafezaj (ytraaf)]

It seems as if people are still having problems with this.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[M. H. Pathfinder (mhpathfinder)]

Well, this thread is nearly two years old and it seems that the nagging jumping-cursor-while-typing issue has never been fully resolved. It seems to differ among systems. I had the problem in my HP Special Edition L2005US notebook until Ubuntu 8.10. I then learned that if I created a syndaemon command with specific parameters, the problem was completely resolved. I've read that this bug is plaguing many--Sonys, Acers, Compaqs, Dells--so here is the syndaemon resolution, once again, for Ubuntu 9.04, which will resolve for some, but not for all.

Go to System: Preferences: Startup Applications
Click on '+ADD'
In both the NAME box and the COMMAND box, type in "syndaemon -i 3 -d -t -k", then click on +ADD, then CLOSE.
Now, restart your system, open up your word processor and start typing. For many, this should solve the problem.

I also have an ACER ASPIRE ONE D250 netbook, with UBUNTU 9.04 Netbook Remix installed. My little jumping cursor demon, which I destroyed in my HP Special Edition L2005US, now returned in my new little Acer Aspire One netbook. Damn it! I tried the trusty syndameon command above. Alas, it did not work. I then went to the Synaptics Package Manager and installed "Touchfreeze," a little utility that turns the touchpad on or off, and can also be loaded as one of your STARTUP Applicatons. This failed to end my jumping cursor problem, as well.

As of this writing, I have no solution. Another little nagging element to the jumping cursor problem. In Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix, no device controls or adjustment utilities exist for a touchpad. Only the mouse. Usually, there is a tab labeled "Touchpad" under the MOUSE controls. In UNR 9.04, this is not the case, not on my Acer Aspire One, at least. I will be curious to see what follows my post for any more possible resolutions.

Amen.
MH

[M. H. Pathfinder (mhpathfinder)]

...And within less than three minutes after I posted the above, I checked another thread on the same subject and came up with a solution for my Acer Aspire One. This was another "syndaemon" command. Just tested it with non-stop typing on the Acer Aspire One for two minutes. No jumping cursor. I exorcised the demon again, thanks to the authors on the following thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=271052&page=7

System: Preferences: Startup Applications. Click on "+ADD".
In the NAME and COMMAND boxes, type in "syndaemon -i 1 -d".
Then, click on "+ADD". Then, click on CLOSE.
Restart your laptop and see if you can type and have the text end up where you are typing instead of jumping up and back a few lines.

This worked for my Acer Aspire One. Now I will apply the fix to my wife's Acer Aspire One.
Her Compaq V2000 responded to the "syndaemon -i 3 -d -t -k" fix, the same as my HP L2005US.

Evidently, whatever system you have, there is a syndaemon configuration that will probably work for you.

MH

[Timothy R. Chavez (timrchavez)]

The bug task for the somerville project has been removed by an automated script. This bug has been cloned on that project and is available here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1305613