Sorting out input devices

The general problem is:
The cursor jumps around and clicks on things. As described here.
This post is dedicated to cornering and trying to solve the problem.
EDIT: as it turned out it was a hardware problem.

Cursor jumping around

I have this really "nice" problem since a while, and today I found out I'm not the only one in this situation.

Re: Mouse Jumping to corner on its own (TX2000 tablet PC)

2010-05-31 12:30 PM

Hi!

I've been having the same problem with my TC4400 tablet running Ubuntu Linux.

Here are my experiences:

- the cursor started jumping about 5 months ago. The computer is in my hands for exactly 2 years now, but it was a renew, so it's some time older, maybe half-1 year.

- the cursor first started jumping to the bottom right corner.

- it had a tendency to jump when I was using firefox watching sites like gmail or youtube, that used Java and/or Flash.

- about 2 months ago it started jumping (and clicking of course) not only when I used firefox with the mentions conditions, but also for other programs, and generally, at any time.

- about 1 week ago, I installed the newest version of Ubuntu (10.04), and since then the cursor started to jump to the bottom left corner too, so now it jumps to 2 different places.

- I also noticed, that the cursor does not jump when I use the pen. (there is no touch recognition, only the pen)

- I also noticed, that my computer started to became awfully hot at the corner of the ventilator, which is the corner, where the ESC button is.



So far I thought about disabling the touchpad and use the joystick instead, but they disable together, so I cannot do that.

I cannot afford to be without my computer, so I cannot put it to repair service. (I had a painful experience with them already anyway.)

The only way I can avoid the cursor from jumping is to hold the pen with one hand to the monitor, but this is pretty uncomfortable.



This whole cursor jumping thing is really annoying, and I'm relieved that I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Labtec Notebook Webcam on Ubuntu

I bought this webcam last year. It worked with Gutsy, but it doesn't work in Lucid. Or at least with Skype not - at the beginning.

Here are some details to begin with:

skype version: Beta 2.1.0.81 for linux.

~$ lsusb
ID 046d:08aa Logitech, Inc. Labtec Notebooks

~$ lsmod | grep videodev
videodev 34361 1 gspca_main
v4l1_compat 13251 1 videodev

~$ lsmod | grep gspca
gspca_zc3xx 45189 0
gspca_main 21199 1 gspca_zc3xx
videodev 34361 1 gspca_main

here's what I did so far:
- plugged in webcam. skype doesn't see it.
- installed cheese. video works. skype sees that there is a video device, but there's no picture.
- installed guvcview. still the same.
- I restarted the computer
- I tried again with the LD_PRELOAD stuff I found in other forums, and finally, like a miracle,

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l2convert.so skype

did the trick. :-)
I submitted this info on UbuntuWiki

Screen rotation through Nautilus scripts.

Here is how you make nautilus scripts work.

This is a script for rotating right (note-taking side):

#!/bin/sh
xrandr -o right
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' Rotate CW

This is to set back to normal:

#!/bin/sh
xrandr -o normal
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' Rotate NONE

I also use the following two, so I can rotate in any direction:

#!/bin/sh
xrandr -o left
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' Rotate CCW

and

#!/bin/sh
xrandr -o inverted
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' Rotate 3

Little Disturbing Problems

I can't use xbindkeys to bind the keys I want.
The only specific key I can bind like this is the "Ctrl+Alt+Del" button on the edge of the screen. But that's the least disturbing one.
- I need the scroll button on the edge of the screen the most.
- The single button next to the volume keys would be also very useful.
- Not to mention the mouse-activated keys... which just never worked.

Setting the pen button to work

As written here, in 10.04 we don't use xorg.conf anymore. We use

gksudo gedit /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-wacom.conf

instead.
And what we do is, that we put Option "Button2" "3" under the section that is for the pen, like here:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet"
Driver "wacom"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Button2" "3"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

An alternative solution is to put the

# Custom wacom settings.
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' 'Button2' '3'

lines into our .profile file, in our home directory. (it's a hidden file)

Java Applets on Lucid

I found this terrific post, which completely worked for me. Unlike icedtea & co.
It runs my internet bank and it runs facebook photo uploader too!!

It goes like:

The one java app I have to use does not work correctly with openjdk and icedtea, so I really must use sun's runtime and plugin. I was surprised to see that neither this thread nor any of the others I could find said anything about getting sun's plugin to work on lucid (or with firefox-3.6 in general). Maybe my search string wasn't good enough. Anyway, here's how to do it.

First, open 'Software Sources', click the 'Other Software' tab, and enable the lucid partner repo. (If it doesn't show up on the list, add it: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner )

Next, install sun-java6-plugin.

Uninstall both icedtea6-plugin and openjdk-6-jre.

And finally, due to this bug, run the following command in terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/mozilla-javaplugin.so mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so 1

This is the only step that is specific to firefox-3.6 and lucid.

Restart firefox and check about:plugins to verify that the correct plugin version is loaded.

If icedtea and openjdk work for the apps you use, then I recommend that you continue to use them rather than switching to the sun versions. However, if you use apps that do not work correct with ubuntu's default java installation, the above should work.

Ubunti 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx

Yes, I changed. I didn't upgrade, because updating was simply using up the space. How in hell is Ubuntu wanting to take up more space than 6 GB?! Well, I said no to it, and installed a completely new one, the newest one, with long term support. Now, if this works out, I don't have to change for a while.

Works out of the box:
- pen, eraser and pen button in Xournal
which I'm really happy for.

also somehow the post concerning tc4400 and ubuntu grow through the years, so now I have a larger base for support. I'll see if the post will be helpful in the end or not.

I was also pleased when I experienced the new "Make bootable ubuntu USB" for the first time. It works good.

However, still, I didn't dare to go back on 64-bit.