Xfce Forum

rayray

Member

Registered: 2025-05-27

Posts: 1

XFWM Causing Bizzare Mouse Behaviour

I'm having a strange issue with my mouse pointer when using XFCE on Xorg with XFWM. It's hard to describe, but intermittently the mouse behaves "slippery", as if there is some form of mouse acceleration being turned on and off.

The issue occurs regardless of what mouse I am using. I have disabled mouse pointer acceleration using xinput. I have messed with the mouse settings for hours using xinput and the XFCE mouse settings GUI, and the DPI of the mouse. I have ruled out these as potential causes.

I'm fairly certain the issue is with XFWM display compositing, but I just can't determine exactly what causes it or why. Here are some factors that lead me to believe this:

The issue occurs only when using XFCE on Xorg with XFWM. When using XFCE on Wayland with labwc, the issue is resolved entirely. I have other issues with XFCE on Wayland, so this is not really an option for me.

With display compositing disabled, the mouse issue happens intermittently, usually when switching between windows. It is resolved when clicking on the desktop, and sometimes returns when switching between windows using the alt+tab hotkey. I can't always reproduce it, which is frustrating.

With compositing enabled, the mouse issue happens except almost always EXCEPT when using certain applications (Pinta, for example).

With compositing enabled, the mouse does not occur when dragging selection boxes on the desktop. Otherwise, it occurs consistently.

UPDATE: Partial fix
I am using a 144hz monitor, which is contributing to the issue.

I disabled TearFree for my GPU (AMD) in my Xorg config, and disabled V-sync (vblank_mode) in xmwm4. With these settings, the mouse issue is fixed, even with xmwm4 display compositing enabled. This isn't ideal, but is a partial fix for now.

Command used to disable vblank:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/vblank_mode -s off

Config file to disable TearFree for AMD GPU:

Within /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "AMD Graphics"
   Driver      "amdgpu"
   Option      "TearFree"  "false"
EndSection

Edit 2:
It appears to happen again even with the above settings changed. If the monitor is set to 60Hz when Xorg/XFCE/XFWM is started, then the monitor is set to 144Hz in the settings, the issue returns (even with TearFree and vBlank disabled). This can be fixed if Xorg/XFCE/XFWM is restarted.

Last edited by rayray (2025-05-27 19:47:26)