Hey All,

So I've been having this problem with my Dell Latitude E6510 running OpenSuse 11.2. The mouse would (when my hand is not on the mouse) "jitter" around in one small area on the screen and then after any amount of time whether I was moving the mouse or not it would select things on its own. If I was moving the mouse at the time when it selects something by itself it would look like it was highlighting text. Also, say if I was typing in a window that was open and the mouse was not in that window it would select/open whatever the mouse was hovering over at that time.

The strange thing is that the interval between when the mouse would start "clicking" things on its own would seem long at first (say about 5 min between each click) to over the course of the work day it would get shorter and shorter to the point where it could happen every 5 to 10 seconds. Also, it would not happen everyday, very sporadic. Very very frustrating!!!

My laptop stays plugged into a Dell Docking Station, where the mouse and keyboard are plugged into as well. I tried every USB port on the docking station as well as the laptop itself, and that did not change a thing. I also tried selecting a different mouse in YaST's "Mouse Configuration" but that did nothing either. I've also tried restarting the computer with no luck either. I have also ruled out that it is not the surface the mouse is sitting on, because I have heard people say that if it is a rough surface it can cause the mouse to jump around the screen.

As mentioned above, It's a Dell Latitude E6510, running OpenSuSE 11.2 and Windows 7 on another partition. I've only been using the laptop since February when it was bought brand new. Also, looking for new drivers has found nothing on the Internet.

The mouse is a "Dell 6-Button Optical Mouse" specs are:
M/N: M-UAV-DEL8
D P/N: J660DL
L P/N: 810-000859
PID: LZ022B300DB

Laptop specs: (output of uname -a)
If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. It has gotten to the point where, when the problem starts it makes it almost impossible to get any work done. I do alot of programming work and when the problem starts I could be in the middle of coding something then look up and everything I just typed is now on the wrong line because that is where the mouse pointer happened to be sitting.

I apologize for the LONG message but I thought it be best to be as descriptive as possible.

Thanks in advance,
Matt



***Edited***
I forgot to mention that I also made sure that all "Assistive Technologies" are not turned on, including "Mouse Accessibility".

I'd sure slow dynamic acceleration, and damp it down. Also It's classic symptoms (with gpm) for using the wrong mouse type.

Hey business kid,

Thanks for the reply. Not really sure what you mean lol, kind of a newbie when it comes to Linux...

But I have now ruled out that it is not just the Dell mouse that I described in the original post.
I have now tried a "Logitech V220 Cordless Optical Mouse" and also a "Dell Tracking-ball Mouse M/N:M-UK DEL3" (simplest mouse I could find, two buttons and scroll-wheel), and these ones have produced the same problem as well.

Anyone think I could need to upgrade OpenSuSE to a new version??

Thanks,
Matt

Sorry. It's the touchpad, Right? Try the synaptics driver.

In your gui configuration stuff you will paobably find a section on the mouse, and in that you will probably find dynamic acceleration - it's to lengthen the mouse movement when you move a finger quick across it.

Hey, no sorry, it's the mouse. I rarely use the touchpad, because 95% of the time the laptop is plugged into a Dell docking station.
I have ruled out that the problem is with the mouse I am currently using because I have tried 3 mice total. The one I use all the time which is a wired Dell 6-button optical mouse, a wireless Logitech optical mouse, and then a wired Dell mouse with tracking-ball. And it has happened with all 3 mice.

But it is strange because it doesn't happen everyday, but when it does it is usually in the afternoon like after lunch... It's strange, I know...

Hey business kid,

After further googling all over the internet, your suggestion about the synaptics touchpad seems to be the issue.

I came across this post below, do you think you could take a look and tell me what you think?
http://forums.opensuse.org/hardware/...se-11-2-a.html


Thanks,
Matt

I also had a problem with this for slackware-13.1 and have some magic in /etc/hal/fdi/policy for it on my laptop. It's a thread here
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...13-1-a-831204/

1 members found this post helpful.

Business_Kid,

I just checked out your post with the link above, and saw that is was close to the same thing I just did on Monay.

I added this policy here /etc/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/99-synaptics.fdi

I had found the suggestion on another forum and thought to give it a try. I only did it on this past Monday afternoon and have not yet experienced the problem, and since it is such a sporadic problem I don't know yet if it has done anything at all but we'll have to wait and see.

Do you see anything wrong with the one I entered? Or do you think I should replace it with the one you showed (the xml file)??


Thanks,
Matt

I wouldn't have a clue which is better. The one I had came from slackware sources. There is a rule in these things which I would suggest you follow:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! :-)