[Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

JRG · 2014-03-10 18:34:20

When I move a window by left-clicking on the title-bar and holding the mouse button down, the behaviour is hard for me to control.

Specifically, the impression I get is of using a slingshot. When I stop moving the mouse, the window continues to move before coming to rest — almost as if it had momentum and all I'm doing with the click-and-drag is giving it shove (and friction causes it to come to rest).

I have described it this way because I don't know what this effect is called. Maybe I don't like the effect because I'm no longer a young man, but I suspect I would never have liked it. I've gone through settings and changed most of the parameters to suit my likes (and dislikes smile ), but I cannot find anywhere to turn this effect off.

I've done Internet searches, searched the topics in this forum and done a "search" of the forum — nothing. Perhaps the problem is not knowing the technical term for this behaviour.

Can anyone tell me how to stop this behaviour?
_________________

Distribution: SolydX (201401) — which is the latest release. Reported by SysInfo as "SolydXK 1 (testing)".
Kernel: 3.11-2-amd64
GCC Version: 4.8 (x86.64-linux-gnu)
Memory: 4 GB
Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (Dual core, 800 MHz)
Xfce: 4.10 (as reported by "About Xfce")

ToZ · 2014-03-11 02:12:08

Xfce doesn't have this kind of effect. A few things come to mind that might be causing this:

1. Compiz effects. Have you installed and do you have compiz running? It might come with such an effect.

2. Runaway process. Run "top" in a terminal window and see if you have some process running that it using 100% of the processor. This might be a delay due to limited processing time available for window management.

3. Video driver. What video card do you have and what driver is installed? This command should help:

lspci -k | grep -iA2 VGA

JRG · 2014-03-13 23:41:15

Because of a problem (Firefox + Java - not handling Java plugin), I reverted to 'Linux Mint 16 ("Petra") Xfce 64-bit'. A side effect was that this problem "went away". I'm going to mark this solved (a bit of a misnomer, but...).

The problem occurred under SolydX (Debian-based).

Thank you for replying and attempting to help. I'll come back to this post if I retry SolydX in the future (I really liked it, but the Firefox problem was critical for me).

Blue Whale · 2015-09-07 21:09:58

Hi,

I have installed Debian + XFCE on a Dell inspiron 1150 laptop and I am getting exactly the same "backlash" when a window is dragged as reported by JRG. The movement is very jerky, and if you move the mouse at high speed there is a significant gap between the mouse pointer and the window. Interestingly, when dragging a file within File Manager, there does not appear to be a backlash - but this may be just because the icon being dragged is so small?

I have played with the various mouse settings in Settings Manager to no effect, and I have disabled the touchpad. I do not have compiz running. If I run top in a terminal and drag the window, Xorg cpu usage changes from below 1% to about 10%. That leaves the video card driver as suggested by ToZ:

~ # lspci -k | grep -iA2 VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 017f
	Kernel driver in use: i915

In case it helps, when I run dmesg I get irq handler error messages like

[drm:i8xx_irqhandler] *ERROR* pipe B underrun

Finally, when I boot the laptop, I do see messages like "invalid processor speed" flash by, but I have not found these in the logs. Perhaps you could let me know which log to look at - I have installed gnome-log-viewer.

Many thanks for any light you can shed on this annoying behaviour!

ToZ · 2015-09-07 22:13:02

Can you post back your xfwm4 configuration settings? The easiest way is:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -lv

Other things to try:
1. Try with composting disabled (Settings Manager > Window Manager Tweaks > Compositing)
2. Try hiding the contents of the windows when moving them (Settings Manager > Window Manager > Advanced tab)

"invalid processor speed"

This doesn't look good. Everything okay with/in your bios?

Blue Whale · 2015-09-08 12:18:48

The xwm4 config produced this result:

~ # xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -1v
Failed to init libxfconf: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken..

I have checked that the network is connection is OK : Dillo gets me to the internet, and I can ssh from my desktop to the laptop.

Disabling compositing had no effect. Hiding contents stops the backlash.

The bios settings look OK to me. There is an option to carry out thorough hardware checks in the bios at boot. The reboot was slow, but nothing was reported at boot. However I did locate the invalid processor message in dmesg:

~ # dmesg
[   10.180588] ACPI Warning: \_PR_.CPU0._PSS: SubPackage[2,3] - suspicious power dissipation values (20140424/nsrepair2-717)
[   10.180623] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency found for processor 0: 0x5305004e MHz
[   10.180731] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency found for processor 0: 0x4c4c4544 MHz
[   10.180825] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency found for processor 0: 0x0 MHz
[   10.180914] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency found for processor 0: 0x0 MHz
[   10.181000] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: Invalid BIOS _PSS frequency found for processor 0: 0x0 MHz
[   10.221242] dcdbas dcdbas: Dell Systems Management Base Driver (version 5.6.0-3.2)
[   10.504953] Adding 739324k swap on /dev/sda6.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:739324k FS
[   10.567507] snd_intel8x0 0000:00:1f.5: intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 58329 usecs (2810 samples)
[   10.567516] snd_intel8x0 0000:00:1f.5: clocking to 48000

Oh by the way its Debian Jessie, and the processor is Intel Celeron 2.40GHz - just in case its relevant.

