In Ubuntu 15.04, simply moving the mouse via touchpad scrolls the window

[ubuntuplayer]

Version: Ubuntu 3.19.0-16.16-generic 3.19.3

(This is mostly a copy paste from here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/617117/in-ubuntu-15-04-simply-moving-the-mouse-via-touchpad-scrolls-the-window)

When I first boot everything works fine. But then something happens (not sure what triggers it) and many programs start scrolling just by moving the mouse over the window. So far I see this happens in Nautilus, Document Reader, Archive Manager, Ubuntu Software Center, Meld, and System Monitor (what do they all have in common, GTK?). It does NOT happen in web browsers, thunderbird, programs using Mono, Java, etc, for some reason.

To be more specific of the issue: if the mouse starting position is over a document in Document Reader, for example, and then I move the mouse via touchpad, it'll scroll the document like an anchor, where the position of the mouse over the document doesn't change (yet it scrolls). I have already tried disabling "two finger scroll", "disable while typing", and the "tap to click" options, but they made no difference (after the glitchiness starts).

The other odd case is that in Nautilus, if the mouse starting position is over a file or directory, it sometimes selects it instead of scrolling. Single-clicking a directory will open the directory (so the initial touch acts like a clicks, and letting go acts as the second click).

The only thing I can do to temporarily fix the problem is restart the computer. There are no issues when using a mouse.

Update 2015/05/03: I see how to reproduce it now. It appears to be a glitchy two-finger scroll issue. If you scroll any window with two fingers a lot, eventually it'll start causing this problem. Try various actions with two fingers, like "clicking" with two fingers, or scrolling in various directions quickly, etc, and it will start happening. It's interesting that it only happens in certain programs and not in others, which makes me wonder whether it is really a trackpad issue or some framework's issue. I can confirm that this is happening on the 15.04 Live CD, so this happens out of the box.

The only work-around for this issue is to disable two-finger scroll (if it's already glitchy you'll need to restart). Not sure if it matters, but I'm using the Dell XPS 13 2015 9343.

Update 2015/05/05: Apparently this bug can still happen even with two-finger scroll off, though it's more rare. Again, only certain programs have the issue, so it's hard to tell if it's a touchpad issue or something else.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: linux-image-3.19.0-16-generic 3.19.0-16.16
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-16.16-generic 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ephi 1857 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ephi 1857 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Tue May 12 22:06:46 2015
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=270ecec3-b78c-4f85-a337-acd54f5e0b0e
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-05-01 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet" - Release amd64 (20150422)
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:5682 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:216f Broadcom Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 010: ID 1d57:ac01 Xenta Wireless Receiver (Keyboard and Mouse)
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8001 Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9343
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-16-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=2bf488f3-23aa-4837-8f4d-861be61c94bc ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.19.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.19.0-16-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.143
SourcePackage: linux
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/25/2015
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A03
dmi.board.name: 0TM99H
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA03:bd03/25/2015:svnDellInc.:pnXPS139343:pvr01:rvnDellInc.:rn0TM99H:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: XPS 13 9343
dmi.product.version: 01
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Stefano Maffulli (smaffulli)]

I have restricted the bad behavior to XChat-gnome at this point. At least that's the most visible program where this issue becomes apparent. LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and Nautilus seem to respect the touch-to-click disabled in the Unity config panel.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.1 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.1-rc3-vivid/

[ubuntuplayer (ubuntuene)]

Hi Joseph, I tried both 4.1 rc2 and 4.1 rc3 only for a couple hours and did not experience the trackpad issue. However, I had to revert back to 3.19 due to too many issues, like the Broadcom wireless card not working, Virtualbox failing to load, and no sound, rending my system unusable for normal operation. Therefore I didn't have time to test more thoroughly. If someone else would like to give it a go that'd be great. For now I won't add any tags.

[raj sabharwal (raj-sabharwal)]

Facing exactly same issue on fresh installation. It effects most of the default Ubuntu applications like "Ubuntu Software Center", Nautilus, Gedit etc.

Occurs when the clickpad is "touched" (not tapped) i.e. removing finger and retouching it while moving mouse pointer over the window.

The work around of the "sticky scroll" is to keep sturdy touch on the clickpad without moving finger for a second and then moving. Moving finger off the clickpad and retouching it will make the issue reappear though.

