25

Mouse left-click didn't work in Setup at all, so I had to run Try mode to install 20.04. Oddly the mouse click worked in Try mode but not in normal setup.

Once 20.04 was installed, left-click became intermittent. If I alt-tab between windows, clicking will work temporarily but then if I try to click on some other window it won't work. I've read things about invisible windows interfering? This happened on a completely clean install (even in setup!) before I installed anything. There are a TON of posts about this same problem in various forums and I have tried every solution, none of them work.

The only thing that makes the mouse work temporarily is "sudo service gdm restart" but A) that only works until the next reboot, and B) that makes the forward & back mouse buttons stop working which is maddening.

This happens with several brands/models of mouse, on various USB ports, using 2 different USB controllers (chipset and ASMedia).

Asus Rampage VI Extreme X299 with GeForce GTX 1660 and Samsung NVMe. No other devices/cards. This is a desktop so there is no touchpad and I do not have multiple pointing devices. I have also tried a different keyboard.

[EDIT] I ran setup on a completely different system, an MSI Intel Z370, and the mouse left-click is broken. Is Ubuntu 20.04 mouse support completely borked?

Improve this question

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
39

Left click usually dies after wakeup from sleep.

This did the trick for me:

sudo udevadm trigger
Improve this answer
3
  • 3
    Is there a way to permanently prevent this?
    – Eduardo Procópio Gomez
    Feb 8, 2022 at 18:53
  • Worked for me also! Thanks!
    – Amiram Korach
    May 8, 2022 at 10:54
  • Why does this happen? I have had this happen so many times and always end up rebooting (using terminal)
    – Jus12
    Feb 12, 2023 at 3:19
16

Have you tried this link? https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/369097/mouse-left-click-stops-working. Just to summarize, try switching to tty1 (by doing Alt + Ctrl + F1) then switching back to normal by doing Alt + Ctrl + F7. IF that does not work, try: 

sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps

I hope this helps.

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    Neither of those worked for me unfortunately.
    – Abe Petrillo
    Sep 30, 2020 at 18:15
  • It worked...but now the tracking speed is painful and I still can't scroll
    – TheTechRobo the Nerd
    Nov 15, 2020 at 16:59
  • 1
    Alt + Ctrl + F1 took me to switch user, I just logged back in. The mouse was still frozen but pressing Ctrl+Alt+T (to open the terminal) un-froze it. Thanks!
    – gekepdp
    Feb 5, 2021 at 11:55
  • changing to a tty and back to the screen solved the problem for me (lenovo thinkpad t14)
    – sodimel
    Aug 25, 2023 at 10:02
5

I had this too. Tried all these things, none of them worked. Reinstalling ubuntu-gnome-desktop fixed it:

sudo apt install --reinstall ubuntu-gnome-desktop
Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    But it seems that your solution will reinstall the desktop rather than fixing the problem.
    – user833907
    Nov 18, 2020 at 15:28
  • 1
    It worked for me, don't care what was the problem, the thing is: This solved the problem. Congrats.
    – Carlos Barcellos
    Jan 11, 2021 at 13:22
  • 2
    I did --reinstall instead of -reinstall to make it work
    – Alcalyn
    Jul 19, 2021 at 10:43
  • I am using Unity so it won't solve this for me probably
    – Jus12
    Feb 12, 2023 at 3:18
3

I'm using Debian, but I think it is relevant. I found these two ways to fix the issue:

  • Ctrl + F1 logs the user out in Debian. Signing in again fixes the issue;
  • Turning off and on the touchpad in the settings also fixes the issue. Please see instructions below.

Navigation without touchpad
I use the keyboard for navigation in the settings and for turning on/off the touchpad when the touchpad itself is not working. The steps are tested on Debian 11, but I guess it is similar in Ubuntu.

  1. Use the Meta/Windows key to bring up the application search interface. Type "Touchpad". "Mouse & Touchpad" settings should be suggested the first in the list. Click Enter.
  2. Keep clicking Tab until the focus lands on the switch button of the "Touchpad" setting. There you can use the Space to turn off and once again turn on the touchpad.
Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    May 30, 2022 at 13:26
  • What is unclear about "Sign in and out" and "Turn the touchpad off and on" to fix "mouse left-click not working"?
    – Kröw
    Jun 28, 2022 at 0:42
  • 1
    @Kröw at least to me, it's unclear how one would turn something on and off and settings in the first place if the touchpad isn't working
    – Palu Macil
    Jul 30, 2022 at 22:38
  • 1
    @PaluMacil, added clarification about the keyboard navigation while touchpad is not working. Hope it helps.
    – Siroj Matchanov
    Aug 1, 2022 at 7:48
  • @SirojMatchanov that is a helpful addition, thanks
    – Palu Macil
    Aug 5, 2022 at 21:23
0
  1. go to gnome tweaks
  2. select- kybord and mouse
  3. on the mouse click emulation ... by default 'fingers' option will be selected change it to 'Area' That's all

credit: https://youtu.be/GaZefnkB04o

Improve this answer
0

I tried all the answers here as of Nov 2021. The only thing that worked for me was to move to Wayland with 21.10 and my mouse now consistently works.

Wayland itself presented mouse and keyboard problems with Thunderbird, per bug 1932328, but the comment 18 fix, putting Thunderbird into XWayland mode, seems to work. Finally I have something like input normalcy.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .