running debian 7.7 and have strange mouse issue
 

I have a lenovo t410 and everytime I run a terminal window and click inside the terminal, the mouse buttons stop working until I exit the terminal using the exit command or alt-f4. certain programs seem to behave this way as well, I think because they are just front ends for a terminal based program.

Any idea's how to fix this?

What happens if you run:
and click inside the window?

Is the mouse click recognised?

Which Desktop Environment/Window Manager are you using?

Which terminal emulator are you using?

what desktop is this?
odd things can happen if Gnome3 has to FALL BACK to the emergency gnomeshell because gnome3 can not run on the hardware


if so
install KDE
and use kde desktop

As of this writing, I have tried ubuntu live on a thumb drive, Debian live xfce and debian live kde, and have reinstalled debian a couple of times on the laptop. It is dual boot and I have windows 7 installed as well. I have no mouse issues in Windows 7. The touchpad buttons do not work, but that is OK, I don't really use the touchpad (I think the buttons are replaceable)

In any event, in every installation I have tried thus far (EXCEPT FOR WINDOWS 7) the mouse buttons work initially, but soon stop working altogether. xev reports keyboard events, but does not report any mouse events once this happens.

Does the problem occur if you don't use any terminal-based applications at all?

If you switch to another TTY & then back (<Ctrl>+<Alt>+F2 then <Ctrl>+<Alt>+F7), does that restore the buttons?

Anything in the logs:
EDIT: When the buttons stop working, run `dmesg|tail` in a terminal and see if there is anything salient there.

Thanks, I didn't know where the logs were.

At first I thought it was just related to Gnome, which is why I installed debian xfce from the live cd (on a thumb drive) but when other distributions exhibited the same behavior, I began to think the problem is at a much lower level. There are many similar reports of mouse buttons not working, but the symptoms aren't always the same. Oddly enough, when I bring the laptop to work, the problem seems to be less. But I did experience it today. We will see what happens when I get home.

Strange. I started iceweasel, then had to do work related activity so I closed it (it's really slow today). then I opened it again and experience the problems with buttons not working. Your first suggestion of switching to another tty and back again did not work. But oddly, in the desktop where Iceweasel is started, the mouse buttons work.

Just started thunar and closed it and experienced the buttons not working. I'll post what dmesg is giving me.

xpapad.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/dealing-with-mouse-and-touchpad-freezes-in-linux/

This seems to help

Basically, you open up a terminal window and type the following two commands Needs root or sudo (in which case make sure the logged in user is in the sudoers file(-: ):

rmmod psmouse
modprobe psmouse

In my particular case, I have to keep the terminal window in a completely different window as the mouse problems affect the keyboard as well and <alt><tab> switching doesn't work. I hear a beep.

I will probably disable the touchpad as I never use it, I always have a wireless mouse. I also find that one of my fingers touches the touchpad and highlights all the previous text and the next keystroke deletes it. <ctrl> z restores it, but it is annoying.

Just thought anyone who is reading this in the future might want to know that disabling the touchpad and the ibm mouse button fixed the issue. I use a wireless mouse.