Hi,

Title pretty much says it all. I'm running Xubuntu 11.10, and my mouse almost constantly drags, even when I am not holding down the mouse button. As soon as I click on something, it goes into "drag" mode, and I will have to click (or double click) somewhere else to get it to stop. This happens about 95 % of the time.

I tried changing the drag and drop threshold in the mouse settings both all the way up and all the way down, and it does nothing. From what I can see, there doesn't appear to be anything else in that section that might make a difference.


I have noticed this feature since I first started using Linux with Ubuntu 10.04 (and I HATE it), but it has never happened so frequently before. By the way, this is a brand new install so whatever is happening is coming from the default settings (which I find really incomprehensible).

Input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Have you tried a different mouse to rule out hardware failure, like possibly sticky contacts in the button?

I did not run into this when I was using Ubuntu (v. 8.04 through v. 11.04). It must be truly annoying.

Yes, it is! It's the single most annoying computer problem I've ever had--and I've had my fair share. Data loss and such may be more devastating, but nothing beats a screwy mouse for the annoyance factor.

Anyway, I have used different mice and experienced the same phenomenon, though not as frequently. It is possible that something with my current mouse is making it happen more often, but at the moment I do not have another one to switch it out with. I'll order one.

However, I have indeed noticed this in the past way back to my first use of Ubuntu, and I have always had the impression that it was not a glitch, but rather a deliberate "feature" that was programmed in to make it possible for people with certain disabilities to drag without holding down the mouse button. It didn't happen all the time (and I couldn't tell how it worked in order to control it, so to me it was unpredictable), but it really did seem like a deliberate thing and not a malfunction. I was sure it was something in the settings that I could turn off, but it never before bothered me quite enough to look up and find out how.

Obviously it has gone haywire now, though (and maybe something in my own mouse is making it more prominent), so getting rid of it has become crucial.

On a side note, Windows 7 has the very same setting, but in their case you have to purposely turn it on--one of the very few things I think they got right.

I think ordering a new mouse may help, but in the meantime, if anyone knows anything about how to turn off the setting that allows this mouse behavior in the first place, please, please tell me.

I did some googling for accessibility options in Ubuntu and, though nothing sounded precisely like what you're experiencing, there s something called mousetweaks whic sounds like it could do that. How you would go about sorting this I'm not sure but you could have a look for accesibility options or even try to ninstall mousetweaks if it's installed.
Something else which just occured -- is your mouse an odd shape or does it have lost of buttons? I ask because I'm wondering if you are catching two buttons that happen to be a shortcut for something like this.
The only time I've experienced someing like is is using a touchpad with fingers which aren't dry and so activate multitouch in some way.