right corner sticky

nixIT · 2011-05-20 01:10:03

Hello all,

New to XFCE, using Arch64. I'm learning it, however, there is one thing that I can't figure out. when i roll my mouse to the lower right hand corner of the screen, the pointer seems to get stuck for a couple seconds. this is the only corner that does this.

I can't figure out what's going on.

Any ideas?

--nixIT

Nick · 2011-05-20 06:15:50

Highly unlikely this is related to Xfce, maybe clean your mouse ;-).

nixIT · 2011-05-20 13:06:54

I cleaned my trackball as the first thing, but it's only the lower right corner, of the screen. I can boot to my windows partition and this doesn't happen, so it's not the mouse.

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-21 16:36:02

The question that naturally arises is -- what resides in the lower right corner of your screen? Is there a panel down there? Is there a notification area down there? If you don't see a panel down there, try right-clicking in the trouble spot to see if a Properties dialog is available.

nixIT · 2011-05-21 21:40:25

There is nothing visible down there, and when I right click and hit properties, it just brings up the desktop properties dialog.

it's weird.

GS · 2011-05-21 21:50:45

Yeah, that is weird.

Have you tried creating another user account, logging on to that new account, and seeing if the same behavior occurs?

nixIT · 2011-05-22 00:46:45

I have not. I will try that.

I do have a panel on the bottom middle of the screen. I use it as a quick launch and have only 4 things on it.

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-22 03:56:49

Once you create the new user account -- if you do not see the same behavior -- you might try applying the same desktop environment customizations to it as you applied to your primary user account. But only apply them one-at-a-time, and test after each change is applied. Maybe that will help you pinpoint just what is causing the problem, assuming it's caused by a setting in the environment.

However, if you *do* see the same behavior on the new account (without having applied any customizations), then that will take your investigation along a different path. What that path will be I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough to suggest.

nixIT · 2011-05-22 11:02:34

@GS,

Thank you for replying. I logged in with the *gasp* root account, since it was already create and noticed the same behavior.

I am getting ready to boot into a live Xubuntu CD, since I don't see this behavior on hardware at work running Xubuntu. I will report back once I boot up.

--nixIT

UPDATE: Just booted up with a Xubuntu live CD and the lower right hand corner was not "sticky", it was normal.

I'm at a loss for what it could be.

Last edited by nixIT (2011-05-22 11:33:21)

GS · 2011-05-22 11:56:45

I'm beginning to think this is a problem with X (probably a matter of its configuration on your installation, but also possibly a bug) and not at all related to Xfce. It might (or might not) be interesting to install a second DE to see if the problem occurs within it, though you might understandably be reluctant to add a bunch of packages to an already-ailing system for purposes of troubleshooting.

BTW, I'm curious as to why you have the system set up so that you can log on to the GUI as root. Did you make the necessary changes to the system before or after you saw this problem? I haven't used Arch before, so don't know if this is a very unusual configuration.

nixIT · 2011-05-22 14:35:09

@GS,

It's a fresh install of Arch and Xfce, not sure how to disable root login at gui, but I will get there. I am thinking about installing gnome to see if it happens.

I appreciate your help, I got no responses in the Arch forums.

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-22 19:57:57

nixIT wrote:

I appreciate your help, I got no responses in the Arch forums.

Well, shucks. I might be wrong about this, but I'd think it more likely that you'd be able to get help on this from the distro forum than from here.

I use Xfce on Debian testing and haven't seen any reports like this in the debian-user newsgroup -- or anywhere else, for that matter.

I'ts interesting that a Live CD of Arch doesn't exhibit the problem but a fresh installation to the system does.

Sorry I couldn't be of any real help, but I'll watch this space with interest to see if you turn up anything.

stqn · 2011-05-22 20:59:42

I saw your post on the Arch forum but have no idea what it could be. No such problem here. Have you tried running top to see if something pops up when you move your mouse pointer to that corner?

nixIT · 2011-05-22 23:16:21

when running TOP, I notice that when I move my cursor to the lower right corner and attempt to move it away, the command X with user "root" jumps to the top of the list, then X will work it's way back down in the process stack.

nixIT · 2011-05-24 21:05:20

Any ideas based off the TOP findings?

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-24 21:53:42

nixIT wrote:

Any ideas based off the TOP findings?
--nixIT

Well, here's the thing. If I start top on any of my systems, I'm going to see Xorg at the top of the list. I think what really counts here is that I'm seeing Xorg consuming about 0.5-1.7% of CPU, and that isn't going to cause the type of problem you're reporting. So you probably need to tell us the %CPU figure from top -- what it starts at, and what it dwindles to. I guess it's possible that the memory use figure might be of use, too.

I said earlier that it sounded as though this might be an X issue, but I'm not convinced yet that this is really the case. We have to remember, too, that drivers can do really weird things. I have, myself, seen truly bizarre behaviors on my one system that has an Nvidia Quadro Pro card in it. Those problems only happened when I was running the proprietary driver. That happened under Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and Debian (an earlier installation -- this installation not ever having seen a single piece of proprietary firmware or software). Once I switched to Open Source drivers (nv, vesa, nouveau -- over time) I never saw those sorts of quirky and unexplainable behaviors again. The Open Source drivers -- at least for me -- seem to work really well or not at all. And they're much easier to troubleshoot and fix when something does go wrong. (I should point out that some people love the proprietary drivers and won't use anything else. Perhaps that has something to do with the different mixes of hardware in our systems.)