Many thanks for your interest in this!

ToZ · 2015-09-08 12:55:03

Blue Whale wrote:

The xwm4 config produced this result:

~ # xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -1v
Failed to init libxfconf: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken..

This is worrisome. Is xfconfd running:

ps -ef | grep xfconfd

...and if not, try starting it up. If your system is 64-bit, it will be located at /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd and if its 32-bit, it should be at /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd (just guessing here - don't have a 32-bit system to check).

You might also consider clearing your sessions cache in case something is corrupted in there.To do so:
1. Log out
2. Go to your first tty (Ctrl+Alt+F1)
3. Log in to the text console
4. Execute:

cd .cache
rm -rf sessions

5. Go back to your gui tty (Ctrl+Alt+f7)
6. Log in and check to see if its any different. Also make sure that xfconfd is running.

As for the bios warnings, have you checked to see if there is a new bios available for your computer? Are you overclocking the CPU?

Blue Whale · 2015-09-08 20:18:02

It seems that xfconfd is located where you thought and is running:

~ # ps -ef | grep xfconfd
geoff      869     1  0 16:19 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
root      1007  1005  0 16:20 pts/0    00:00:00 grep xfconfd

I have cleared the session cache and checked xfconfd is running. There is still backlash on moving a window and on resizing. When I switch off displaying window contents for both of these, there is no discernible backlash.

I have also tried moving a large block of selected text inside Mousepad. The pointer is replaced by quite a large icon made by cropping the text, and there is no backlash. Also I am dual booting with Windows xp, and there is no backlash there.

Regarding the bios, I have not attempted to overclock. I have checked my bios version - there is no option to adjust processor frequency. The last update released by Dell is the same as mine (no issues fixed) plus features to do with large monitors and wireless that I don't use.

Is this a possible problem with GTK+ dragging in xfce and should I report this as a bug? It is only happening on the desktop and not inside applications. I have tried further searches on the web, but there seems no clear definition of the phenomenon. I will manage with switching off display of window content on the laptop for now. I am planning to upgrade my desktop soon to Debian Jessie + xfce, but will continue working at this. Please let me know if you have any further ideas, and again many thanks for your help so far.

ToZ · 2015-09-08 20:32:35

Blue Whale wrote:

It seems that xfconfd is located where you thought and is running:

~ # ps -ef | grep xfconfd
geoff      869     1  0 16:19 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
root      1007  1005  0 16:20 pts/0    00:00:00 grep xfconfd

It appears as though you are root in the terminal window. This would explain why the previous command didn't work. Go back to your regular user account and run:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -lv

...you should get a response.

When I switch off displaying window contents for both of these, there is no discernible backlash.

Then in all likelihood, its because of your video card. The Inspiron 1150 is an old notebook, is it not? Perhaps its just not capable of performing some of these functions well. At least hiding the window contents help.

How much ram does this notebook have:

free -m

Regarding the bios, I have not attempted to overclock. I have checked my bios version - there is no option to adjust processor frequency. The last update released by Dell is the same as mine (no issues fixed) plus features to do with large monitors and wireless that I don't use.

Okay. I thought that maybe a bios update would help.

Is this a possible problem with GTK+ dragging in xfce and should I report this as a bug? It is only happening on the desktop and not inside applications. I have tried further searches on the web, but there seems no clear definition of the phenomenon. I will manage with switching off display of window content on the laptop for now. I am planning to upgrade my desktop soon to Debian Jessie + xfce, but will continue working at this. Please let me know if you have any further ideas, and again many thanks for your help so far.

I'm not convinced that its a gtk problem. What is your system load?

uptime

MountainDewManiac · 2015-09-08 22:19:11

Did someone say, "Old laptop," lol? What are your CPU temperatures? Are the fans working? When is the last time you disassembled the thing to clean it? I haven't taken a lot of laptops apart, but every one that I did looked so bad I was surprised it was still functioning at all.

