Mouse click not working

[Tucker]

I'll try to describe this as best I can. Starting yesterday, I've been having this strange problem with my mouse. I can move it around fine, but when I click, right click, middle click, or scroll, it doesn't respond. Everything responds normally to the keyboard, and it all runs as if there isn't a problem, and the mouse will move, but it won't click. Also, hovering over things like buttons doesn't highlight them as it usually does, and the cursor doesn't change when it hovers over text or whatever. There are two exceptions that I've found: one, when I back into Kwin's cube desktop effect I can click and drag the cube around normally; two, any Skype window responds perfectly normally, but it seems to be just Skype, and also, interaction with the border or titlebar in Skype windows (closing, min/maxing, moving, resizing) has the problem, even though everything inside the border doesn't. I don't know if this is a problem with Skype or X or what, but I can't do anything without a mouse so if anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm running Kubuntu 10.04 LTS on a custom desktop, and the mouse is USB, although I don't think that's the issue, since the problem persists when I use the numpad as a mouse. Anyway, thanks in advanced.

[Snowhog]

Re: Mouse click not working

"Starting yesterday,..."

Have you rebooted since then? A reboot may be all that is needed. "But I have no mouse-click ability so how..." you may ask. Use the magickey sequence to safely shut everything down and perform a reboot:

Press and hold the Ctrl+SysReq keys, and then in sequence, press and release the following keys: r s e i u b

[Tucker]

Re: Mouse click not working

I've actually rebooted multiple times since yesterday. I've been using ctrl+alt+f1 and ctrl+alt+del, but thanks for the SysReq combo, I'll probably be able to use it in the future ^_^

New information:
I went into the System Activity and killed Skype, and that fixed the problem for the rest of the session. I restarted, no Skype this time, and I still have the issue, so I don't think Skype is causing it. The mouse still works during the desktop cube effect. Also, I tried clicking the shutdown button (part of the lock/leave plazmoid) which is on the far right side of the top panel in my configuration, and while the plazmoid didn't respond, the cashew that was under the panel did (it should be the other way around). If I find anything else new, I'll be sure to post it.

[dibl]

Re: Mouse click not working

That's an odd problem. It used to be

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

was the routine to set the keyboard type and mouse type (KDE 3.5) -- I don't know whether that works for KDE 4 or not. It almost sounds like your system is forgetting what the mouse type is. Is it a USB mouse? The other possibility is some conflict with another USB device. Skype may indeed be involved -- it like to grab everything on the USB bus. If it's a USB mouse, I would advise start unplugging other non-essential USB items (webcams, memory sticks, etc.) and see if the problem ceases.

[Tucker]

Re: Mouse click not working

It is a USB mouse. Though, the only USB device that's been connected in probably the last few weeks is the mouse (or rather, the wireless receiver for both the mouse and keyboard) so it doesn't seem that it's conflicting with anything ... there are no other non-usb devices plugged in either (except the ethernet and the monitor, naturally). And as I said before, the problem persists whether Skype is running or not. I'll go try that command though, and see if I can get anywhere.

By the way, thank you all for the prompt replies.