Occasional stuck cursor in Mozilla products

Red Squirrel · 12-21-2012, 06:55 PM

This happens to me in both Thunderbird and Firefox. Occasionally at random, the hand cursor will become stuck. I cannot do ANYTHING when this happens. The keyboard becomes completely disabled, and the mouse too, other than being able to move the cursor. I have no choice but to force a power down. VERY annoying. Especially when I've been coding and I have tons of crap open. One of the reasons I switched to Linux was to prevent having to reboot as often as I did with Windows but I find myself rebooting at least every couple weeks because of something like this. Not cool.

Has anyone seen this before, and is there a fix for it? At this point I'm almost suspecting it's Mozilla related but I can't say for sure, as Firefox and Thunderbird are probably the apps I happen to click in the most, as I always have my email open on one screen and firefox on the other, so even when I'm coding or something I'll be switching to that desktop on and off to check on stuff.

I also have an issue in Minecraft where occasionally my character will continue to do the last action, as if I was holding down on the key. Ex: continue going forward as if I was holding the W key, or continue jumping as if I was holding the alt key etc... I have died in lava many times, or jumped off a cliff, because of this bug. I call it the Toyota bug.

The reason I mention this bug is I'm wondering if it's somehow related to something within the GUI environment? I'm not sure it's Minecraft specific as I never seen it in Windows and from what I've been finding it's only Linux users who get it.

lxskllr · 12-21-2012, 07:24 PM

I had that with Firefox also, but I haven't seen it in awhile. My mind's absolutely blank, and I can't remember if I fixed it, or it fixed itself. I'm also using the Xfce desktop, but I don't think that's the issue. Usually my keyboard still worked, and I'd use it to close Firefox. You should also be able to kill the process in tty.

Red Squirrel · 12-21-2012, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lxskllr

I had that with Firefox also, but I haven't seen it in awhile. My mind's absolutely blank, and I can't remember if I fixed it, or it fixed itself. I'm also using the Xfce desktop, but I don't think that's the issue. Usually my keyboard still worked, and I'd use it to close Firefox. You should also be able to kill the process in tty.

Actually yeah sometimes my keyboard does also still work, but often it does not. If I hit num lock or anything the light does not change, that's usually how I confirm it, and the fact that ctrl+alt+Fx keys arn't doing anything.

jimmybgood9 · 12-21-2012, 09:45 PM

I'm going to pick one issue - the complete lock up with no keyboard response. In my experience, these lockups are gpu/driver issues, not application issues. If it's associated with an application it is because the application issues a set of system calls that triggers a driver bug or a defect in the gpu. What gpu and driver are you using?

Red Squirrel · 12-21-2012, 10:32 PM

I'm using a GeForce GTX 560 Ti with the Nvidia drivers. Interesting you say this since this card is VERY unstable in Windows (at least 7). Screens randomly turn off etc. Interestingly... with Mozilla products too. Games are fine. It was actually one other reason I switched to Linux. I was sick of the issues I had with this card in Windows. I actually have two, so to simply "use another card" is an expensive price to swallow given I'd be giving up 2 $200 cards and having to buy 2 more.

But now I'm starting to wonder if this card really IS an issue. (Only running one at the moment) It's much more stable in Linux overall though, I don't get the screen turning off thing and other issues I'd get in Windows. (can't recall now)

jimmybgood9 · 12-22-2012, 12:27 AM

There is a possibility that the card itself is defective. I don't know what the odds on that are.

It might be interesting to try the Nouveau driver. I don't even know if it supports 3d acceleration and if it does, game performance would be disappointing, but you could see if Firefox becomes more stable. That would really implicate the Nvidia driver.

I have a bottom-of-the-line Radeon and have no issues with either the radeon or the Catalyst driver. The only lockups, I've had in quite some time have been from defective products.

Nothinman · 12-23-2012, 11:33 AM

I've always blamed the app in question for grabbing the cursor and not letting go. My workaround is usually to ssh in from my phone or something to switch consoles and kill whatever app had my cursor. Sometimes it works and sometimes X needs a full restart.

Crusty · 12-25-2012, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nothinman

I've always blamed the app in question for grabbing the cursor and not letting go. My workaround is usually to ssh in from my phone or something to switch consoles and kill whatever app had my cursor. Sometimes it works and sometimes X needs a full restart.

sudo killall gdm

ketchup79 · 12-25-2012, 11:15 PM

The first thing that comes to my mind is the mouse. Is it wireless? Does the mouse ever not feel right when you click something (no clicking sound)?

I do seem to recall this issue a while back when I had a ton of tabs open, but that was several updates ago.

Nothinman · 12-26-2012, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crusty

sudo killall gdm

Which kills the X session and is what I'm trying to avoid when that happens.

