I’m running into a weird issue with my mouse where clicking on a menu (such as the xfce start menu or bookmark folders in browsers) leads to the menu quickly appearing and immediately disappearing. Also, text selection/highlighting seems broken. When attempting to select some text, the selection seems to be either completely cancelled or it may re-continue but with only a portion of the text being selected. Sometimes selection isn’t even possible while having the left mouse-button pressed.
Checking libinput debug-events when clicking a menu that appears and immediately disappears I can see that two pressed & released events seem to be fired, despite clicking only once:
I used to have a nice 8 button logitech, there weren’t many options to replace it and they were fairly pricey. As I had the tools and knowledge I just replaced switches every few years.
I’ve since changed to a mouse with more buttons, but I miss my logitech. It was more ergonomic, and had a better sensor even though it’s 20 years old.
I too am using a 20-year-old Logitech — well, 18 years to be precise — although I’ve only really started using it 5 years ago.
It’s an MX-1000, a wireless laser mouse with a rechargeable battery. It has a few extra buttons, for scrolling and for the next and previous page in the browser, plus one that doesn’t do anything and of which I think it was intended to be programmable on MS-Windows — which I don’t have — because it came with a CD-ROM.
But the reason why I bought it is indeed the ergonomics. It fits really nicely into my hand. Earlier I’ve used other mice, and they were not quite as comfortable — especially not those very flat ones.
The best mice I’ve had are actually MS-branded ones; the Mobile Mouse 6000 and 3000 series. I still have one remaining 3000 but the wheel indexer failed a while back and the left button has finally given up the ghost, practically. I think the dose of DeOxit killed it finally. But, over a decade of fairly constant use isn’t bad, especially for what the latter cost me.
Cheap mice? Coupled with double-click, don’t expect to retire with one still working.
Switch-bounce is likely the issue here, due to oxidized and / or “de-sprung” contacts.
I’d certainly like to know where to source replacement microswitches. Our electronics outlets have practically gone now, in the UK. Just mail order.
Online…ebay and electronics suppliers like RS, Element14 (previously Farnell), etc. The difficult/tedious part is finding matching switches (3 types for that logitech, but one was a tactile¹). If you can’t find a make and model then it’s just a matter of measuring and of course reading a lot of datasheets.
I think I did eventually source some microswitches for my thumb buttons (the last ones to go) on the logitech. However I was impatient and curious, so I opened up the one that didn’t work properly, and saw that it was just de-sprung enough for the plunger not to trigger it reliably (still shiny, no oxidation at all, and no excessive bounce). I left the cover off and glued a carefully sized piece of plastic to the button. It worked well for years, never needed the replacements.
I actually only changed the mouse so I could have more thumb buttons.
¹However it was a through hole with a fairly low profile. At the time, I could only find surface mount ones with the correct profile, so I cut off the original, bent the legs on the replacement and pushed it into the holes. I was kinda surprised it worked, but I did need to replace that switch every year or two (It was the middle mouse button, and was used heavily for reloading in an FPS) luckily I had to buy 50 (for £2-£3) so I never ran out.