If your CPU is running too hot - but not so hot that your BIOS forces an emergency shutdown - it probably won't increase in speed/frequency when the system requests it. I would guess that, if it's stuck at 800mHz (or close to it), you'll have symptoms like you're seeing. Therefore, IF your laptop turns out to be reasonably clean inside (which I doubt, just based on the odds, from seeing others that were in even pretty clean environments), the heatpipes are clean, you aren't using it on a surface such as a bed that will cause the bottom vents to be blocked, and the fan(s) is(/are) functioning properly (including, if applicable varying their speeds on command/demand), ... Check to see whether or not your CPU is throttling up/down properly. Try adjusting it manually - when you set it to 2gHz (for example) and use the laptop for a while, is it still at 2gHz when you check it? I had to install a separate thing to be able to manually control it (in the GUI), because the "CPU Frequency Monitor" panel applet that is available in Xfce is only capable of monitoring the CPU's frequency - not changing it.

EDIT: The error message you received about incorrect CPU speed or whatever it was causes me to wonder if, for whatever reason, your system is not sending the correct command that your hardware requires to change its CPU frequency.

Regards,
MDM

Last edited by MountainDewManiac (2015-09-08 22:20:51)

Blue Whale · 2015-09-09 16:33:08

The corrected xfwm4 configuration:

geoff@debian-laptop:~$ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -lv
/general/activate_action                 bring
/general/borderless_maximize             true
/general/box_move                        true
/general/box_resize                      true
/general/button_layout                   O|SHMC
/general/button_offset                   0
/general/button_spacing                  0
/general/click_to_focus                  true
/general/cycle_apps_only                 false
/general/cycle_draw_frame                true
/general/cycle_hidden                    true
/general/cycle_minimum                   true
/general/cycle_workspaces                false
/general/double_click_action             maximize
/general/double_click_distance           5
/general/double_click_time               250
/general/easy_click                      Alt
/general/focus_delay                     250
/general/focus_hint                      true
/general/focus_new                       true
/general/frame_opacity                   100
/general/full_width_title                true
/general/inactive_opacity                100
/general/maximized_offset                0
/general/mousewheel_rollup               true
/general/move_opacity                    98
/general/placement_mode                  center
/general/placement_ratio                 20
/general/popup_opacity                   100
/general/prevent_focus_stealing          false
/general/raise_delay                     5
/general/raise_on_click                  true
/general/raise_on_focus                  false
/general/raise_with_any_button           true
/general/repeat_urgent_blink             false
/general/resize_opacity                  100
/general/restore_on_move                 true
/general/scroll_workspaces               true
/general/shadow_delta_height             0
/general/shadow_delta_width              0
/general/shadow_delta_x                  0
/general/shadow_delta_y                  -3
/general/shadow_opacity                  50
/general/show_app_icon                   false
/general/show_dock_shadow                true
/general/show_frame_shadow               false
/general/show_popup_shadow               false
/general/snap_resist                     false
/general/snap_to_border                  true
/general/snap_to_windows                 false
/general/snap_width                      5
/general/theme                           Kokodi
/general/tile_on_move                    true
/general/title_alignment                 center
/general/title_font                      Sans Bold 9
/general/title_horizontal_offset         0
/general/title_shadow_active             false
/general/title_shadow_inactive           false
/general/title_vertical_offset_active    0
/general/title_vertical_offset_inactive  0
/general/toggle_workspaces               false
/general/unredirect_overlays             true
/general/urgent_blink                    false
/general/use_compositing                 false
/general/workspace_count                 4
/general/workspace_names                 <<UNSUPPORTED>>
/general/wrap_cycle                      true
/general/wrap_layout                     true
/general/wrap_resistance                 5
/general/wrap_windows                    false
/general/wrap_workspaces                 false

The laptop has 1G memory, and the two users are myself and root:

geoff@debian-laptop:~$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          1006        354        652         42         40        198
-/+ buffers/cache:        114        891
Swap:          721          0        721

geoff@debian-laptop:~$ uptime
 16:38:25 up  1:10,  2 users,  load average: 0.05, 0.11, 0.12

Responding to the useful comments from MDM, I have run a Dell systems check from the Windows side and no problems are reported (and windows dragging is fine). The temperature is 53.5 Celsius according to the Sensors viewer applet (acpitz-0). The fans do vary speed according to load. I have opened all the panels on the laptop and to my surprise, no dust. Mind you, the laptop does not travel much and sits on my desk.

sami · 2019-05-22 07:44:54

@JRG
I am facing the same problem with XFCE.
When I drag a window with mouse I can see the lag.
Is there any fix for this issue?

Sami

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2014-03-10 18:34:20

[Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#2 2014-03-11 02:12:08

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#3 2014-03-13 23:41:15

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#4 2015-09-07 21:09:58

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#5 2015-09-07 22:13:02

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#6 2015-09-08 12:18:48

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#7 2015-09-08 12:55:03

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#8 2015-09-08 20:18:02

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#9 2015-09-08 20:32:35

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#10 2015-09-08 22:19:11

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#11 2015-09-09 16:33:08

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

#12 2019-05-22 07:44:54

Re: [Solved] Window does not follow mouse-pointer when dragging

Board footer