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So I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 tonight and I'm having this weird issue with my mouse and window focus.

I can't seem to click on any Unity Launcher icons. More over I can't click on unfocused windows to bring them to the front. It doesn't work.

I don't know how better to explain this. It is seemingly random when I can click on something inside a window. I can't even click on the "X" button to close or the title bar to move the window around most of the time. What's causing this behaviour?

I really want to start using Ubuntu as my main desktop but I've always had weird issues like this when I would test out a release. In a VM I don't have problems but after a real install I get problems.

Edit: Some more information, my mouse is a USB RAT5 gaming mouse. Not that I think it's the physical mouse that's broke...and the pointer doesn't freeze or anything. I just can't click on anything the majority of the time.

Craig
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  • This exact behavior happens for me in 15.04 with my wired AZZA mouse (never buy that brand!). Restarting helps. Oddly, if by luck I can get to the Mouse Settings, it recognizes my that mouse buttons click and scroll wheel scrolls, but I can't close the window or click anywhere else! – jvriesem Sep 04 '15 at 16:01
  • Also a problem with some touch pads. – nsandersen May 16 '17 at 19:24

5 Answers5

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So I kept looking around and the problem seems to have been the type of mouse I have. I found a thread on the Ubuntu forums by a user with a similar mouse having a problem that sounded like mine. In the thread it was suggested to (create and) edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf files with the following:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Mouse Remap"
    MatchProduct "Saitek Cyborg R.A.T.5 Mouse"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 9 10 11 12 0 0 0"
EndSection

And then I restarted my computer.

I have RAT5 gaming mouse and the use from the thread has the RAT7 gaming mouse. It has been a day since I implemented the fix and there have been no problems. Didn't bother looking into why it was buggy but I know the above configuration fixed it.

Thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2152976

Craig
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I found a solution to similar focus problem. A part of it was that mouse focus remained locked to one window but keyboard focus was in another. I fixed it by running:

sudo apt install wmctrl
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/click_to_focus -s true 
wmctrl -R WindowName 
xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/click_to_focus -s false

Here are the links to original answer and bug report.

ohwell
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A search for a similar problem brought me here. Left mouse click doesn't work anymore, neither on the mouse itself nor on touch pad. In my case it is a matter of a bluetooth mouse.

My solution was to remove the mouse from the list of paired bluetooth devices (Dash → Bluetooth), switch off the mouse and re-pair it after a reboot.

David
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I had this on 16.04 with a laptop and a USB mouse connected. USB mouse didn't work. Clicking once on the laptop's touchpad got the mouse's buttons to work again.

simbabque
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  • This worked for me with 14.04 and USB microsoft mouse. Even a reboot didn't fix the issue but your answer did! Thanks. – Champ Jun 20 '16 at 17:56
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I had this problem with a wireless mouse on an Asus laptop. My touch pad, that I prefer not to use, was actually doing the same.

I tried a bunch of things, but in the end what fixed it was to unplug the usb receiver for my mouse, and plug it back in. Everything back to normal.

Not even a full restart did the same.

Orri Eiriksson
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