Synaptics doesn't work with multiple users in Xorg.

[Saivann Carignan]

This bug has been tested on two different laptop.

The first one was a 5 years old IBM laptop on Feisty with one synaptic touchpad and one built-in mouse.
The second was a Dell inspiron 9300 laptop on Gutsy with one synaptic touchpad and a USB wireless mouse.

When accessing the Desktop of an other user through " Change User ", touchpad will completely stop working.

Steps to reproduce the bugs are :

1. Have two mouses, one of these is a touchpad.
2. Open a session
3. Click the change user button to open another session without closing the actual session.

The synaptic touchpad isn't working anymore. You doesn't have to open another session but you can if you want, but the synaptic touchpad will NEVER works until you get back to the initial session where synaptic is already used. It's pretty bad on a laptop with two built-in mouses because the most used mouse always stop to work.

The Xorg logs shows "Synaptics DeviceOff called" when I change user session and "Synaptics DeviceOn called" when I get back to the initial user session ( the only way to get the synaptic to work again ).

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Thanks for your bug report, more information is needed.
The way you describe it it looks like a permission problem on your mouse devices.

1. Please attach your complete /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
2. Open a terminal and give the output of:
   $ ls -l <device>
   for each Option "Device" "<device>" in all InputDevice Sections of your xorg.conf.
3. And the output of:
   $ id <username1>
   $ id <username2>
   where <username1> is the name of the user that can use both mouses, and <username2> is the name of the user that can't.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

I did what you needed inside the session of the user zxz, which is the first user to logon on my laptop and have access to both mouses. The mouse that doesn't work on the drivex user session is the synaptic pad and not the USB external mouse. It was also the synaptic pad on the IBM laptop that I tested.

1. The xorg.conf is attached

2.

zxz@zxz-laptop:~$ ls -l /dev/input/mice
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 63 2007-07-31 18:45 /dev/input/mice
zxz@zxz-laptop:~$ ls -l /dev/psaux
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 1 2007-07-31 18:45 /dev/psaux
zxz@zxz-laptop:~$ ls -l /dev/input/wacom
ls: /dev/input/wacom: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type

3.

zxz@zxz-laptop:~$ id zxz
uid=1000(zxz) gid=1000(zxz) groupes=1000(zxz),4(adm),20(dialout),21(fax),24(cdrom),25(floppy),29(audio),30(dip),44(video),46(plugdev),102(netdev),105(scanner),109(lpadmin),115(powerdev),117(admin),1001(vboxusers)

zxz@zxz-laptop:~$ id drivex
uid=1001(drivex) gid=1002(drivex) groupes=1002(drivex),4(adm),20(dialout),21(fax),24(cdrom),25(floppy),26(tape),29(audio),30(dip),46(plugdev),105(scanner),117(admin),119(fuse)

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

I just tested if the problem would appear with two USB mouse using the same InputDevice in xorg.conf on a Desktop computer and the problem doesn't appear.

It only appears when two different mouses are configured in xorg.conf, and as far as I tested the problem, it's always about synaptic touchpad.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Do you see any errors in /var/log/Xorg.0.log or dmesg output?
Proceed as following:
1. Just after being logged in as user zxz run the following command from a terminal:
   $ cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log ~/Xorg.0.log_zxz
2. Switch the user to drivex
3. $ sudo cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log /home/zxz/Xorg.0.log_drivex
4. Switch back to user zxz
5. $ LANG=C
   $ diff -ns ~/Xorg.0.log_zxz ~/Xorg.0.log_drivex > Xorg.0.log_diff-ns
   $ cp /var/log/dmesg ~/dmesg_boot
   $ dmesg > ~/dmesg
   $ diff -ns ~/dmesg_boot ~/dmesg > dmesg_diff-ns
6. Attach Xorg.0.log_zxz, Xorg.0.log_diff-ns, dmesg_boot and dmesg_diff-ns to the bug report.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

I have a basic understanding of the commands that you asked me to do so I just did what you told me to do and just be sure that there was no error during the procedure and that the commands used the good folders.

I just noticed that the mouse doesn't even work on the welcome screen after I change the session from the first user zxz to another user. the mouse ONLY works on the first session opened until that session is closed.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Changing the Title and Bug Description because multiple mouses isn't the source of the problem. The problem is the way Xorg manage synaptic.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

It's not clear to me: was it your touchpad or your usb bluetooth mouse that stopped working while doing the above dmesg and Xorg logs?
If I understand correctly if you logout and login again your mouse/touchpad stops working, is this right?

Please also provide a before and after log off /proc/bus/input/devices:
1. Just after being logged in as user zxz run the following command from a terminal:
   $ cat /proc/bus/input/devices ~/proc_bus_input_devices_zxz
2. Switch the user to drivex
3. Switch back to user zxz
4. $ LANG=C
   $ cat /proc/bus/input/devices ~/proc_bus_input_devices_tmp
   $ diff -ns ~/proc_bus_input_devices_zxz ~/proc_bus_input_devices_tmp > proc_bus_input_devices_diff-ns
5. Attach proc_bus_input_devices_zxz and proc_bus_input_devices_diff-ns to the bug report.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

No, the synaptic touchpad is the only problem. you can have two USB mouses and switch user session without loosing control of your mouses. But you can't switch user session with a synaptic touchpad because it will stop working until you get back to the user session you were in.

You can look at the description of the bug and test it on a laptop, I assure you that you will see the problem with a synaptic touchpad.

the cat commands didn't works saying that the file ~/proc_bus_input_devices_zxz doesn't exist, so I replaced the command for :

cat /proc/bus/input/devices | tee ~/proc_bus_input_devices_zxz

Hope that this will be OK..

diff didn't found any difference between ~/proc_bus_input_devices_zxz and ~/proc_bus_input_devices_tmp

But just look at the Xorg.0.log_diff-ns, there's two suspicious lines which I think that explain the problem :

Synaptics DeviceOff called
Synaptics DeviceOn called

These two lines should not be here, they show clearly that the Synaptics were turned Off just after the user switching, and turned On just after I came back to the zxz user session.

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

> But just look at the Xorg.0.log_diff-ns, there's two suspicious lines
I noticed these too.

Looks like a problem with the xorg synaptics driver to me, reassigning.
I'm afraid I'm not able to help you any further since I don't have a laptop.
It would be nice if somebody with a laptop could confirm your bug or tell it doesn't happen to them.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Yeah you're right.. Like I said, I tested this bug on 2 different laptop.

I can't find people to confirm the bug today, hope I will.

[Jen Ockwell (rj-ockwell)]

Just tried on my laptop and got the same

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

Actually this bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system.
Closing this bug as a duplicate of bug #60544, please add further comments in that bug report.

Mertiki, please add a comment to that bug report an attach your Xorg.0.log_diff-ns, since that file probably shows the problem.