Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

Sakura · 2010-06-08 22:22:39

I thought that this would be one of the problems that you could live with, but you wouldn't believe how annoying this is. For example, while randomly on the internet instead of opening one link, a couple dozen are opened instead. Or, while switching between tabs, a tab closes because a middle click was fired off in that instant while hovering over the tab. This also means that middle-click pasting can produce some embarrassing results.

I've read the wiki and found nothing on the problem. However, interestingly enough there are two threads on the Archlinux Forums that document my exact problem: here and here. One of them narrows down the problem because I'm using GNOME and this problem exists in KDE as well. So, we can rule out window managers. I suspect it's something with my xorg.conf, but I'm not really sure. Here it is, anyway:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder58)  Fri Mar 12 02:12:40 PST 2010


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "NoLogo" "true"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "true"
    Option         "AGPFastWrite" "true"
    Option         "EnablePageFlip" "true"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Looking at the manual for Xorg it appears that I should have a working configuration. Specifically:

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "boolean"
        Enable/disable the emulation of the third (middle) mouse button for mice which only have two physical buttons. 
        The third button is emulated by pressing both buttons simultaneously. Default: off

I'm 100% sure I'm not clicking the two buttons simultaneously. Anyone have any suggestions for this baffling problem? Unfortunately, due to the nature of this issue it might take a while to test any potential solutions.

Thanks in advance!

MickST · 2010-06-08 22:33:45

I'm having the same issue here and I agree it's really annoying.

Some time ago I created a thread about it, but didn't reach any solution; give it a try if you want to try a Synaptics policy that appears in one of the posts: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95370

Other than that, let's hope that someone know more about it.

EDIT: By the way, my xorg.conf file is almost empty, I only have in there some settings for the graphics card:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver     "nvidia"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option     "NoLogo"                   "True"
    Option     "BackingStore"             "True"
    Option     "TripleBuffer"             "True"
    Option     "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"
EndSection

Last edited by MickST (2010-06-08 22:36:14)

kazuo · 2010-06-08 22:45:25

Uhh, something related happens to me. I have a AlpsPS Glidepoint touchpad (use the synaptics driver) when I close the lid, and open again the mouse start to send not only middle clicks but left and right and move by itself! Its ghostly and very annoying! But only happens after a close/open lid.

But in my case this is solved removing the psmouse kernel module and loading it again (needs some seconds between removing and putting back so X can get what happened).

What I did is make acpid remove the module when the lid is closed and put it back when is open.

Last edited by kazuo (2010-06-08 22:48:06)

Sakura · 2010-06-08 23:19:33

I find it fascinating that so many people have similar issues. Never knew that this problem and its flavours were so persistent.

kazuo wrote:

But in my case this is solved removing the psmouse kernel module and loading it again (needs some seconds between removing and putting back so X can get what happened).

I have tried removing/reloading the psmouse kernel module but to no avail.

anrxc · 2010-06-09 00:28:12

Another thread dealing with this, http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95599 and you are right this is incredibly annoying. I had to buy a mouse, imagine that crap. The amount of compromises you do with Linux desktop is rising more and more. What is this, the decade of bad design?

Last edited by anrxc (2010-06-09 00:29:50)

aaha · 2010-07-26 15:27:59

An easy solution if you don't use the middlet button is disable it with this command

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 0 3"

b4d · 2010-08-04 11:26:46

Same thing here, I was almost certain I've spilled something over my touchpad, but now I see it was not the case...

hellnest · 2010-12-25 09:46:35

aaha wrote:

An easy solution if you don't use the middlet button is disable it with this command
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 0 3"

First sorry for bumping out old thread..

But this is useful and worked. Thanks to you

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-08 22:22:39

Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#2 2010-06-08 22:33:45

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#3 2010-06-08 22:45:25

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#4 2010-06-08 23:19:33

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#5 2010-06-09 00:28:12

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#6 2010-07-26 15:27:59

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#7 2010-08-04 11:26:46

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

#8 2010-12-25 09:46:35

Re: Middle click firing off randomly on touchpad.

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