Cursor freezing on ThinkPad X260

[KentC]

Hi all,
I installed Linux Mint on a newly formatted Crucial 500 GiB SSD on a Lenovo ThinkPad X260. Everything seems to work very well, but occasionally when I am moving my cursor down a menu or a bookmarks list in a browser for example, the cursor will freeze even though I am continuing the movement on the trackpad, and then after a second or so, the cursor will jump further down the list, and on a couple of occasions the window itself has frozen for a short period. I have done all available updates, and have searched the forum for other threads on this subject but without luck. I am hoping that someone can suggest a fix. Here is my system info.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20F5S36100 v: ThinkPad X260 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20F5S36100 v: SDK0J40705 WIN serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: R02ET70W (1.43 ) date: 01/28/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 16.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 16.2/23.2 Wh (69.9%) volts: 12.3 min: 11.1
    model: SANYO 45N1773 serial: <filter> status: Full
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 43.3 Wh (82.2%) condition: 52.7/54.0 Wh (97.6%) volts: 12.0 min: 10.8
    model: SANYO 45N1734 serial: <filter> status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3 cache:
    L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 900 min/max: 400/3000 cores: 1: 900 2: 900 3: 900 4: 900 bogomips: 19999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1916
  Device-2: Lite-On Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:4
    chip-ID: 04ca:7058
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Chi Mei Innolux res: 1600x900 dpi: 147 diag: 317mm (12.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d70
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-58-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:156f
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24f3
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 17.26 GiB (3.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.89 GiB used: 17.25 GiB (3.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 29.0 C pch: 29.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2159 apt: 2150 flatpak: 9
  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 vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 225 Uptime: 2m Memory: 7.62 GiB used: 1.59 GiB (20.9%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

[KentC]

I am replying to my own thread to say that after a few more days of testing, the freezing appears to be more widespread than just my cursor. I have had a couple of instances where my open windows have frozen as well. Any suggestions of where to start to diagnose this would be welcome. Here is my inxi output again:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20F5S36100 v: ThinkPad X260 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20F5S36100 v: SDK0J40705 WIN serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: R02ET70W (1.43 ) date: 01/28/2019
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 12.9 Wh (79.6%) condition: 16.2/23.2 Wh (69.9%) volts: 12.1 min: 11.1
    model: SANYO 45N1773 serial: <filter> status: Not charging
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 18.5 Wh (35.2%) condition: 52.6/54.0 Wh (97.4%) volts: 11.1 min: 10.8
    model: SANYO 45N1734 serial: <filter> status: Charging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3 cache:
    L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 900 min/max: 400/3000 cores: 1: 900 2: 900 3: 900 4: 900 bogomips: 19999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1916
  Device-2: Lite-On Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:4
    chip-ID: 04ca:7058
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Chi Mei Innolux res: 1600x900 dpi: 147 diag: 317mm (12.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d70
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-58-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:156f
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24f3
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 20.22 GiB (4.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.37 GiB used: 20.21 GiB (4.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 5.2 MiB (1.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0 C pch: 42.5 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2159 apt: 2150 flatpak: 9
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linuxmint-packages vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 217 Uptime: 14m Memory: 7.62 GiB used: 1.71 GiB (22.5%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

Thanks,
KC

[SMG]

I am replying to my own thread to say that after a few more days of testing, the freezing appears to be more widespread than just my cursor. I have had a couple of instances where my open windows have frozen as well. Any suggestions of where to start to diagnose this would be welcome.

If this is the correct link BIOS Update (Utility & Bootable CD) for Windows 10 (64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad X260 it appears the latest version is 1.49.

Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20F5S36100 v: ThinkPad X260 serial: <superuser required>
Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: 20F5S36100 v: SDK0J40705 WIN serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
v: R02ET70W (1.43 ) date: 01/28/2019

Looking at the readme it appears there are several MCU (microcontroller) updates. Perhaps they will help.

[KentC]

Hi SMG,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I know that the BIOS needs updating, but the only mechanisms that I saw to update the BIOS required Windows. I haven't done enough investigating to know if there are linux-friendly alternatives for the BIOS updates. I'll do some reading and see what I find.
Thanks again for taking the time to make your suggestions. Also, thanks for putting the code tags around my system info (above). Sorry I missed that.

KC

[Florian]

The gnome software center (package: gnome-software) is the easiest method in to update a thinkpad bios in linux. Firmware updates will appear in the updates list of the center, simply click to install ^_^

[SMG]

The gnome software center (package: gnome-software) is the easiest method in to update a thinkpad bios in linux. Firmware updates will appear in the updates list of the center, simply click to install ^_^

Lenovo does not make BIOS updates available for all models using that method. Some are only available for Windows or through the CD update.

Also, I think gnome software center may just be a GUI to access Linux Vendor Firmware Service. If so, one can get the updates without installing gnome software center.

[KentC]

The gnome software center (package: gnome-software) is the easiest method in to update a thinkpad bios in linux. Firmware updates will appear in the updates list of the center, simply click to install ^_^

Lenovo does not make BIOS updates available for all models using that method. Some are only available for Windows or through the CD update.

