Ubuntu

Cursor keeps jumping to another place

Asked by Andrew Marshall

Ever since I installed 7.04 a couple of weeks ago, I find that when I'm typing the cursor will just jump to somewhere else on the screen. It happens mostly in emails, obviously as that's where I do most typing. I try to type slow and accurately ie making sure that I don't press a combination of keys but it still keeps happening. Is there an explanation for this?

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Alan
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Alan (mrintegrity) said : 		#1

the battery on your wireless keyboard is dieing? or there is interference from some other device. if you don't have a wireless keyboard then I don't know :)

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Andrew Marshall (amarshall62) said : 		#2

I'm using a laptop and my battery seems to be OK.

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Alan (mrintegrity) said : 		#3

I expect that you are probably activating the touch pad with the presence of your hands. You can temporarily disable the touch pad whilst you type as this is a common problem for all notebook users.

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Andrew Marshall (amarshall62) said : 		#4

Sorry for the late response, but someone cut through all the country's internet cables and only just got access again. I'm typing this message whilst making a very conscious effort not to go near the touchpad and it looks as if that's the problem sorted. As a matter of interest how do I temporarily disable the touchpad?

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Best Alan (mrintegrity) said : 		#5

Yes, if you are lucky then your keyboard with have a modifier key built in which will allow you to disable the touchpad. Look for the FN key and a key somewhere amongst the number keys 1234 etc that looks like a small square. Press those together to disable the touch pad.

If you don't have such a key or if it didn't work you can disable it under Ubuntu anyway as follows:

In gnome-terminal type this:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In the window that pops up find the "input device" section that includes the line "Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" and underneath that insert the new line that reads:

        Option "SHMConfig" "on"

Save the file with CTRL s and then log out.

Once you have logged back in you will be able to disable the touch pad with the following command:

synclient TouchpadOff=1

and re-enable it with the same command but change the 1 to a 0. You can bind this command to a key or key combination for convenience using "System, Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts"

This all assumes that you have a Synaptics touch pad (most are so it is probably the case)

Alan

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Andrew Marshall (amarshall62) said : 		#6

Many thanks Alan, I will keep this info for future reference.

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Brian Ewell (ubuntu-boffinms) said : 		#7

I've recently done a software update for Ubuntu 8.04 on my Laptop, and started experiencing this problem today.

Previously, I had cases where the touchpad has locked up. dmesg would contain a few lines annoucing loss of sync, but it would work just fine after a few seconds.

Now I'm getting the mouse randomly jumping around every few seconds (randomly), often left, or right clicking on things.

My pad is Synaptics, and I have tried shutting the pad off with the fn-(touchpad icon) button, but this hasn't helped at all (now I can't use the touchpad, AND it dumps erroneous input into whatever I might be trying to work on)

Windows XP (duelboot) isn't having any trouble with the touchpad, so I'm willing to assume it's not a hardware problem.

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Alan (mrintegrity) said : 		#8

You might want to open a bug report. This question is not related to a hardware issue and was fixed by turning off the touchpad.

Before opening the bug, you might want to try adjusting the mouse sensitivity. You can also adjust settings for your touch pad using gsynaptics, a program specifically designed for laptop touch pads. To install it use add/remove programs, you will need to enable an option in xorg.conf before using it though, see my answer above:

In gnome-terminal type this:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In the window that pops up find the "input device" section that includes the line "Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" and underneath that insert the new line that reads:

        Option "SHMConfig" "on"

Regards,

Alan