Occasional random cursor movement while typing
Elmer E. Dow
few lines and I'll be entering text in the midst of text previously
entered. Sometimes I can't reproduce it, but this morning when typing
the word "we're" the cursor would jump up about three lines when I hit
the apostrophe (single quote " ' ") key. I deleted the text I
accidentally entered because of the problem, then retyped the word and
the cursor again jumped back to that same spot. It repeated three or for
times, then began to act normally.
It happened again typing this e-mail message. I was typing the word
"typing" and the cursor jumped up a couple of lines and started entering
text in the midst of the word "text."
What's happening here? My sleeve isn't touching the touchpad nor did I
bump the Trackpoint nor the mouse. I'm not accidentally hitting the
wrong key. The embedded 10-key pad isn't activated and the keys in
question aren't on that part of the keyboard anyway. The machine in
question is an IBM R40 laptop running Lenny. I have a triple-boot
system: two versions of Debian (I'm in Lenny now) and WinXP. I don't
r(it just jumped down the page two lines and to the left)ecall it
happening in XP, but I only use XP a few times per year. I think that it
happens in the other version of Debian (I think I've got Sarge there).
I'm assuming that this is not a keyboard issue. If it were, I would
think that the key would either enter properly or not, rather than enter
an improper character. Or is it a CPU going nuts? Is it (just did it
again when I typed the "t" in the previous word) a problem with X or a
the driver for the keyboard, mouse, etc.? This has been happening for
months. It's weird and frustrating. How can I diagnose this?
Elmer E. Dow
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Claudius Hubig
>How can I diagnose this?
Most important: Which text editor are you using? Does it also happen
in, say, nano (a terminal program) or in a web browser when entering
text in a form field?
Best regards,
Claudius Hubig
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green
> It's weird and frustrating.
Yes, quite.
> How can I diagnose this?
Also, do you know if it ever happens outside of X, at a text console? I have
had dbus cause some weirdness, but only outside of X. I doubt it will help,
but you could try stopping dbus for a while to see if it makes any difference.
Be sure to check that all dbus processes have been stopped with something like
"pgrep -l dbus".
John Jason Jordan
"Elmer E. Dow" <elme...@att.net> dijo:
>What's happening here? My sleeve isn't touching the touchpad nor did I
>bump the Trackpoint nor the mouse.
I was plagued with the same thing. I finally found relief when I went
into the BIOS and disabled the touchpad. I use a bluetooth mouse
normally, but I left the trackpoint enabled in the BIOS for just in
case the mouse batteries die or something.
I know you are sure you have not touched the touchpad, but just for
kicks and grins, disable the touchpad in the BIOS and see what happens.
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Doug
> On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:19:34 -0500
> "Elmer E. Dow"<elme...@att.net> dijo:
>
>> What's happening here? My sleeve isn't touching the touchpad nor did I
>> bump the Trackpoint nor the mouse.
> I was plagued with the same thing. I finally found relief when I went
> into the BIOS and disabled the touchpad. I use a bluetooth mouse
> normally, but I left the trackpoint enabled in the BIOS for just in
> case the mouse batteries die or something.
>
> I know you are sure you have not touched the touchpad, but just for
> kicks and grins, disable the touchpad in the BIOS and see what happens.
>
>
mouse is plugged in to the USB port. It's based around a synaptiks
package. I did not see the same thing in Debian Squeeze, altho there is
a setup that (supposedly) disables the touchpad while you are typing.
In a very quick look, I thought it didn't have enough delay to be really
useful. That is, the millisecond after you hit the last key, the pad is
active again. Perhaps there is a way to get that synaptics package into
Debian and use it. It works nicely--I'm using it right now. Since PcLOs
uses
KDE 4.4.5 (this version, anyway) and Debian uses Gnome, that may be why
the capability is missing.
--doug
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Doug
/snip/
> In PcLOs, there's a setup where you can disable the touchpad when a
> mouse is plugged in to the USB port. It's based around a synaptiks
> package. I did not see the same thing in Debian Squeeze, altho there is
> a setup that (supposedly) disables the touchpad while you are typing.
It works nicely--I'm using it right now. Since PcLOs
> uses > KDE 4.4.5 (this version, anyway) and Debian uses Gnome, that
may be why > the capability is missing.
> --doug
Sorry for the deception--I have both programs, as well as
Debian--on this laptop, and I thought I was writing from Linux.
Not from Debian tho. Its mail setup is ferblunget, and I haven't
gotten it to work. Why can't I have good old Thunderbird????
--doug
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A. M. Greeley
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Claudius Hubig
A pity it doesn’t happen with nano in a terminal, otherwise you would
have had the option to switch keyboards…Did you try choosing a
different keyboard layout in X?
You could also have a look at the output of “xev” when these keys are
pressed.
