UI elements sporadically not clickable

stephan333 · 02-12-2019, 11:56 AM

Hi,

for a long I'm struggling against some odd problems.
A lot of UI elements are not clickable any more. For example, Chrome doesn't allow to activate tabs by clicking on it, but I can close the zab by clicking the cross.
The icons in the Gnome dock are not clickable anymore.Sometimes, richt mouse click is not possible anymore. In Gimp, some UI windows are missing borders and some tabs can not be activated. Chrome is navigating to the previous page (I hope not now when I'm writing this entry).
S
This list can be extended...

Sometimes it helps doing the following:

pressing CTRL + ALT + F3 to temporarily switch to a virtual console

Pull out mouse receiver temporarily

ALT + F2, then "r" key, ENTER

Press Windows key twice

I tried the following to solve the issues:

A few months ago I switched from Ubuntu to Manjaro (Arch), because I thought the problem was the distribution.
I tested the RAM and connected a cord mouse.

But nothing helped. I even don't know where to start looking to solve the problem (Software like Driver, distribution? Maybe it is the hardware like graphics card or mainboard). I think this problem is getting worse.

Anybody there to help?

Regards
Stephan

My system:

NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] (rev a2)
Mainboard: ASUS - M5A99X EVO R2.0
CPU: AMD FX-4300 Quad-Core
OS: Manjaro 17.1.12 (Kernel: 4.14.91-1-MANJARO)

sevendogsbsd · 02-12-2019, 12:04 PM

When you changed distros, did you retain your user's /home or do a completely clean install to include user's /home? I ask because you may have some settings in your /home that are breaking Gnome. Do you have any addons (or whatever they are called) that you use? Could very well be one of them is not compatible with the version you are running.

Just guesses on my part as I haven't used Gnome 3 in some time but the times I did, the crashes I got were typically from 3rd party themes or addons.

stephan333 · 02-12-2019, 12:13 PM

Thank you for the quick reply.
This is really a valid question. I started with a blank home partition.
Then I copied a lot of stuff a long time ago.
The next I will try is to create a second account.

Several months ago I tried KDE with Ubuntu. There were also some problems like hovers without containing text.
I remember that I experienced the empty hovers in a Gimp not long ago. It helped to hover over another button and then hover over tha first button.
Then the text content appeared. When I tried KDE Plasma a few months ago this didn't help. The hovers didn't appear, or better, the hovers appeared, but without text.

stephan333 · 02-12-2019, 01:04 PM

Now I did the following steps, without success:

Upgrade Kernel from 4.14 to 4.20
Create a fresh user and test

ondoho · 02-13-2019, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephan333

Sometimes it helps doing the following:

pressing CTRL + ALT + F3 to temporarily switch to a virtual console

Pull out mouse receiver temporarily

ALT + F2, then "r" key, ENTER

Press Windows key twice

that is some serious voodoo.

have you tried if it's better with a wired mouse?
or a different mouse?
or a different usb port?

stephan333 · 02-13-2019, 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

that is some serious voodoo.

have you tried if it's better with a wired mouse?
or a different mouse?
or a different usb port?

Yes, I tried with a Cord Mouse on a different port, I even switched the Monitor.

For better understanding my configuration:

Code:

System:    Host: stephan-pc Kernel: 4.4.167-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.2.1 Desktop: Gnome 3.30.2 
           Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A99X EVO R2.0 v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 2501 
           date: 04/03/2014 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD FX-4300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 30512 
           Speed: 1400 MHz min/max: 1400/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1400 2: 1400 3: 1400 4: 1800 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.3 driver: nouveau resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
           OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 7.0 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 18.3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 
           Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.4.167-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK P8 series driver: r8168 
           v: 8.045.08-NAPI port: d000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Ralink RT2870/RT3070 Wireless Adapter type: USB driver: rt2800usb bus ID: 3-5.3:5 
           IF: wlp0s18f2u5u3 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: docker0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 584.86 GiB (20.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EARS-00Y5B1 size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM048-2E7172 size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZRX-00A8LB0 size: 931.51 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 911.79 GiB used: 221.81 GiB (24.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /home size: 911.79 GiB used: 221.81 GiB (24.3%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 19.53 GiB used: 158.3 MiB (0.8%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 24.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 40 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 gpu: nouveau fan: 1020 
Info:      Processes: 336 Uptime: 3h 31m Memory: 15.42 GiB used: 8.22 GiB (53.3%) Init: systemd Compilers: gcc: 8.2.1 
           Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 inxi: 3.0.28

I think it might be a driver problem oder some components (mainboard, graphics card) are either broken or not compatible with linux. But it would be helpful to know what component is the culprit.

sevendogsbsd · 02-13-2019, 07:13 AM

I would venture to guess it is Gnome and not your hardware. You mentioned you installed Kubuntu and had a issue with balloon popup text but you didn't say the lack of "clickability" was present.

Have you tried any other desktop, like Xfce4? Just as an experiment to see if the behavior is the same with that mouse. Are you using the same mouse (corded)?

Gnome is tremendously finicky, especially with addons and themes. I have always had stability issues with Gnome, which is one of the many reasons I stopped using it. Not saying definitively that is your problem, but testing the same mouse in different environments and getting the same result would indicate the hardware is at fault.

stephan333 · 02-13-2019, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

I would venture to guess it is Gnome and not your hardware. You mentioned you installed Kubuntu and had a issue with balloon popup text but you didn't say the lack of "clickability" was present.

Have you tried any other desktop, like Xfce4? Just as an experiment to see if the behavior is the same with that mouse. Are you using the same mouse (corded)?

Gnome is tremendously finicky, especially with addons and themes. I have always had stability issues with Gnome, which is one of the many reasons I stopped using it. Not saying definitively that is your problem, but testing the same mouse in different environments and getting the same result would indicate the hardware is at fault.

I can check some desktops.
I changed the mouse and connected one with cord, same problem.

sevendogsbsd · 02-13-2019, 07:23 AM

So different hardware and same problem in Gnome? The problem in KDE is unrelated so I wouldn't focus on that.

ondoho · 02-13-2019, 02:46 PM

possibly gnome is not happy with the nouveau driver.

sevendogsbsd · 02-13-2019, 02:49 PM

Gnome is generally not happy with anything in my experience

ondoho · 02-13-2019, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sevendogsbsd

Gnome is generally not happy with anything in my experience

https://www.sudosatirical.com/articl...t-says-gnomes/
(scnr)