Also, I think gnome software center may just be a GUI to access Linux Vendor Firmware Service. If so, one can get the updates without installing gnome software center.

Thank you both (Florian and SMG) for this information. I'll see if I can now update my BIOS and with luck that will solve my freezing issue!
Best regards,
KC

[KentC]

The gnome software center (package: gnome-software) is the easiest method in to update a thinkpad bios in linux. Firmware updates will appear in the updates list of the center, simply click to install ^_^

Lenovo does not make BIOS updates available for all models using that method. Some are only available for Windows or through the CD update.

Also, I think gnome software center may just be a GUI to access Linux Vendor Firmware Service. If so, one can get the updates without installing gnome software center.

Hi again SMG,
You were correct and the BIOS update does not appear to be available through the Gnome Software Center. I followed your link to the LVFS page and found the BIOS update there, and first ran fwupdmgr get-devices and then fwupdmgr get-updates in the terminal and I can see the update is there and available, but after looking at the --help menu I am unsure which command to use, or how to use the correct syntax in the command. There is the following command:
install FILE [DEVICE-ID|GUID] Install a firmware file on this hardware
And there is also another command:
update [DEVICE-ID|GUID] Updates all specified devices to latest firmware version, or all devices if unspecified

I am sure that I am missing something simple, but I am unsure how to proceed from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[KentC]

I am sure that I am missing something simple, but I am unsure how to proceed from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi again SMG, et al,
Well I'm sure that this happened more by good luck than good management, but the BIOS update showed up in Gnome-software. I don't know if it had anything to do with my running the fwupdmgr commands (see above) in the terminal, or not (I suspect not), but after all my dinking around I decided to re-open Gnome-software to see if there was anyway that it could be updated, and the BIOS update was just there. I installed it successfully:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-58-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.7
    tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20F5S36100 v: ThinkPad X260 serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 20F5S36100 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: R02ET76W (1.49)
    date: 02/23/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 16.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 16.2/23.2 Wh (69.9%) volts: 12.3 min: 11.1
    model: SANYO 45N1773 serial: <filter> status: Full
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 52.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 52.5/54.0 Wh (97.2%) volts: 12.5 min: 10.8
    model: SANYO 45N1734 serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake rev: 3 cache:
    L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 875 high: 900 min/max: 400/3000 cores: 1: 802 2: 900 3: 900 4: 900
    bogomips: 19999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1916
  Device-2: Lite-On Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-8:4
    chip-ID: 04ca:7058
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
    gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Chi Mei Innolux res: 1600x900 dpi: 147 diag: 317mm (12.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.2.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d70
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-58-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
    bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:156f
  IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:24f3
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 17.54 GiB (3.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.37 GiB used: 17.53 GiB (3.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 15.1 MiB (3.0%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0 C pch: 43.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 2165 apt: 2156 flatpak: 9
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb https: //mirrors.ocf.berkeley.edu/linuxmint-packages vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 213 Uptime: 7m Memory: 7.62 GiB used: 1.66 GiB (21.7%) Init: systemd v: 249
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11 Client: Unknown python3.10 client inxi: 3.3.13

Nothing left to do now except use the laptop for a while and see if the freezing problem was solved by the BIOS update!

Thanks for all your help. I appreciate it very much.
KC

[KentC]

If this is the correct link BIOS Update (Utility & Bootable CD) for Windows 10 (64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad X260 it appears the latest version is 1.49.

Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20F5S36100 v: ThinkPad X260 serial: <superuser required>
Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: LENOVO model: 20F5S36100 v: SDK0J40705 WIN serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO
v: R02ET70W (1.43 ) date: 01/28/2019

Looking at the readme it appears there are several MCU (microcontroller) updates. Perhaps they will help.

Hi again,
After using the laptop for a few hours after the BIOS update, I would say that the freezing problem is not completely fixed, but seems to be occurring less frequently (or it might be wishful thinking?).
I may just have to write this off as an idiosyncrasy of this 7 year old hardware. I'll keep looking around and see what I can see.

Thanks again for the help.

KC

[SMG]

If you want, you could disable the Cinnamon Effects to see if that helps. Open the Effects app and there is a slider to disable all at once or you could disable them individually.

[KentC]

If you want, you could disable the Cinnamon Effects to see if that helps. Open the Effects app and there is a slider to disable all at once or you could disable them individually.

Ok, thanks. I have turned all Cinnamon effects off, and I'll see if that makes a difference.

[KentC]

If you want, you could disable the Cinnamon Effects to see if that helps. Open the Effects app and there is a slider to disable all at once or you could disable them individually.

Ok, thanks. I have turned all Cinnamon effects off, and I'll see if that makes a difference.

Sadly, turning off the effects didn't resolve the problem. On a happier note, I kind-of like the unvarnished UX without the effects on.
:^)
I'll adjust my trackpad settings and see if it makes a difference if I turn off two finger scrolling, etc.
Thanks again for your help.
KC