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I recent changed from Ubuntu to Xubuntu 12.04. The install worked great for a few days, but suddenly the left mouse button stopped working. The right click and scroll bars work fine.

After a bit of experimenting I discovered that the problem only happens when I set the session to Xubuntu at login. The mouse also works fine in my dual-booted Windows vista.

What could make my mouse stop working like that?

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Can you post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf? – Mitch Sep 5 '12 at 5:32
That file does not exist on my system. Weird. – giodamelio Sep 5 '12 at 5:40
Try sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf – Mitch Sep 5 '12 at 5:47
Nope it opens me up for a new file. – giodamelio Sep 5 '12 at 5:58
2  
X now automatically configures itself, see this wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config, so you will not see /etc/X11/xorg.conf. To create a new one use sudo Xorg :1 -configure – Noble P. Abraham Sep 9 '12 at 8:15

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted
+50

Check if you have xserver-xorg-input-evdev installed on your system:

sudo dpkg -s xserver-xorg-input-evdev

If yes, do:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

If no, do:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-evdev

Reboot.

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I see no reason why using the beta-quality xorg-edgers PPA would provide a solution to this. I doubt that his mouse driver is outdated. – Eric Sep 13 '12 at 12:23
Because this is a known issue, and this PPA will hopefully fix the problem. – Frantique Sep 13 '12 at 12:34
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If this is a known issue, there should be a launchpad bug number. Since the problem only exists under the Xubuntu session, replacing the entire X stack sounds extreme. – Eric Sep 13 '12 at 12:46
Thanks for the upvote, this means that my method helped you? – Frantique Sep 14 '12 at 15:40
up vote 1 down vote

Your left mouse button might be remapped or disabled. Try adjusting the configuration or resetting to defaults in the Xfce control panel, as described here:

http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/mouse

You can check the current mappings using the xinput command from the Terminal.

$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Mouseemu virtual mouse                    id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ bcm5974                                   id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]

Look for your mouse in the list and note its id, presented as id=x; e.g., 11

The use xinput again to get the current button map:

$ xinput get-button-map 11
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

If the first number is "0", your mouse button 1 is disabled. Test re-enabling it with:

$ xinput set-button-map 11 1

Remember to replace "11" with the mouse's id from xinput list.

If this gets reset every time you login to your desktop, see if there's a file in your home directory called ".xinputrc" or a directory called .xinput.d/ containing files. Also see if there's an errant ".xinitrc" that might have xinput commands.

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up vote 0 down vote

Freantique's solution does not work for my Samsung N210 with Xubuntu 12.04. I find a solution that it works and I posted a step by step tutorial here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12489693#post12489693

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Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – Aditya Feb 3 at 15:15

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