I’ve had these two weird things with my cursor for a while and can’t seem to figure out why or how to solve them, nor have my Google/search skills been sufficient to find a cause/solution.
The first is something that happens all the time. When I leave my laptop for a minute and move my mouse/trackpad it takes a few seconds for the cursor to start moving again. I’ve turned off all settings allowing my laptop to go to sleep or turn black when not used so it’s not doing any of that. It’s just my cursor that hangs for a couple of seconds and then snaps back to working.
(edit: tested on integrated graphics to be sure and it seems like the cursor doesn’t hang when I switch to integrated-graphics )
The second is when I’m on hybrid mode (optimus-manager) with two monitors. On my main monitor my cursor just glitches the entire time. When I go to nvidia mode everything’s just fine. When I go back to hybrid it starts glitching again.
Context:
I’m on 5.10 LTS and have a Dell Precison 5540 with 4K monitor and T2000 hybrid graphics. I’m on the latest drivers and have optimus-manager installed and working.
Please read this: How to provide good information
and post some more information so we can see what’s really going on. Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies…
An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information… (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.
Does this also happen on the standard Manjaro Breath2 theme?
On intel/hybrid: I notice some “cuts” when for example scrolling in my browser. It’s like someone made a diagonal/horizontal cut through my screen. Sometimes it’s just glitches like the content of the page get’s distorted. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like the page is scrolling so laggy that it’s trying to catch up or something.
On intel/hybrid: my cursor glitches a lot. It’s like it’s blinking along with some kind of frequency. This only happens on my main monitor. My secondary display is okay. It doesn’t happen without the external display.
On nvidia: my cursor tends to “hang”. When I don’t use my trackpad for x-amount of time (can’t figure it out) the cursor takes a second or two to catch up with my movements again.
So these strange things are happening on specific optimus-manager modes. I have the proprietary drivers installed and everything seems to work fine except for these minor issues. I now work on nvidia 100% because the cursor hanging is the least intrusive to my daily workflow.
As for the theme. Except for one gnome extension and display scaling, I changed nothing about my installation. Tbf, Manjaro Gnome came pretty close to how I want my workflow to be.
There is a “BIOS” upgrade (I.E. UEFI firmware update) for your machine. Can you do that first and check the trackpad under nVidia.
Please note that I’m on pure nVidia only as well as the battery savings are just 10% on hybrid and I like to have nVidia available at all times without having to jump through hoops.
Having said the above, if you insist on hybrid mode, try another kernel than 5.10 as the Intel drivers are built into the kernel. I’d try 5.4 LTS first and if that doesn’t solve the problem, I’d try 5.12 stable.
I did the BIOS update. I was on 1.8.1 and went to 1.9.1. After reboot the cursor still hangs. It really is just the cursor and only in nvidia mode. I have the same issue when working with my BT mouse and it stops when switching to integrated/hybrid mode.
Yeah, I don’t really use integrated/hybrid either but did try kernel 5.12 just to see if it works and the problem seems to persist. 5.12 is working good though so I guess I’ll stick with it and keep 5.10 installed just in case.
It is peculiar thing these glitches. I mean the really are minor things and they don’t bother me that much but it would’ve been great if there was a quick fix.
So I did a journalctl -f and let my computer sit for a couple of minutes to make sure my mouse would hang and this was the result:
zsh: correct 'journactl' to 'journalctl' [nyae]? y
-- Journal begins at Thu 2021-02-11 10:02:49 CET. --
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro kernel: eth0: renamed from vetha2fd9bf
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): veth331dc2b: link becomes ready
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro kernel: br-4646eddf09c4: port 1(veth331dc2b) entered blocking state
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro kernel: br-4646eddf09c4: port 1(veth331dc2b) entered forwarding state
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro NetworkManager[802]: <info> [1621333559.8079] device (veth331dc2b): carrier: link connected
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro NetworkManager[802]: <info> [1621333559.8091] device (br-4646eddf09c4): carrier: link connected
May 18 12:25:59 manjaro gnome-shell[1904]: Removing a network device that was not added
May 18 12:33:47 manjaro systemd[1828]: Started Application launched by gsd-media-keys.
May 18 12:33:47 manjaro systemd[1828]: app-gnome-tilix-26216.scope: Succeeded.
May 18 12:33:50 manjaro systemd[1828]: Started VTE child process 26227 launched by tilix process 5826.
May 18 12:37:52 manjaro wpa_supplicant[965]: wlp59s0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 80:ea:96:ec:23:69 [GTK=CCMP]
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro NetworkManager[802]: <info> [1621334360.1078] dhcp4 (wlp59s0): state changed extended -> extended, address=192.168.0.211
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro dbus-daemon[798]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service' requested by ':1.3' (uid=0 pid=802 comm="/usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon ")
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro dbus-daemon[798]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro kernel: kauditd_printk_skb: 7 callbacks suppressed
May 18 12:39:20 manjaro kernel: audit: type=1130 audit(1621334360.117:323): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:39:30 manjaro systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Succeeded.
May 18 12:39:30 manjaro audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:39:30 manjaro kernel: audit: type=1131 audit(1621334370.637:324): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro NetworkManager[802]: <info> [1621334415.4889] dhcp4 (enp58s0u1): state changed extended -> extended, address=192.168.0.201
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro dbus-daemon[798]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service' requested by ':1.3' (uid=0 pid=802 comm="/usr/bin/NetworkManager --no-daemon ")
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service...
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro dbus-daemon[798]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro audit[1]: SERVICE_START pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:40:15 manjaro kernel: audit: type=1130 audit(1621334415.497:325): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:40:25 manjaro systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Succeeded.
May 18 12:40:25 manjaro audit[1]: SERVICE_STOP pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:40:25 manjaro kernel: audit: type=1131 audit(1621334425.627:326): pid=1 uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 msg='unit=NetworkManager-dispatcher comm="systemd" exe="/usr/lib/systemd/systemd" hostname=? addr=? terminal=? res=success'
May 18 12:50:12 manjaro /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[1846]: (II) event28 - MX Vertical Mouse: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
May 18 12:50:14 manjaro systemd[1828]: Started Application launched by gsd-media-keys.
May 18 12:50:14 manjaro systemd[1828]: app-gnome-tilix-26886.scope: Succeeded.
The thing I notice is this:
May 18 12:50:12 manjaro /usr/lib/gdm-x-session[1846]: (II) event28 - MX Vertical Mouse: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
But I’m not really going to say I completely understand what’s happening, but it clearly indicates that some of my mouse events were lost. Which is probably what I notice when my mouse doesn’t pick up right a way but takes a moment to catch up.
Anyone have any bright ideas that might help? (it’s also my trackpad btw, not only my mouse)
So now hybrid works like a charm, except when I plug in my external monitor. Everything on my built-in monitor remains fluent but on my external monitor everything is really choppy.
Nvidia only mode remains the same and has gotten worse tbh, the SYN_DROPPED event and “you’re system (with an i9 and 32GB of f’ing RAM) is to slow” errors keep flooding my journalctl output. That being said, nvidia mode is the only one that’s kind of workable at this point. The hangs are less intrusive than the choppy UI.
If I could fix the choppy UI I’d be all set on hybrid mode.
Also. I have kind of confirmed it to be a Gnome/Mutter issue since i3wm seems to work without any hang. Most of the things I could found around the issues I’m having pointed in that direction but it’s good to see it confirmed, even if there’s no provided fix.
There are two active threads on the optimus-manager repo about these issues:
Tbh. I’m considering leaving Gnome behind and giving XFCE another try. I don’t think I’ll get into pure i3wm as it seemed a bit to daunting for my main laptop that I use for work.
Maybe I’ll first try Fedora 34 with Gnome 40 to see if that’s more stable, before completely leaving gnome behind. The issues I’m having are beginning to disrupt me a little too much to just live with them and I can’t seem to find a solution that fixes them. I can’t keep spending my weekends on deepdiving Google going through the same threads and posts in the hopes of getting rid of this pesky bugs.
You’re running 32GB of RAM: more than enough for KDE, and KDE has changed a lot in the last couple of years. (Ex-Gnome user here too until 2-3 years ago)…
Fair point. I actualy moved from KDE to Gnome because lf the popos tiling/stacking stuff and the fractional scaling. Also most of the apps I use are gtk and I’ve always felt like they seemed out of place on KDE. Maybe I should give it another go
So, I did some further testing (most of which can be read about in the optimus-manager issue linked in one of the above posts).
I’m currently on Gnome 40 (testing branch) and with or without optimus-manager most of my issues seem to have been solved. I do have some lag or some glitches when switching workspaces but it’s now workable. I’m now currently on Manjaro Gnome 40 without optimus-manager but with NVIDIA set as primary GPU.
My conclusion is that this is probably a Mutter issue, it’s not optimus-manager related that’s for sure. I’m going to mark this one as solved seeing that I can’t find a solid solution except for switching to Gnome 40 and being content with how it is now. Also didn’t have the issues on Fedora 34 so there must be something to my theory I guess.
)
Welcome to Manjaro! 
