USB Mouse and Keyboard Sporatic Operation

[Bill541]

My Linux Mint installation has been working fine for months in my Desktop machine. Earlier this week, the mouse has started missing position updates so skips across the screen making it really difficult to click on icons. At the same time, the keyboard misses keystrokes. Both of these devices are hard wired USB. I had not done any system updates or loaded new software in months so not sure why this has started happening. This is a dual boot machine and I booted into windows where mouse and keyboard operation is normal, so it is not a hardware issue.

To troubleshoot the problem, I updated the Mint installation but the problem persists. I have been searching these forums for similar reports and one reported something similar and was fixed by downgrading the kernel. So I downgraded the kernel several revisions and still no fix. I then upgraded the system back to the latest, still no fix. Then I noticed if I fire up the Firefox browser and play a youtube video or visit a webpage that has an animated ad, the mouse and keyboard behave normal again. If I close the browser and only have the desktop running, the mouse and keyboard problems return. I have no idea how best to troubleshoot the problem further. The following is the system information from System Reports. Any suggestions for troubleshooting this further would be appreciated!

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.15.0-48-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 wm: marco 
           dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MICRO-STAR model: 785GM-E65 (MS-7596) v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2.12 date: 02/18/2011 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: AMD Athlon II X2 250 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10 rev: 2 
           L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm bogomips: 12000 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1800 2: 3000 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD RS880 [Radeon HD 4200] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: radeon v: kernel 
           bus ID: 01:05.0 chip ID: 1002:9710 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           compositor: marco resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD RS880 (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.15.0-48-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1002:4383 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.15.0-48-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: d800 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 596.17 GiB used: 142.43 GiB (23.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD6400AAKS-65A7B2 size: 596.17 GiB 
           speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 122.62 GiB used: 21.92 GiB (17.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-1: 4-1:2 info: Logitech M105 Optical Mouse type: Mouse 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c077 
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-2: 5-2:2 info: Logitech DeLuxe 250 Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 046d:c312 
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Hub: 7-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:      Processes: 187 Uptime: 1h 13m Memory: 3.59 GiB used: 1.42 GiB (39.5%) Init: systemd 
           v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38 
           

Thanks, Bill

[Bill541]

Update:
I'm also able to get the mouse and keyboard to work correctly if I play a video with the Celluloid application. This is without the browser even running. I then fired up the command line terminal and ran the "top" command. I noticed that when I either play a video or run the browser with some sort of animation that a command called "pulseau+" shows up in the top list and when this occurs, the mouse and keyboard work correctly. When I close the browser or when a Celluloid video stops playing, the "pulseau+" command disappears from the top list and the erratic mouse and keyboard behavior returns. Hmmm

Thanks again for any help! -Bill

[MiZoG]

My guess: Experiment with the available compositors (Mate Tweaks)
It's a shame but Mate has the worst default wm+comp performance among all (relevant) Linux desktops.
Back in the day, I was happy with Compton.
I tested latest Ubuntu Mate LTS for a short while and Compton was not included any longer.
No clue about the available options on 20.3. 19.3 was the last version of LM Mate I ever installed.

[Bill541]

Update:
Still searching for a fix. If I open the Sound App and select the input TAB in the Sound Preference window, the mouse and keyboard work fine. If I go to any other tab in the sound preferences window, "pulseau+" drops off of the list in the terminal running "top" command and the mouse and keyboard problems return. My wife has the same exact machine as I do and runs the same Linux Mint MATE. We have not upgraded her machine in ~ 6 months and it is not having these issues. At this point I don't know what else to try outside of a full re-installation or trying a different windows manager as MiZoG suggests.

[hglee]

My guess: Experiment with the available compositors (Mate Tweaks)
...
I tested latest Ubuntu Mate LTS for a short while and Compton was not included any longer.
No clue about the available options on 20.3. 19.3 was the last version of LM Mate I ever installed.

LM20 has Compton, but it has been dropped in LM21. Compton is long unmaintained.


In Mint 20 MATE, the default is Marco (Adaptive compositor), with the other Tweak utility options:

Marco (Compton GPU compositor)
Marco (No compositor)
Compiz (Advanced GPU accelerated desktop effects)


The default in Mint 21 MATE is Marco (built-in: Xpresent), with the other options:

Marco (picom: Xrender)
Marco (picom: GLX)
Marco (picom: Hybrid)
Marco (No compositor)
Compiz (Advanced GPU accelerated desktop effects)


The picom Github page states, "picom is a compositor for X, and a fork of Compton.This is a development branch, bugs to be expected". There are three different render backends available: xrender, glx, and xr_glx_hybrid.

[antikythera]

LM20 has Compton, but it has been dropped in LM21. Compton is long unmaintained.


In Mint 20 MATE, the default is Marco (Adaptive compositor), with the other Tweak utility options:

Marco (Compton GPU compositor)
Marco (No compositor)
Compiz (Advanced GPU accelerated desktop effects)


The default in Mint 21 MATE is Marco (built-in: Xpresent), with the other options:

Marco (picom: Xrender)
Marco (picom: GLX)
Marco (picom: Hybrid)
Marco (No compositor)
Compiz (Advanced GPU accelerated desktop effects)


The picom Github page states, "picom is a compositor for X, and a fork of Compton.This is a development branch, bugs to be expected". There are three different render backends available: xrender, glx, and xr_glx_hybrid.

can you avoid using those colours in text please? it's pretty much illegible (the green inparticular) due to the low contrast against the forum colour scheme.

[sheldon-mint]

Hi. I suddenly started having similar issues. I swear I didn't apply any updates - I'm certain of it. My logitech mouse suddenly stopped working.
I installed stellarium, and connected my telescope - all working fine.
I installed "chirp", and program to connect to walkie-talkies, out of curiousity. No probs.
Next few days - Logitech usb wired mouse stops working. Left click non-active, cursor moves around screen - nothing useful.
I have 4 computers running Linux Mint (MATE), different versions, so I tried a different USB mouse (unbranded); it works perfectly.
I updated "wayland" (which is new to me), and the latest kernel. It made differences, but was still unstable. A single left-mouse click could be emulated with three quick-succession clicks. And even then, it wasn't certain.
I have found practical workarounds, but absolutely no useful info on what the heck is going on.
My guess is something in the package linux-firmware.

All good luck,
sheldon.

tech info :
:/var/log$ uname -a
Linux michael 5.15.0-50-generic #56-Ubuntu SMP Tue Sep 20 13:23:26 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Acer Aspire 5 laptop. intel core i5, nvidia. As new, regular hardware config.

[Bill541]

Interesting you are having similar issues and with similar hardware. I too am using logitech mouse and keyboard. Have not found a fix yet either. On boot, I go to the LM launcher and slowly type in "sound" in the search bar, then click on "input" tab once the sound app launches.