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deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

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I am installing linux on a thinkpad t31. Most things work, but I think that the
mouse is setup wrong since after playing with the mouse (it's the red point in
the middle of the keyboard, not sure what it's called) for a few seconds to
minutes (not consistent) it suddenly goes crazy opening windows, pressing
buttons and flying all over the place. To release it I need to let go of the
mouse for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal until the next
time.

I tried setting the protocol to ImPS/2 and auto which behave the same and to
GlidePoint which doesn't function at all. device is /dev/input/mice

Any ideas?

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deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

Submitted by Andrei Popescu on Sun, 2007-05-27 11:00.

On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 02:29:46AM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote:
> I am installing linux on a thinkpad t31. Most things work, but I think that the
> mouse is setup wrong since after playing with the mouse (it's the red point in
> the middle of the keyboard, not sure what it's called) for a few seconds to

Trackpoint

> minutes (not consistent) it suddenly goes crazy opening windows,
> pressing
> buttons and flying all over the place. To release it I need to let go of the
> mouse for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal until the next
> time.

It does happen that the trackpoint moves on its own, especially on older
hardware. You can minimise the effect by lowering the sensibility. As
for opening windows, do you also use it for "clicking"? I don't think
there is a real cure for that, but you might minimize it if you click
only using the real buttons. Is the trackpoint replaceable?

Regards,
Andrei
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

»

deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

Submitted by Micha Feigin on Sun, 2007-05-27 12:00.

On Sun, 27 May 2007 18:51:53 +0300
(Andrei Popescu) wrote:

> On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 02:29:46AM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote:
> > I am installing linux on a thinkpad t31. Most things work, but I think that
> > the mouse is setup wrong since after playing with the mouse (it's the red
> > point in the middle of the keyboard, not sure what it's called) for a few
> > seconds to
>
> Trackpoint
>
> > minutes (not consistent) it suddenly goes crazy opening windows,
> > pressing
> > buttons and flying all over the place. To release it I need to let go of the
> > mouse for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal until the next
> > time.
>
> It does happen that the trackpoint moves on its own, especially on older

It's not a problem of the trackpoint moving on it's own, it seems to start
misinterpreting the input if it comes to fast for too long or some other
unexpected message from the driver.

> hardware. You can minimise the effect by lowering the sensibility. As
> for opening windows, do you also use it for "clicking"? I don't think

Not that I'm aware of. It looks like in it's insanity it flies around the
screen and clicks on things, as if in the middle of the movement the driver
starts misinterpreting the input and starts sending junk to X. If I let go of
the pointer for about two seconds the problem goes away until the next time
(which can be 10 seconds or a few minutes)

> there is a real cure for that, but you might minimize it if you click
> only using the real buttons. Is the trackpoint replaceable?
>

I don't think it's replacable, how do I disable clicking with the trackpoint?

> Regards,
> Andrei

I read somewhere recently that I may be using the wrong driver and I need to
change ImPS/2 -> PS/2 but it's my dad's laptop so I wasn't around it to try it
yet.

--

»

deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

Submitted by Andrei Popescu on Sun, 2007-05-27 12:00.

On Sun, May 27, 2007 at 07:10:32PM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote:

> I don't think it's replacable, how do I disable clicking with the trackpoint?

xorg.conf?

> I read somewhere recently that I may be using the wrong driver and I need to
> change ImPS/2 -> PS/2 but it's my dad's laptop so I wasn't around it to try it
> yet.

Anything interesting in the logs?

Regards,
Andrei
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

»

deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

Submitted by Karl E. Jorgensen on Thu, 2007-05-31 10:00.

On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 02:29:46AM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote:
> I am installing linux on a thinkpad t31. Most things work, but I think that the
> mouse is setup wrong since after playing with the mouse (it's the red point in
> the middle of the keyboard, not sure what it's called) for a few seconds to
> minutes (not consistent) it suddenly goes crazy opening windows, pressing
> buttons and flying all over the place. To release it I need to let go of the
> mouse for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal until the next
> time.

I think it's called a "trackpoint" officially. Unofficial names like
"nipple", "clit" are not unheard of either :-)

I suffered that on my old Dell too - although it would not actually
"click", just run off into a random corner/edge and refuse to come out.

USB mice worked flawlessly, but since the mouse pointer would be
affected by the *sum* of mouse movements, I had to compensate by weird
(and fast) USB mouse gymnastics (which can make others doubt your
sanity, but that's a different issue).

Sometimes this would go on for minutes, sometime for seconds. But only
when I was using they keyboard.

Although I managed to reconfigure the mouse driver to ignore the nipple,
things still weren't right: the nipple would "hog" the PS/2 connection
whenever it went on the run and thus prevent my touchpad from working
reliably. Symptoms: "Jumpy" mouse pointer when using the touchpad, but
USB mice worked flawlessly.

This turned out to be a hardware problem: The nipple sensor mechanism
was hypersensitive to God-Knows-What. I suspect that moisture or old age
finally took its toll.

My solution was to disassemble the laptop and physically disconnecting
the wire running to it...

> I tried setting the protocol to ImPS/2 and auto which behave the same and to
> GlidePoint which doesn't function at all. device is /dev/input/mice

Does USB mice work?

--
Karl E. Jorgensen
http://www.jorgensen.org.uk/
http://karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
It is often the case that the man who can't tell a lie thinks he is the best
judge of one.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

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