Best regards,
Claudius Hubig
PS: Please, please, learn to quote:
http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
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Elmer E. Dow
> On 9/10/2010 10:57 PM, Doug wrote:
> /snip/
>> In PcLOs, there's a setup where you can disable the touchpad when a
>> mouse is plugged in to the USB port. It's based around a synaptiks
>> package. I did not see the same thing in Debian Squeeze, altho there is
>> a setup that (supposedly) disables the touchpad while you are typing.
> /snip/
> It works nicely--I'm using it right now. Since PcLOs
>> uses > KDE 4.4.5 (this version, anyway) and Debian uses Gnome, that
> may be why > the capability is missing.
>> --doug
>
> Sorry for the deception--I have both programs, as well as
> Debian--on this laptop, and I thought I was writing from Linux.
> Not from Debian tho. Its mail setup is ferblunget, and I haven't
> gotten it to work. Why can't I have good old Thunderbird????
>
> --doug
also have been disconnecting the laser mouse in order to eliminate
another variable. Since I could reproduce the problem in some cases, I
have a hard time believing that I'm accidentally hitting the touchpad
with my hand while typing. My lower thumb joint is the closest and I'd
have to deliberately rotate my hands in an uncomfortable position in
order to touch it while my hands are in a keyboarding position.
I got a real scare when saving the new BIOS settings and rebooting.
When X started to load and I got the screen with the "x" cursor in the
middle, it stopped loading X. I could move the cursor with the
Trackpoint, but I wasn't getting a usable screen. I hit
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and got a console, then re-entered "startx" and it
loaded up just fine. I assume that X needed to re-evaluate the landscape
after having the BIOS change. The errors listed were:
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
(EE) Error compiling keymap (server 0)
(EE) XKB: Couldn't compile keymap
I hope that's the last that I'll see of that. Is there a config file
somewhere that I should edit?
By the way, I'm not currently using a gui login such as kdm, gdm or xdm.
The laptop just boots to a commandline, then I type "startx" and load
IceWM. Recently I've been test driving FluxBox.
I'll swap back and forth using the touchpad and see if I can figure out
exactly what's happening. It's working OK now, but I'm skeptical that
the simplest answer is the correct one.
Thanks for your help.
Elmer E. Dow
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Elmer E. Dow
far, no problems. We'll see how long this lasts.
Elmer E. Dow
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Bob Proulx
> When typing on my laptop, occasionally my cursor will skip back (up)
> a few lines and I'll be entering text in the midst of text
> What's happening here? My sleeve isn't touching the touchpad nor did
> I bump the Trackpoint nor the mouse. I'm not accidentally hitting
I am confident it is the touchpad. I have the same problem.
Disabling the touchpad will avoid the problem. Personally I did not
want to unconditionally disable the touchpad. I would use it more if
it were not for that annoying behavior.
The syndaemon gives me great relief and results.
$ apt-cache show xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
* It also provides a daemon to disable touchpad while typing at
the keyboard and thus avoid unwanted mouse movements (see
syndaemon(1)).
It detects keyboard activity and for a configurable time disables the
touchpad. When idle is detected it enables the touchpad.
I launch it like this (in my ~/.xsession file, but you would need more
than this there).
syndaemon -i 20 -K -p $HOME/var/run/syndaemon.pid -d
Bob
Nicolas BERCHER
Did you try (if possible) to disable your touchpad? If this is not
possible, try an external USB/PS2 keayboard and type "we're" ;-)
My MSI Wind behaves the same because of the touchpad: it becomes really
sensible as it gets warmer, after a tens of minutes. When disabled all
is ok.
Nicolas
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Bob Proulx
> <html>
Ouch! Since I struggled through reading it I will quote more of the
original message here for the rest of us.
> Bob Proulx wrote:
> > I am confident it is the touchpad. I have the same problem.
> Can't access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
> A little research resulted in my finding instructions to add the
> following to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in order to enable SHMConfig:
> Section "InputClass"
> Identifier "enable synaptics SHMConfig"
> MatchIsTouchpad "on"
> MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
> Driver "synaptics"
> Option "SHMConfig" "on"
> EndSection
Oh, yes, I had forgotten about the need to do that.
> In typing the above, I discovered what's happening!!!!!
>
> The cursor jumped again as I was typing the "t" in "little." I tried to
> replicate what I was doing and discovered that it's not the touchpad
> that I'm touching but the left clicker key situated in front of the
> touchpad. The return spring under that key has become weak and mushy
> over seven or eight years of almost daily service. As I reach to strike
> the "r" and "t" keys I sometimes brush the clicker key with the bottom
> of the lower thumb knuckle of the left hand. When that happens, the
> cursor jumps to wherever the mouse pointer happens to be and enters
> the character there.
>
> I need to be careful to keep my left hand farther above the keys while
> typing. It would also be helpful to replace the spring under the left
> clicker key. (This diagnosis also explains why the problem has grown
> worse with age.)
>
> Thanks to all for your patience and advice.
I am glad to hear that you have resolved the problem! (And maybe
someone else will find the syndaemon information useful anyway.)
Bob