Mouse issue

[John Ettedgui]

On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 11:17 PM, Peter Hutterer
<peter.hutterer at who-t.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 05:10:47PM -0700, John Ettedgui wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 6:22 PM, Peter Hutterer
>> <peter.hutterer at who-t.net> wrote:
>> > On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 05:02:46PM -0800, John Ettedgui wrote:
>> >> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 4:46 PM, Peter Hutterer
>> >> <peter.hutterer at who-t.net> wrote:
>> >> > On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 10:57:48AM -0800, John Ettedgui wrote:
>> >> >> Hello everyone,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I have had a small issue for some time with my mouse and need some help :)
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Basically sometimes, something bad happens (what?) and then the mouse
>> >> >> keeps the focus on one application.
>> >> >> For example if I am in Firefox and the mouse works there, I cannot
>> >> >> click on anything in the task bar, or even if I alt-tab to konsole the
>> >> >> mouse will not work there. If I right click in the console, it will
>> >> >> behave the same way as if I was right clicking in Firefox.
>> >> >> One "temp fix" is to right click in the application, then right click
>> >> >> in the systray on the same application then I can click on another
>> >> >> application and so on...
>> >> >> This issue is usually fixed by reinstall Xorg's evdev and then restarting Xorg.
>> >> >
>> >> > this is almost certainly a stuck grab. If FF has an active grab, no other
>> >> > application can receive pointer events for the duration of the grab.
>> >> > You don't actually need to reinstall, usually restarting X is enough. In
>> >> > fact, making the FF window unviewable will break the grab too (e.g.
>> >> > minimising it)
>> >> >
>> >> > This may be an application issue or an issue with the server. To figure out
>> >> > what exactly happens, we'd need a reproducible test case - stuck grabs are
>> >> > notoriously tricky to debug.
>> >> >
>> >> > Cheers,
>> >> >  Peter
>> >> >
>> >> Hello Peter,
>> >>
>> >> in the past I believe just restarting Xorg was not enough, but I'll
>> >> try that again next time and see.
>> >>
>> >> What do you mean by reproducible? Since this *seems* random it is
>> >> quite hard for me to offer any repro.
>> >
>> > Usually, with stuck grabs we need to have a look at the protocol stream when
>> > the grab activates and the events afterwards. That can then be compared
>> > against the same stream from an older X server release that didn't exhibit
>> > this problem to figure out what changed. Since the protocol stream results
>> > in thousands of lines of output even for a short duration of the app, having
>> > it run for ages often isn't an option. Also, monitoring the protocol slows
>> > the application down, sometimes resulting in the bug not appearing when you
>> > monitor the app.
>> >
>> > So we need you to help us find a way how to reproduce the issue reliably.
>> > Since it is a grab, it's likely caused by a popup or dropdown menu or
>> > even scrolling. If you take more attention to your actions in the next few
>> > days, you might be able to recognise a pattern that triggers the bug. Then
>> > you can start poking at FF to intentionally reproduce it.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> >  Peter
>> >
>>
>> So I still don't know what I did, but I got that problem  yesterday as
>> soon as Xorg was started, with only KDE and Konsole started.
>> To fix it I really had to reinstall evdev a simple restart of Xorg would not do.
>
> I really really wonder what could cause you to have to reinstall evdev.
> Evdev doesn't write any files, so there's no reason it should be different
> the second time round.
>
>> Do you think that could be more of a distribution issue? I run Arch
>> Linux, but I don't have that issue on another Arch Linux box...
>
> It could be a device issue actually. Have you tried using the same device on
> the other box?
>
> Cheers,
>  Peter
>


Replying quite a bit late, I have done various investigations in the past:

- You were right and it had nothing to do with reinstalling evdev,
just restarting Xorg would do it, it's weird that it did not work in
my last reply,
- I have the same issue with a different wired mouse,
- I use KDE 4 and removed all its config file in case it was related but no go,
- I tried copy pasting the mouse part of Xorg.conf from my other
computer which has no issue to that one, again no go.
- I have been using an other OS (Windows) on the same computer many
hours and did not ever get this issue.

I am out of ideas of things to try...
Maybe I should compare all the software installed on both computers
and see the difference (software versions should be the same).


Thanks,
John