Running Ubuntu 25.04 on Dell PC that originally had Windows 11 installed. About 3 weeks ago the following issue arose: in the middle of a work session the mouse (and the touch pad) will move the pointer around the screen but neither mouse nor touch pad is able to select (click on) an icon. Both can select the power icon in the upper right corner and power down the computer though. I’ve routinely installed all of the updates, so problem is probably the result of an update, but which one? And how do I fix it?
It’s a well known issue affecting GNOME where the pointer move but upon clicking events don’t register, except on the top panel for system dialogs.
You can try this:
- Make sure your system is fully up to date: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
- Restart GNOME Shell without rebooting: gnome-shell --replace &
- Try updating with mutter package: sudo apt install mutter=45.0-1ubuntu2(VERSION)
If you boot to Ubuntu liveCD does it happen there too? Rather than the installed OS
Option 1 appears to be working…only time will tell. Not sure how to execute option 2. Also tried option 3, but message said "Package mutter is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
However the following packages replace it:
mutter-common-bin
Do you advise running: sudo apt install mutter-common-bin ?
1 Like
No, installing mutter-common-bin alone won’t help. Run sudo apt install mutter gnome-shell instead to update the actual components you need.
This issue usually happens because of glitches in GNOME or Mutter. To fix it, run sudo apt install mutter gnome-shell. Then, press Alt+F2, type r, and press Enter to restart GNOME Shell.
Installed without any issues. But when I went to restart Gnome Shell (Alt+f2, typed r, and pressed ENTER) got message “Restart not available in Wayland”.
Try either logging out and back in again or restarting.
1 Like
That’s normal on Wayland. You can’t restart GNOME Shell with Alt+F2 r. Just log out of your session and log back in to fully reload GNOME Shell.
Well, the problem returned after a security update two days ago. Above fixes didn’t help. Is there a flavor of Ubuntu that doesn’t have this problem? Perhaps one that isn’t being improved with updates?
THE PROBLEM IS STILL RESURFACING! Today, I had to restart my computer three times. Does Ubuntu 24.04 have this problem? If so, I’m ready to to replace 25.04.
Test it either via a live USB or in a virtual machine.
My preference is using virtual machines but a live USB session should also help you determine if the issue exists on 24.04
1 Like
On my laptop, this only comes up after waking from suspend. Sometimes, switching back to console 1 with Ctrl-Alt-F1 and logging in as a different user fixes the issue. Usually, this doesn’t work. In any case, logging out without a console switch can be difficult when mouse clicks aren’t working. To get around this, I have two aliases in my .bash_profile: “alias newshell=‘gnome-shell --replace’” and “alias logmeout=‘sudo systemctl restart gdm3’”. Sometimes the first one, run from a Terminal, fixes the issue. The second one always fixes it, but at the expense of killing all foreground applications.
1 Like
This is NOT a fix or viable workaround! …I can get mouse control again by powering down and then up.
BTW, if this is a well known issue, why haven’t any of the updates addressed it?!?
I will always be reluctant to upgrade to 25.10 because of this issue.
This topic was automatically closed after 30 days. New replies are no longer allowed.