Linux Mint 13 (ubuntu 12.04 LTS) mouse wheel issue

[RMF]

Since a few days I'm using Linux Mint 13, which is based on Ubuntu 12.04. When playing openarena I've got two issues:
- Setting the gamma (brightness) does not work. I've tried r_ignorehwgamma, r_mapoverbrightbits, r_overbrightbits, and of course r_gamma. But I can see alright enough without, so unless anyone has experience with this and knows the issue, nevermind for now.
- The mouse wheel is not picked up by the game when I'm moving my mouse.  I use scrolling (mouse wheel) to switch weapons, and MWHEELUP and MWHEELDOWN are correctly bound. I didn't have this issue in Linux Mint 12, nor does it occur in any other application. The only new software that I manually installed since upgrading to 13 is Whatpulse 2.0, but turning Whatpulse off makes no difference. I don't know what other software could interfere, everything was the same on Linux Mint 12.

I just found out that it's caused by moving the mouse. If I look around at the same moment as in which I try to switch weapons by scrolling, it will look around but not switch weapons. Scrolling without moving the mouse goes perfectly.

I have a few weapon binds for rocket, lightning and railgun, and when moving the mouse these still work. It seems to be an input issue and not a bug in the game.

There are no unusual messages in the console when the problem occurs. Does anyone have any idea what could cause this, or how to debug it?

Thanks!

Update: A workaround has been found. See reply #6 and #7 below.

[andrewj]

You could try the 'xev' program (in the x11-utils package, well in debian at least).

Run it from a terminal and watch the output when pressing the mouse-wheel.  You should see ButtonPress events for the mouse-wheel.

This will tell you whether the problem is in the X server (or Xlib), or the problem is client-side (SDL or  ioquake3 code).

[MilanFIN]

I am "suffering" from the same problem, have been for long time now :/

If I have understood right ubuntu developers changed to new version of xorg in 12.04 and ur mint is based on that...
The Xorg causes some problems handling the mouse input caused by the system that Q3 based games handle the mouse input, thats why I have the problem in Urt as well.

I dunno about any good fixes, tried one and it screwed my sensitivity completely. I learned to use the buttons at the side of my mouse to change next/prev. weapon, and created some binds for specific weapons.

Ubuntu 12.04 have sucked in other ways too-> they dropped oss support, so no more UT2004 for me 

[RMF]

Thanks for your replies!

You could try the 'xev' program (in the x11-utils package, well in debian at least).

Run it from a terminal and watch the output when pressing the mouse-wheel.  You should see ButtonPress events for the mouse-wheel.

This will tell you whether the problem is in the X server (or Xlib), or the problem is client-side (SDL or  ioquake3 code).

In xev I can see the scroll events while moving the mouse. If I couldn't, I should experience the problem in other applications (such as Chrome) too, but I don't. So that would mean it's in SDL/ioq3 right?

I learned to use the buttons at the side of my mouse to change next/prev. weapon, and created some binds for specific weapons.

Hmm if those buttons work but scrolling doesn't, isn't there some way to map/bind the scrollwheel to these buttons on system level? Or generate another event (like a key press). With an external application which, like xev, does notice the scrolling events, wouldn't this be possible?

[andrewj]

In xev I can see the scroll events while moving the mouse. If I couldn't, I should experience the problem in other applications (such as Chrome) too, but I don't. So that would mean it's in SDL/ioq3 right?

Yes, and I'm guessing it's SDL rather than ioq3.

The events should be button 4 and 5, is that what you saw?

Which version of LibSDL do you have? (try: dpkg --list |grep libsdl)

[RMF]

Yes, the button events are 4 and 5. Output of dpkg --list | grep libsdl

Code:

ii  libsdl-image1.2                                             1.2.10-3                                image loading library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2
ii  libsdl-image1.2:i386                                        1.2.10-3                                image loading library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2
ii  libsdl-mixer1.2:i386                                        1.2.11-7                                Mixer library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2, libraries
ii  libsdl-net1.2:i386                                          1.2.7-5                                 Network library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2, libraries
ii  libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386                                        2.0.9-1.1ubuntu1                        ttf library for Simple DirectMedia Layer with FreeType 2 support
ii  libsdl1.2debian                                             1.2.14-6.4ubuntu3                       Simple DirectMedia Layer
ii  libsdl1.2debian:i386                                        1.2.14-6.4ubuntu3                       Simple DirectMedia Layer

[PaniC]

It's a known Bug in the DGA input stuff from Ubuntu 12.04:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg-server/+bug/953960?comments=all

There are known workarounds:

Here's a workaround:
SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0

/Allan

upgrading xorg via the xorg-edgers PPA or switching to 12.10 might help too.

[RMF]

That workaround worked for me too, thanks!

Edit: To clarify for future readers, this command:
SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0 openarena
started the game with no problems for me. The mouse sensitivity is much too high now, but I'll just change the /sensitivity and that'll be fine.