Annoying mouse problem

MTK358 · 02-14-2010, 09:48 AM

Every once in a while when I move my mouse the cursor gets all screwed up. I tried to take a screenshot but the screenshot showed it normal!

Anyway, it looks like you would have taken a 4 pixel high section from the top portion of the cursor and stacked 16 of these 4 pixel high images on top of each other.

Funny thing is that the cursor actually changes (i.e. like when over text) but always looks chopped up like that.

The mouse is quite difficult to use like this, but sometimes it just goes back to normal semmingly at random. Sadly, if it doesn't fix itself, the only way to fix it is to kill X, along with everything I had running.

amani · 02-14-2010, 10:27 AM

post relevant part of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and versions of relevant X packages

MTK358 · 02-14-2010, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

post relevant part of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and versions of relevant X packages

I don't really understand.

GrapefruiTgirl · 02-14-2010, 12:32 PM

He wants to see anything particularly interesting from your Xorg log file, as well as know what versions of the (many!) X packages you are using, such as video driver, X server version, and I dunno what else; there are a lot of X packages on an average system.

To me, it sounds like a driver bug or an X bug, which is leading to either A) mouse cursor artifacts, or B) extremely high system load which is lagging down the updating of the mouse cursor properly.

Does the whole system seem to slow down when this starts happening, and/or are any other applications showing signs of weirdness? Or is this totally 100% limited to "weird mouse cursor and that's all"?

Sasha

MTK358 · 02-14-2010, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrapefruiTgirl

He wants to see anything particularly interesting from your Xorg log file, as well as know what versions of the (many!) X packages you are using, such as video driver, X server version, and I dunno what else; there are a lot of X packages on an average system.

Code:

$ pacman -Qs xorg
local/xf86-input-evdev 2.3.2-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.org evdev input driver
local/xf86-input-keyboard 1.4.0-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.Org keyboard input driver
local/xf86-input-mouse 1.5.0-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.org mouse input driver
local/xf86-video-ati 6.12.4-3 (xorg-video-drivers)
    X.org ati video driver
local/xf86-video-radeonhd 1.3.0-1 (xorg-video-drivers)
    Experimental Radeon HD video driver for r500 and r600 ATI cards
local/xf86-video-vesa 2.2.1-1 (xorg xorg-video-drivers)
    X.org vesa video driver
local/xorg-apps 7.5-3
    Various X.Org applications
local/xorg-docs 1.5-1 (xorg)
    X.org documentations
local/xorg-font-utils 7.5-2
    X.Org font utilities
local/xorg-fonts-100dpi 1.0.1-2 (xorg)
    X.org 100dpi fonts
local/xorg-fonts-75dpi 1.0.1-2 (xorg)
    X.org 75dpi fonts
local/xorg-fonts-alias 1.0.2-1
    X.org font alias files
local/xorg-fonts-encodings 1.0.3-1
    X.org font encoding files
local/xorg-fonts-misc 1.0.0-4
    X.org misc fonts
local/xorg-res-utils 1.0.3-3 (xorg)
    X.Org X11 resource utilities
local/xorg-server 1.7.4.901-1 (xorg)
    X.Org X servers
local/xorg-server-utils 7.5-3 (xorg)
    X.Org utilities required by xorg-server
local/xorg-twm 1.0.4-3 (xorg)
    Tab Window Manager for the X Window System
local/xorg-utils 7.5-1 (xorg)
    Collection of client utilities used to query the X server
local/xorg-xauth 1.0.4-1
    X.Org authorization settings program
local/xorg-xinit 1.2.0-1 (xorg)
    X.Org initialisation program
local/xorg-xkb-utils 7.5-2
    X.org keyboard utilities
local/xterm 255-1 (xorg)
    X Terminal Emulator
$ pacman -Qs xf86
local/libxxf86dga 1.1.1-1
    X11 Direct Graphics Access extension library
local/libxxf86misc 1.0.2-1
    X11 XFree86 miscellaneous extension library
local/libxxf86vm 1.1.0-1
    X11 XFree86 video mode extension library
local/xf86-input-evdev 2.3.2-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.org evdev input driver
local/xf86-input-keyboard 1.4.0-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.Org keyboard input driver
local/xf86-input-mouse 1.5.0-1 (xorg-input-drivers)
    X.org mouse input driver
local/xf86-video-ati 6.12.4-3 (xorg-video-drivers)
    X.org ati video driver
local/xf86-video-radeonhd 1.3.0-1 (xorg-video-drivers)
    Experimental Radeon HD video driver for r500 and r600 ATI cards
local/xf86-video-vesa 2.2.1-1 (xorg xorg-video-drivers)
    X.org vesa video driver
local/xf86dgaproto 2.1-1
    X11 Direct Graphics Access extension wire protocol
local/xf86miscproto 0.9.3-1
    X11 XFree86-Miscellaneous extension wire protocol
local/xf86vidmodeproto 2.3-1
    X11 Video Mode extension wire protocol

