[bcm5974] Two-finger right-click no longer working

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen]

This is on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro, with the buttonless trackpad. You push down the trackpad to click; doing so with 2 fingers means right-click and using 3 fingers means middle-click.

The middle-click version stopped working during Precise alpha testing. Then, attempts to right-click made whatever scrollable pane I was looking at scroll down a bit (so that I would often click on the wrong thing), but only once; on second click the jump no longer happened. I have two-finger scrolling enabled.

But now, right-clicking using the trackpad no longer works at all. The only “mouse button” I have left is the left one.

Just on the off chance, I tried disabling two-finger scrolling; no joy.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+10ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-18.29-generic-pae 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: e56271c144a9c8f9f675c77e2e4edb56
CheckboxSystem: 7e42599bda39ea7ff8b528272b6ef52b
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,mousepoll,place,vpswitch,regex,animation,move,resize,gnomecompat,snap,grid,imgpng,unitymtgrabhandles,wall,session,workarounds,fade,resizeinfo,expo,scale,ezoom,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Sat Mar 17 12:09:31 2012
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2012-01-13 23:13:05.060884
DistroCodename: precise
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, whatever it takes to get this fixed in Ubuntu
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation C79 [GeForce 9400M] [10de:0863] (rev b1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:00ba]
MachineType: Apple Inc. MacBookPro5,4
ProcKernelCmdLine: root=UUID=e82d9a35-caee-4503-8594-8cd1eb26eec9 ro quiet splash
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UnitySupportTest:
 Error: command ['/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test', '-p', '-f'] failed with exit code 5: Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
 Error: GLX is not available on the system
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-14 (62 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/15/09
dmi.bios.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.bios.version: MBP53.88Z.00AC.B03.0906151647
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag#
dmi.board.name: Mac-F22587A1
dmi.board.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.board.version: MacBookPro5,4
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset Tag#
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Apple Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: Mac-F22587A1
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAppleInc.:bvrMBP53.88Z.00AC.B03.0906151647:bd06/15/09:svnAppleInc.:pnMacBookPro5,4:pvr1.0:rvnAppleInc.:rnMac-F22587A1:rvrMacBookPro5,4:cvnAppleInc.:ct10:cvrMac-F22587A1:
dmi.product.name: MacBookPro5,4
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Apple Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.7.0+bzr3035-0ubuntu1
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.30-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 8.0.1-0ubuntu4
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental 8.0.1-0ubuntu4
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 8.0.1-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.11.4-0ubuntu6
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev 1:2.7.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.99~git20111219.aacbd629-0ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2

[Rick Spencer (rick-rickspencer3)]

Jeroen, could you please reconfirm this is still happening to you? I notice that there are no duplicates or others affected by this bug. Perhaps it was transient. If it is still happening, please change the status back to New and subscribe Canonical Desktop Team.

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

I'm still having the problem. It worked temporarily when I ran “synclient ClickFinger3=2”. It's gone again when I reboot, which unfortunately is never very long without a working suspend.

Strangely enough, just once during this current session I saw right-click work. But when I tried again it no longer worked.

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

This time, “synclient ClickFinger3=2” gives me a working middle mouse button but still no right-click.

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

It gets weirder. After running that command, *most* attempts at mid-clicking work. Some come out as left clicks though, and one came out as a right-click just now.

Normally I'd suspect the trackpad hardware, but then why does two-fingered scrolling work?

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

Ah! I think I'm getting a handle on this. I think the right-click must have gotten more sensitive to movement during the attempt to click. Right-click works sometimes now, but I have to hold both my fingers really really still as I push down the trackpad.

This is compounded by another problem I've been having, where right-clicking in a scrollable pane (usually Nautilus or Chromium) causes the pane to scroll up by a certain, seemingly fixed distance just before the click takes effect. So I often end up right-clicking on the wrong link, wrong file etc. This happens even if I'm very careful to hold my fingers still, but it only happens once. If I right-click again in the same pane, even if there's plenty of room left to scroll, it doesn't jump again. Maybe this movement is also upsetting right-click attempts.

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

It seems to me that at least a part of the described problem (the part where multi-finger clicks stopped working) may be the intentional change in clickpad behavior as described in bug #941046

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Same issue on an HP Folio 13 (SynPS/2 Synaptics Touchpad) --> bug 1042779

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Jeroen,

I noticed two-finger-right-clicks now require both fingers to be very close together or will be ignored. Does that solve the problem for you?

[Jeroen T. Vermeulen (jtv)]

Yup, that works. Thanks!