In Which Fedora Core Meets Firefox and the Mouse Does its Own Thing

[rufio]

I just installed Fedora Core, and am currently logged in and using Firefox, and operating the mouse with the touchpad (it's a laptop). It's extremely aggravating. Moving the mouse across the screen causes the browser to go back multiple times, and dragging the scroll bar to the bottom of the page sometimes causes the browser to close. Is this some new slick linux shortcut that is misinterpreting the touchpad?

[Claverhouse]

I know nothing about Linux other than that which I have read, and I'm very fond of Fx, but... If it only happens in Fx then your Fx installation is screwed.

Back up your bookmarks.html and reinstall.

( You could --- and should --- back up your whole profile; but that too can carry over the fault. Occasionally. Still you really ought to just to be good. )


Claverhouse http://intpcentral.com/forums/images/smilies/ninja.gif

[rufio]

Fx came with the OS; I didn't install it separately.

I ask because I remember that windows supposedly had some special whoopdydoop thing where you could scroll with the touchpad by running your fingertip down the right hand side of it, and it never gave me anything but grief. This OS seems to be much more sensitive to the touchpad than my last (SuSE 9.1) - particularly in that you can actually click by lightly tapping the touchpad, which I was not able to before. Therefore, I tend to use it a bit more forcefully than I probably should, and I occassionally wind up selecting things on the desktop while moving across it, and I thought maybe the OS had mouse-encoded shortcuts for going back and forward in a browser that I was accidentally triggering.

I don't think it's Firefox, but I'll try using some other browsers to see if they do the same thing.

[Claverhouse]

Hmm, could be the mouse: they can be queer little beasts. *remembers when something went wrong with the PS/2 connector and the cursor danced*

Still, still could be Fx: the fact it was installed with the OS doesn't automatically mean the OS installed it right. And in any case it must be out of date: the current version is 1.07 unless they updated it in the last few days. ( Just for quickness for intpcentral I use K-Meleon & Fx for everything else --- don't test anything with K-Meleon: it has issues: try Opera ).

Or wait until Cloakable or another Linux buff comes on who knows what he's talking about...


Claverhouse http://intpcentral.com/forums/images/smilies/ninja.gif

[garak]

Somewhat unhelpful answer: install Ubuntu!

[cloakable]

Or wait until Cloakable or another Linux buff comes on who knows what he's talking about...
I'm flattered, but I have very little knowledge of the Red Hat GUI.
I know you can use gestures to navigate on SuSE: That's what I'm running, and I use gestures to go back and forwards, etc. Does Red Hat have something similar?
If so, try turning it off. It could also be that the touchpad is setup a little too sensitive: Try changing that, with whatever Red Hat is using that equates to SuSEs SaX2.

[rufio]

Gestures?

[cloakable]

I guess you've never used them then. Never mind.

[eyebyte_atWork]

Have you tried Ubuntu? They have excellent driver support for Laptops and I have yet to have a problem with it.

[PlayerOfGames]

Hello.

Let me suggest the following mishmash of things.

1. Plug in a usb mouse - see if the problem occurs when moving this mouse around in similar ways. If it does - super weird, we'll go from there. If it doesn't:

2. Could well be that the driver that X-Windows is using for your touchpad is being too sensitive, or otherwise misinterpreting it. On my system, the autodetect option for the mouse driver makes my synaptics touchpad do all the usual touchpaddy things (scrolling on the left side, right click with a three finger tap, etc.) So:

3. Have a look for a file called either xorg.conf XF86Config-4, or maybe just XF86Config, probably in /etc/X11 (Not sure on fedora, you could just search for it), And

4. In this file look for a section like
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Might be slightly different. Try change the protocol to "Imps2"

Might be it

[rufio]

Eyebyte - I've thought about that - I've got an extra ~15 unpartitioned gigs on my new disk, so I might try it out eventually.

Noteven - I don't have an internet connection in my apartment, so I usually just take it to coffee shops and use the wi-fi. I usually don't bring my USB mouse with me, but I'll try that next time. I haven't noticed it doing anything weird, but I haven't really ever used it with firefox either.