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrapefruiTgirl

Does the whole system seem to slow down when this starts happening, and/or are any other applications showing signs of weirdness? Or is this totally 100% limited to "weird mouse cursor and that's all"?

No, it's just "weird mouse cursor and that's all".

EDIT: I am using the xf86-video-ati driver with an ATI Radeon HD 4580 chipset.

MTK358 · 03-15-2010, 08:10 AM

It just happened again!

I really wish there was a way to take a screenshot of it, but the cursor turns out normal in screenshots. So I recreated the effect using the GIMP and added a little explanation.

Also note that it's not just the arrow. If it's the link cursor, it will also look like 16 4-pixel tall slices off the link cursor, etc.

And note that the slices are 4 pixels tall but as wide as the whole cursor, not 4 pixels wide.

EDIT: it just got worse! Now the cursor turns into a green-purple rainbow square with alternating colored and transparent stripes in one monitor!

jamescondron · 03-15-2010, 08:18 AM

Any chance of the Xorg.<instance>.log?

MTK358 · 03-15-2010, 08:19 AM

Here it is:

jamescondron · 03-15-2010, 08:22 AM

Top line of the Logs:

Quote:

This is a pre-release version of the X server from The X.Org Foundation.
It is not supported in any way.
Bugs may be filed in the bugzilla at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/.
Select the "xorg" product for bugs you find in this release.
Before reporting bugs in pre-release versions please check the
latest version in the X.Org Foundation git repository.
See http://wiki.x.org/wiki/GitPage for git access instructions.

What happens if you use the stable version?

MTK358 · 03-15-2010, 08:29 AM

How do I install the stable version using pacman?

Also, this occurence is very rare, so it might take a very long time to find out if it helped.

And do you have any idea about why this happened, unsupported X server or not?

jamescondron · 03-15-2010, 08:32 AM

No, but there have been a few occurrences over the last few days of this version of X causing the odd problem; I can't be certain that this is the cause at all, truth be told, but its a very good jumping off point. Don't know about pacman, does pacman use package masking at any point? Can you specify a version number?

Having never used it, I couldn't tell you.

MTK358 · 03-15-2010, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamescondron

No, but there have been a few occurrences over the last few days of this version of X causing the odd problem; I can't be certain that this is the cause at all, truth be told, but its a very good jumping off point.

What does that mean? Where did what problem happen?

Also, a maybe unrelated question, how do you set the cursor theme without GNOME or KDE?

I am asking this because I would like to have a different cursor theme and I don't know how, and also maybe it will somehow fix this problem temporarily to change the cursors?

jamescondron · 03-15-2010, 08:42 AM

I can't remember the threads off the top off my head, but there have certainly been a few this week where rolling back to a stable version of X has solved problems similar to this.

And the cursor theme depends on what you're using the cursor in

MTK358 · 03-15-2010, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamescondron

And the cursor theme depends on what you're using the cursor in

What does that mean?

I just want to be able to set the cursor theme, the way GNOME or KDE would.

jamescondron · 03-15-2010, 08:50 AM

In what though? XDM? Enlightenment? Fluxbox? CDE? JDE? XFCE?

I don't know which one you're using.