Red Squirrel · 01-11-2013, 07:08 PM

Bah, happened again. Had a shit ton of stuff opened :/ This really blows. Anything I can do to stop this? Seems to be mostly Thunderbird and Firefox that do it. Mostly Thunderbird. Now when it happens I lose complete keyboard and mouse control, well I can move the cursor around but that's it. The keyboard is completely gone when it happens. Can't even hit num lock.

Come to think of it, the new thunderbird sucks. The search on it is completely useless. Is there a better client? Given this happens mostly in thunderbird maybe I can just replace that with something else at least it would be a start. Usually happens when I click a link in an email.

lxskllr · 01-11-2013, 08:46 PM

Maybe something here would be useful for you...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

Red Squirrel · 01-11-2013, 09:45 PM

That's actually pretty neat, did not know about those commands... but I don't think it would help in my situation as that simply dumps info to the console, and I can't get to the console when this bug happens. The keyboard completely stops responding when it happens. The only thing I can do is move the cursor (now a hand) around.

I keep forgetting to try SSHing in though. I can always pull out my work laptop and plug it in to the network and SSH in to kill Thunderbird.

There are few occasions where the keyboard still works, in that case I can usually do ctrl+alt+F1 and then get to the console and kill the offending task. Usually Thunderbird or Firefox, so I just kill both.

I think I will have to take a print out of that and keep it in my server room though, if ever I have to troubleshoot a server that's crapping out but still has keyboard access.

Red Squirrel · 01-22-2013, 08:50 PM

To rule out the nvidia drivers being the issue to all my problems and also as an effort to see if I can get 3 monitors to work normally without cheap work arounds, I'm trying to use the nouveau drivers. Now I'm down to 1 monitor. How do I go about attempting to enable the others? The way it was done before was through the nvidia tool but now that I can't use that anymore, where do I go?

It's been doing the stuck cursor thing multiple times a day now. In fact a while ago it did it and it actually kept the standard arrow cursor.

Red Squirrel · 01-22-2013, 09:45 PM

Ahh fuck. I managed to go back to nouveau. I forgot about the screen flicker bug. Screen constantly flickers. The resolution is screwed and I lost my task bar so now I can't go to "Additional drivers" to put it back.

What do I do? I really fucked this up, didn't I. This flickering is driving me mad...

lxskllr · 01-22-2013, 09:55 PM

Right click the desktop for gui tools, or open a console.

Red Squirrel · 01-22-2013, 10:18 PM

Thanks did not realize I could get the menu that way. Back to square one now.

Also conteplating going back to Windows. The nvidia driver under Windows is equally as unstable for this card though. Screens randomly shut off etc. Come to think of it think it was worse in Windows... My friend got the exact same card and gets the same issues.

Should I maybe just ditch these cards? I hate to play the "buy another card and try that" game. It gets really expensive to start throwing all sorts of hardware at a problem to see if it fixes it. I just don't know what to do anymore. This is just so frustrating.

lxskllr · 01-23-2013, 08:39 AM

Do it a little at at a time. I'd try the nouveau driver first. Get one display up and stable. If you can do that, get another display working. Works? Great! Now go for #3. I've never run multiple displays, but one should be rock stable. If it isn't, I'd suspect a hardware issue of some kind.

Red Squirrel · 01-23-2013, 01:31 PM

I would have trouble getting anything done with just one, so unfortunately that's not really an option at this point. Nouveau is also out of the question, the flickering is enough to drive me insane. Even with one monitor it does it. The install process was quite brutal to go through because it did it during all of that too.

I'm wondering if I should just go with ATI. nvidia seems to have terrible Linux support from what I read. Then again I've read the same about ATI. What else is there out there?

Jodell88 · 01-23-2013, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Squirrel

nvidia seems to have terrible Linux support from what I read. Then again I've read the same about ATI. What else is there out there?

lolwut?

AMD drivers suck on windows and they suck even harder on Linux. I specifically went with an nvidia card and have not had a single problem on my laptop with Optimus technology.

Nothinman · 01-23-2013, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jodell88

lolwut?

AMD drivers suck on windows and they suck even harder on Linux. I specifically went with an nvidia card and have not had a single problem on my laptop with Optimus technology.

Exactly, the nVidia drivers have been solid on Linux for years. I've been using them practically since their release and besides some issues with PM and not always being up to date with the latest kernel they're phenomenal.

AnonymouseUser · 01-23-2013, 04:15 PM

Are you sure this isn't a keyboard issue? Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in when it freezes? Can you try another keyboard? If it's USB, try the front port, or en/disable "Legacy USB" in your BIOS (if possible).

Finally, are you sure your keyboard and video problems aren't a motherboard or PSU issue? While I can understand your frustrations with triple monitor support, Nvidia's linux drivers are pretty solid, so I find it hard to believe these problems are graphics driver related, even under Windows.