Bug 577636 – Mouse pointer vanishes in gnome-shell activities overview

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE

[Description Matthias Langer 2016-03-17 15:58:48 UTC]

I'm using

gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.18.4-r1::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="bluetooth networkmanager nls (-openrc-force)" ABI_X86="64" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_4 -python3_3 -python3_5"

Unfortunately, the mouse pointer vanishes as soon as I press the super key (I can still use the mouse - I just don't see the pointer). The same happens if I navigate over the titlebar or the footer that is provided by gnome-shell. Note that I'm using a dual monitor setup. I tried both the nvidia-drivers, as well as the nouveau drivers from the kernel. Interestingly, this problem sometimes randomly disappears, and then comes back after a reboot. KDE on the other hand works just fine (unfortunately I would really prefer to work with Gnome).

$ emerge --info
Portage 2.2.26 (python 3.4.3-final-0, default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/gnome/systemd, gcc-4.9.3, glibc-2.21-r2, 4.1.15-gentoo-r1 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-4.1.15-gentoo-r1-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-4790K_CPU_@_4.00GHz-with-gentoo-2.2
KiB Mem:    16322276 total,  12753680 free
KiB Swap:   33554428 total,  33554428 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Thu, 17 Mar 2016 15:30:01 +0000
sh bash 4.3_p42-r1
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.25.1 p1.1) 2.25.1
app-shells/bash:          4.3_p42-r1::gentoo
dev-java/java-config:     2.2.0::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:            5.20.2::gentoo
dev-lang/python:          2.7.10-r1::gentoo, 3.3.5-r2::gentoo, 3.4.3-r1::gentoo
dev-util/cmake:           3.3.1-r1::gentoo
dev-util/pkgconfig:       0.28-r2::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:      2.2::gentoo
sys-apps/openrc:          0.19.1::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:         2.10-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/autoconf:       2.13::gentoo, 2.69::gentoo
sys-devel/automake:       1.11.6-r1::gentoo, 1.14.1::gentoo, 1.15::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:       2.25.1-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:            4.8.5::gentoo, 4.9.3::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:     1.7.3::gentoo
sys-devel/libtool:        2.4.6::gentoo
sys-devel/make:           4.1-r1::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 4.3::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:           2.21-r2::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /usr/portage
    sync-type: rsync
    sync-uri: rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage
    priority: -1000

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=native"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/lib64/libreoffice/program/sofficerc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /usr/share/maven-bin-3.0/conf /usr/share/maven-bin-3.3/conf"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=native"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/gentoo/"
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
MAKEOPTS="-j8"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 audacious avahi bash-completion berkdb bindist bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdr cli colord cracklib crypt cue cups cxx dbus dhcp djvu dri dts dvd dvdr dvi eds emboss encode evo exif fam fat ffmpeg firefox flac fontconfig fortran gdbm gif glamor gnome gnome-keyring gnome-online-accounts gpm gstreamer gtk hddtemp hpcups hpijs iconv inotify introspection ipv6 java jpeg lcms libass libnotify libsecret live lm_sensors lzma mad matroska mmx mmxext mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib natspec nautilus ncurses nls nptl ntfs ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf png policykit ppds pulseaudio puseaudio qt3support qt4 readline scrobbler sdl seccomp session spell sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg systemd taglib tcpd theora thunar tiff tracker truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb vim vim-pager vim-syntax vorbis wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xinerama xml xv xvid zeroconf zlib" ABI_X86="64 32" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 fma3 mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="en de fr" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php5-5" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby20 ruby21" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="vga nouveau intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  CC, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, USE_PYTHON

[Comment 1 Matthias Langer 2016-03-17 16:22:49 UTC]

Note that I just fixed this by doing a downgrade of gnome via

emerge -av =gnome-desktop-3.16.2 =gnome-control-center-3.16.3 =gnome-tweak-tool-3.16.2 =eog-3.16.3 =evince-3.16.1 =nautilus-3.16.2 =mutter-3.16.4 =gnome-shell-3.16.4 =gnome-shell-extensions-3.16.2 =gnome-settings-daemon-3.16.3 =gnome-core-libs-3.16.0 =gnome-session-3.16.0

That is,

gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.16.4::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="bluetooth i18n networkmanager (-openrc-force)" ABI_X86="64" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_4 -python3_3"

works fine for me, but 

gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.18.4-r1::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="bluetooth networkmanager nls (-openrc-force)" ABI_X86="64" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_4 -python3_3 -python3_5"

doesn't.

[Comment 2 Pacho Ramos 2016-03-28 14:05:03 UTC]

Does disabling the pointer plugin "solve" this?
dconf write /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/cursor/active false

[Comment 3 Matthias Langer 2016-03-28 19:15:54 UTC]

(In reply to Pacho Ramos from comment #2)
> Does disabling the pointer plugin "solve" this?
> dconf write /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/cursor/active false

Unfortunately not :-/.

[Comment 4 Matthias Langer 2016-03-28 19:31:00 UTC]

Just for the record, and so that others can copy-paste: I'm currently using the following entries in my package.mask (I'm using gnome-light) to make sure that my mouse pointer is not broken by an update:

>gnome-base/gnome-control-center-3.17
>gnome-extra/gnome-tweak-tool-3.17
>media-gfx/eog-3.17
>app-text/evince-3.17
>gnome-base/nautilus-3.17
>x11-wm/mutter-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.17
>gnome-extra/gnome-shell-extensions-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-settings-daemon-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-core-libs-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-session-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-desktop-3.17
>gnome-base/gnome-light-3.17

Most of the stuff in this list is to avoid conflicts. I thought that the essential part was

>gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.17
but maybe it's in fact

>x11-wm/mutter-3.17
I have to try that out...

[Comment 5 Matthias Langer 2016-03-28 19:44:13 UTC]

Well, unfortunately, I cannot upgrade 

x11-wm/mutter-3.16.4::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="introspection kms -debug -test -wayland" ABI_X86="64"

mutter in isolation, because then I get a big fat error when trying to log into a gnome session. Still, since the mouse pointer is at times also vanishing behind certain context menus, this issue might as well be a problem of the window manager.

[Comment 6 Matthias Langer 2016-06-19 16:05:24 UTC]

Well, luckily, from time to time, there are problems that take care of themselves. I no longer have this problem with

gnome-base/gnome-shell-3.18.5::gentoo was built with the following:
USE="networkmanager nls -bluetooth (-openrc-force)" ABI_X86="64" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_4 -python3_3 -python3_5"