Firefox, Chrome and Libreoffice remain unaffected though.

I am on:
15.04 64 bit Ubuntu
Acer E5-571-56UR

xinput for the clickpad is as under:

ELAN0501:00 04F3:300B UNKNOWN id=11 [slave pointer (2)]

[seth (gagelle)]

I don't know if its the same bug.

lI loaded Ubuntu 15.04 on to an older HP Pavilion. I'm noticing touchpad and keyboard instability. For example, I'll type a letter and it continues with that letter maybe 50 times. It just happened with the letter "p." It's as if I'm holding down the letter. Then, the touch pad is unstable. Sometimes the pointer moves on its own or won't move at all. It's extremely difficult to use the touch pad to scroll up or down. It just did it again with "p" pppppppppppppppppppppppppp. this is an example.

I'm a complete novice with Linux. My Notebook computer has an Intel Centrino Duo core processor T2400 1.83Ghz 2MbB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB. (Whatever that means) It has 2048MB system memory and a 120 GB hard drive with double layer support. I installed the proprietary Intel motherboard software. Was this a mistake? It runs very fast. Should I have used a different version of Ubutu? (The cursor just took off on its own putting in blank spaces.

[Achilleas Kotsis (akots)]

This is actually a bug, not a question.

The touchpad on Dell XPS 13 9343 sometimes behaves strangely on SOME applications (eg nautilus, evince etc), but NOT chromium for example. It produces clicks when being touched to move (nautilus), or drags the document instead of just moving the pointer (evince).

Disabling Tap to Click from unity-control-center actually doesn't resolve the issue, clicks are still being produced on affected applications

Workaround: Disable then re-enable the touchpad from unity-control-center, or run the following commands:

$ xinput set-prop "DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN" --type=int --format=8 "Device Enabled" 0
$ xinput set-prop "DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN" --type=int --format=8 "Device Enabled" 1

[Aram Loosman (contact-webfarmer)]

Same here also on Dell XPS 13 9343 with the A04 Bios Patch.
It is especially annoying in Nautilus and Shotwell, where every moving of the pointer will select anything under the pointer.
If you happen to be positioned over an separator (like the one which separates the tree view from the files view) the separator becomes sticked to the pointer and cannot be detached without workaround.

As a workaround I touch down on the touchpad with two fingers and lift one after, which wont cause the glitch.

[Franck971 (franck-lefebure)]

Hi. Same problem 100% time with fresh Ubuntu 15.04 EFI on Acer Aspire E15 E51
Very annoying with Nautilus (almost unusable)
Synaptics touchpad is very unstable with this laptop (also not detected at boot 50% time)
I'm planing to move from 15.04 due to these issues

[Данило Шеган (danilo)]

FWIW, I've tested mainline kernel 4.2rc3 and wasn't able to get to the point of reproducing the issue because it wouldn't even show the mouse pointer on my Dell XPS 13 9343.

This is the first backtrace I hit (it's then repeated): http://pastebin.ubuntu.com/11957795/

Disabling and re-enabling the touchpad as per Achilleas post above makes it work normally again.

[Zethan S (axonfifty)]

I also have this problem on my Dell XPS 13 9343. I have noticed it affecting nemo, nautilus, rhythmbox, and Ubuntu software centre, but not firefox or libreoffice. Perhaps it is a GTK 3+ issue? It seems to be that this only occurs after I wake from a suspend, and perhaps also when I wake from screen off.

[Zethan S (axonfifty)]

YO! As a temporary automated fix, you can add the command:

xinput set-prop "DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN" --type=int --format=8 "Device Enabled" && xinput set-prop "DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN" --type=int --format=8 "Device Enabled" 1

To the startup applications app in Ubuntu.

Thanx, Achilleas.

[Zethan S (axonfifty)]

Okay, so, ignore my previous claim it happens only after wake-up. As such, my fix is also not perfect, although it does prevent the problem for a time after login. I'm gonna put those commands onto keyboard shortcuts so they're easier to do.

[[e-mail] (marcostruji)]

I have the Dell XPS 13 2015 (Dev edition) and this annoying bug happends to me. I realize the problem only in Chrombe Beta (not in normal chrome) and appart of the mause problem I have the keyboard problem. Sometimes after press a key it continues like it was pressed until press another key.

