mouse cursor erratic behavior

vonbiber · 09-14-2022, 07:45 AM

The mouse cursor moves on its own and all over the place.
It's really annoying. While I am editing in vi and ready
to 'x' or 'cw' it positions itself somewhere else.
When I watch a video (full screen), once in a while the
cursor (or hand) reappears.

I use a Lenovo T480s laptop and slackware15 64-bit.

This is what xfce settings shows for the mouse and touchpad:
device Elan Touchpad
Elan Trackpad

I was wondering if there was a way to temporarily
disable the mouse while I am on a console, or
watching a video.

dhalliwe · 09-14-2022, 08:17 AM

To me, that sounds like a touchpad issue, not a mouse issue. Are you by any chance accidentally making contact with the touchpad while typing?

If you go into xfce settings (Applications, Settings, Settings Manager) there is a "Mouse and Touchpad" item. I'm on a desktop with no touchpad, so I can't see what it offers for a touchpad, but you might be able to turn the touchpad off (leaving the mouse active).

camorri · 09-14-2022, 08:21 AM

You could try flsynclient, its on SBo. I use it on several laptops to turn off their use. I prefer an external mouse, and have had all kinds of problems with eratic mouse pointer behaviour.

I do not any think pads, however, I had several when I worked for Big Blue. The pecker button can cause pointer drift as they age. I don't know if flsynclient will work with the brand of track pad you have though.

dhalliwe · 09-14-2022, 08:21 AM

If the touchpad is your only way of controlling a "mouse", you may have options to adjust the sensitivity to taps and gestures.

I hate laptop keyboards and touchpads, so I always use an external mouse and keyboard whenever I can.

vonbiber · 09-15-2022, 01:06 AM

I don't use much the touchpad.
When I have to move the cursor I use the red thingy
in the middle of the keyboard.
I never liked the mouse. I use the keyboard as much as I can.

@dhalliwe

Quote:

To me, that sounds like a touchpad issue, not a mouse issue. Are you by any chance accidentally making contact with the touchpad while typing?
If you go into xfce settings

That happens even when I'm not typing or away from
the keyboard (watching a video full screen for instance).
I've been to the xfce settings for the mouse already.
But there isn't much there. I tried to change the sensitivity
but the problem still persists.

@camorri

Quote:

You could try flsynclient

I didn't find flsynclient on slackbuilds.com
Do you have a link to the source?

SW64 · 09-15-2022, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhalliwe

If you go into xfce settings (Applications, Settings, Settings Manager) there is a "Mouse and Touchpad" item. I'm on a desktop with no touchpad, so I can't see what it offers for a touchpad, but you might be able to turn the touchpad off (leaving the mouse active).

Hmm. There is a slide button in that setting that I was able to disable and enable my mouse with. Thanks for the tip! If any of you did the same without a second mouse as I did, it's Tabbing until the slide button is highlighted and then hit the spacebar to reactivate the mouse.

vonbiber, try this.

Find your touchpad's ID number with 'xinput list' in a terminal.
Go to Settings Manager/Keyboard/'Application Shortcuts' Tab.
Map 'xinput --disable x' to Super-m.
Map 'xinput --enable x' to Super-Shift-m.

Replace the x with the touchpad's ID number. Super is where the Windows key would be. I randomly picked 'm' because it was empty in Super and 'm' is the first letter of mouse. If 't' for touchpad make more sense to you, 't' is empty on mine too.

Disclaimer, I do not know if the mouse/touchpad will retain the same ID number after several reboots.

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/mouse

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-set...tion_shortcuts

camorri · 09-15-2022, 06:10 AM

Well, it looks like flsynclient is not there for 15.0 but is for 14.2.

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...ch=flsynclient

Strange, it was there when I made my first post in this thread. In fact I have it installed on 2 laptops running 15.0.

No idea why it has been removed.

kjhambrick · 09-15-2022, 06:53 AM

Yes, it was removed from 15.0 and 14.2 on 07'Feb 2022 by willysr

Below is the revision history of the flSynclient.SlackBuild

-- kjh

note that removed packages are pounded-out in my SBo gitlog files

Code:

# get log output for /dld/15.0/slackbuilds/15.0
# command /dld/15.0/slackbuilds/.gen-GitLog.sh -w -a
# rundate Sat Sep 10 05:21:50 CDT 2022
#
# LastCommit          | Category | Package      | Remarks                                  | CommitId                                 | Author
# 2022-02-07 23:57:57 | system   | flSynclient  | Removed (no maintainer).                 | be9306e089935d1a41a02e04d1166a88bc423cba | Willy Sudiarto Raharjo <willysr@slackbuilds.org>
# 2015-02-23 19:11:12 | system   | flSynclient  | Updated DOWNLOAD and HOMEPAGE url.       | 8f4eeb0e2957e9df7bc780f01c94bbf6001601de | Willy Sudiarto Raharjo <willysr@slackbuilds.org>
# 2012-08-22 21:34:09 | system   | flSynclient  | Fixed dep information                    | f93f3d5f623c95cc5f53503031322d8390937c5b | ponce <matteo.bernardini@gmail.com>
# 2010-08-24 00:28:09 | system   | flSynclient  | Added (graphical frontend for synclient) | 79131597cb797f0f254bfe7cf0ad4544b8a9d91b | Steven Pledger <spledger91@yahoo.com>