Anyway, I'm still in the dark. And I'm pretty sure I'm not being very helpful to you -- at least not so far.

nixIT · 2011-05-24 22:11:17

%CPU when X jumps to the top is anywhere from 30-60, and then when my mouse is released from it's prison, %CPU for X jumps back down to 1.

I have an ATI 5770 1gig card with proprietary drivers, and this has crossed my mind, which is why I'm considering installing Xubuntu and the proprietary drivers to see if I get the same results. I know it's alot of work, but it's been an annoying thorn in my side.

--nixIT

ps. With the short time I've been running XFCE, I LOVE it, and should have moved over to it a while ago.

stqn · 2011-05-24 23:01:40

My thoughts are:
- do you have anything installed that should do something when you move your mouse to a corner of the screen? For example the scale option of Compiz (Configuring Compiz.)
- is there a panel widget or something else in this corner?

nixIT · 2011-05-24 23:23:18

@stqn

Have not installed compiz, and as far as I know, there is no panel widget installed in the corner.

I have a panel at the top of my screen with the application menu and application switcher, and panel at the bottom center that serves as a "quick launch" area. Panel 2 (the one on the bottom) has a width of 10%

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-25 00:27:04

nixIT wrote:

%CPU when X jumps to the top is anywhere from 30-60, and then when my mouse is released from it's prison, %CPU for X jumps back down to 1.
I have an ATI 5770 1gig card with proprietary drivers, and this has crossed my mind, which is why I'm considering installing Xubuntu and the proprietary drivers to see if I get the same results. I know it's alot of work, but it's been an annoying thorn in my side.
--nixIT
ps. With the short time I've been running XFCE, I LOVE it, and should have moved over to it a while ago.

Yeah, 30-60% is definitely not normal from my experience. Down in the range of 1% is much more like it. If you can figure out what is causing Xorg to behave that way you may have your answer.

Are you saying that you're considering installing Xubuntu with proprietary or NON-proprietary driver? I'd suggest trying NON-proprietary drivers before going for proprietary ones -- assuming that's workable for your system and for you. If I understand the issues correctly, the non-proprietary drivers can be expected to have a more easily understood interaction with the rest of the system. The closed source drivers can interact in unexpected ways as the system is upgraded and reconfigured over time. That has most certainly been my experience.

The built-in compositing in Xfce is sufficient for me. I haven't fiddled with Compiz or Beryl since a set of systems with Ubuntu installations, quite some time ago. I'm repeatedly amazed at how pleasant, efficient, and productive the Xfce environment is.

I'll be hanging in here, hoping to see you find a solution.

nixIT · 2011-05-25 01:04:51

Well, the thinking for me was to install Xubuntu, and see how it runs, then install the proprietary drivers to see what happens.

I would like to have the proprietary drivers installed for the few games I play (WoW and Rift). And as for desktop effects, I'm cool with what XFCE has to offer.

I'm not sure how to test the X with Arch and XFCE. if there is a way to test that, I'm good.

--nixIT

stqn · 2011-05-25 01:21:04

You could use oprofile to see what exactly is slowing things down.
This might be helpful too: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/294972
Or that: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/HighCPU (linked from the previous page)

nixIT · 2011-05-25 01:29:13

interesting...

when I run glxinfo, I get the following:

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color,

this is the first time I've seen the "GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color," line. is that normal?

--nixIT

GS · 2011-05-25 12:32:16

I'm thinking that troubleshooting rundown at the Ubuntu wiki linked by stqn looks like it's your best shot at diagnosing this issue. It will take some time and patience, but it will probably give you a decent idea of the cause. My bet's on the driver having an unfortunate issue with the system, but I believe (mind you, I'm no expert) that the output from glxinfo was correct.

Xero · 2011-05-28 20:41:55

I had this sticky pointer problem with ATI Catalyst 11.5 driver. With 11.4 (fglrx-driver from the package manager) the problem has disappeared.
(Radeon HD 2400 XT + Linux Mint Debian)

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#1 2011-05-20 01:10:03

right corner sticky

#2 2011-05-20 06:15:50

Re: right corner sticky

#3 2011-05-20 13:06:54

Re: right corner sticky

#4 2011-05-21 16:36:02

Re: right corner sticky

#5 2011-05-21 21:40:25

Re: right corner sticky

#6 2011-05-21 21:50:45

Re: right corner sticky

#7 2011-05-22 00:46:45

Re: right corner sticky

#8 2011-05-22 03:56:49

Re: right corner sticky

#9 2011-05-22 11:02:34

Re: right corner sticky

#10 2011-05-22 11:56:45

Re: right corner sticky

#11 2011-05-22 14:35:09

Re: right corner sticky

#12 2011-05-22 19:57:57

Re: right corner sticky

#13 2011-05-22 20:59:42

Re: right corner sticky

#14 2011-05-22 23:16:21

Re: right corner sticky

#15 2011-05-24 21:05:20

Re: right corner sticky

#16 2011-05-24 21:53:42

Re: right corner sticky

#17 2011-05-24 22:11:17

Re: right corner sticky

#18 2011-05-24 23:01:40

Re: right corner sticky

#19 2011-05-24 23:23:18

Re: right corner sticky

#20 2011-05-25 00:27:04

Re: right corner sticky

#21 2011-05-25 01:04:51

Re: right corner sticky

#22 2011-05-25 01:21:04

Re: right corner sticky

#23 2011-05-25 01:29:13

Re: right corner sticky

#24 2011-05-25 12:32:16

Re: right corner sticky

#25 2011-05-28 20:41:55

Re: right corner sticky

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