Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I have been distro hopping for past year. I always run into this one big issue on every distro: Linux would occasionally go crazy.
By "crazy", I mean it would pop up like 10 tabs in firefox. I mostly use my TP to surf the web...so I am mostly on the browser.
Yesterday, I had installed Fedora 35. It was working great! Then, all of a sudden, my TP was possessed by the devil or something.
I had no control of the trackpad/point for about 10 seconds.
The mouse cursor would jump around the display, and many tabs opened. It was as if the trackpoint/pad was on mad auto-pilot, and randomly started click-ing.
This lasted 5 seconds. It opened 10 tabs of Firefox, and it opened a terminal screen. Then, a few more seconds later, I was able to regain control the trackpoint/pad.
It is not a virus. Because this also happens on other distro.

I had this "crazy" problem or mouse-stopped-working problem on every Linux distro I tried with my T440P:
Mint, Manjaro, Arch, Artix, Debian, Fedora

Since this problem happens only occasionally (like once every few days) and on all distro, I am starting to think this is a hardware problem.
What do you think? Should I try a new Track Pad?

But Win10 and Win7 works perfectly, without the "crazy".

Now I primarily use Windows-10 on this TP. I dualboot. Win10 works perfectly. I loved both Windows-XP and 7. But I need to use Linux also.

This below is an interesting data point.

I also tried OpenBSD O.S. (a real UNIX O.S.) on my T440P. Everything worked fine. The "crazy" problem never showed up on OpenBSD.
OpenBSD was very reliable.

But I stopped using it because OpenBSD runs very slow on my T440P. Firefox takes like 15 seconds to load. Everything just feels sluggish compared to Linux/Windows. And OpenBSD drains my battery twice as fast as Linux or Windows.

How about using a different HDD/SSD?
To me it sounds like you have either some virus or a bad piece of common software (Grub?) on the drive somewhere.
What tabs do suddenly open, are they from your bookmarks, or randomly picked?

RealBlackStuff wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:53 am

How about using a different HDD/SSD?
To me it sounds like you have either some virus or a bad piece of common software (Grub?) on the drive somewhere.
What tabs do suddenly open, are they from your bookmarks, or randomly picked?

I have only 1 Kingston SSD. Did not try any other drive when using Linux.

The tabs that opened are from clicking something on the current screen.

Again...the "crazy" happens only occasionally.

And it's probably always happening when clicking on the same website when it happens?

RealBlackStuff wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:36 am

And it's probably always happening when clicking on the same website when it happens?

I think it happening on different website.

I just switched from Firefox to Chromium. Will see.

Just a update...problem is solved, by a new 450 trackpad.

I bought a new aftermarket t450 trackpad, and installed it.

Then, I setup to use only the trackpoint and the 3 buttons. I disabled the trackpad.

Now, no more problem!!! Working great!!!

I forgotten how awful the stock t440p trackpad is, because it does not have real buttons.