I disable and enabled the mouse panel in the unity control center and the problem goes away. The workarround works at least

[Pascal Terjan (pterjan42)]

I have the same problem with 15.04 on a Thinkpad Carbon X1.

I found https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55821 and confirmed that rmmod psmouse + modprobe psmouse seem to fix it.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52496#c31 says it was fixed in recent versions of synaptics and point to the following commit for 1.7 branch: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-input-synaptics/commit/?h=synaptics-1.7-branch&id=bbaf4d646ebf4393a1ee0eb9bcc569054ed878f9

Could 15.04 get an update with that patch?

[Stephen Jones (sjones-y)]

Exactly the same experience as Franck971 - touchpad/mouse does not function

Hi. Same problem 100% time with fresh Ubuntu 15.04 EFI on Acer Aspire E15 E51
Very annoying with Nautilus (almost unusable)
Synaptics touchpad is very unstable with this laptop (also not detected at boot 50% time)
I'm planing to move from 15.04 due to these issues

[Joerg Mueller (joerg-mueller-7)]

Also affects me. Very annoying, mostly observable in Nautilus. (15.04 on Dell XPS 13).

[mvtlam (s-mvtlam)]

Also affects me on Dell XPS 13 2015 (Dev edition). Exactly the same problem

[Chris (qubitcoder)]

I can confirm this issue on my Dell XPS 13 9343 with BIOS A05 (non-developer edition).

[DashKay (5-ubuntu-m)]

Also affected by this, and I can also confirm that the solution in post #9 above works, at least temporarily. XPS 13 developer edition, 15.04.

[Kenan Gutić (kenan-gutic)]

Happend to me today, but on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. All updates installed.
Laptop is: Asus K53SD

[Lars Flæten (lars-flaeten)]

Same problem (for quite a while) on an Acer Aspire V 13, Ubuntu 15.04. Makes Nautilus++ almost completely unusable, QtCreator is also affected. Turning on and off the touchpad (Fn+F7, or through console or system settings) does not help. Restart helps, but the problem reoccurs every time after a little while. Does anyone know a fix to this?

[Jaydamis (lmisoyianisl)]

I'm on the XPS 13 Developer Edition on 14.04.

The touchpad seems to work fine in most everything but Chrome. This may be because I only notice because I mostly use Chrome.

My symptoms are:

Scrolling quickly does a "right click" (not a huge deal, and not really this issue).

Eventually... the screen acts as if the scroll or click is being held down. I move one finger on the touchpad and chrome was scrolling. If i move to the side first, then up and diagonal, i can actually move the mouse on the screen. If I move up / down only, it acts like its only scrolling.

Doing the disable / enable on the touchpad fixes the second symptom. (xinput set-prop ... mentioned above)

I'm using firefox now to post this, I haven't noticed this yet with that. I guess firefox will be my main browser for a bit, will post back if I experience the same on it.

What can I do to capture more information to help out?

[Ricardo (pietr007)]

same bug. a few observations: occurs with mint 17.3 on a dell xps. logging out sometimes will work, but not necessarily. agree that disabling the two-finger feature seems to make it happen less often, but doesn't prevent it

[Andrew (andrewkvalheim)]

I can confirm the behavior described in comment 25.

Dell XPS 13 9343 "Developer Edition" (BIOS revision A07)
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (pre-installed)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (daily build 13-Apr-2016)

[Ricardo (pietr007)]

Just to confirm #25, turning the touchpad on and off addresses the second issue, an alternative command being synclient TouchpadOff=1 and then 0

[Andrew (andrewkvalheim)]

A followup to comment 27—I contacted Dell about this and they immediately decided that it was likely to be a hardware issue. A Dell technician replaced the touchpad and that appears to have resolved the problem.

[Alex Chiang (achiang)]

Some workarounds have been posted here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/657258/chrome-two-finger-scroll-then-right-clicks

[Ricardo (pietr007)]

well, good news is that the bug went away when I installed mint sarah http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3038 . their release specifically talks about improvements to the trackpad.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[penalvch (penalvch)]

ubuntuplayer, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

As per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases your release is EOL.

If you have an issue in a supported release (ex. 16.04) please file a new report, and feel free to subscribe me to it.