[CentOS] mouse "stuck"

[Michael Hennebry]

On Sun, 8 Sep 2013, Bart Schaefer wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 6:19 AM, Michael Hennebry
> <hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu> wrote:
>> On Sun, 8 Sep 2013, Robert Nichols wrote:
>>
>>> On 09/08/2013 12:31 AM, Michael Hennebry wrote:
>>>> Sommetimes, for no apparent reason, my mouse cursor will become
>>>> four arrows and suddenly I cannot do anything with my desktop.
>>>> I can move the cursor and that is it.
>>
>> I could use cntrl-alt-backspace to kill the session,
>> but that seems too much like giving up.
>> This has happened to me before.
>> I'd like a different solution.
>
> Did you try unplugging the mouse and plugging it back in?  (Obviously,
> if wireless USB, unplug the receiver)

No.  Next time.

> If you have gpm running for console mouse services, try restarting (or
> just plain stopping) that.  It hasn't happened to me for a long time,
> but at one point for me gpm was occasionally getting into a bad state
> and turning off the mouse device, which would cause the X server to
> lose track of it as well.

I don't now.
ps -e | grep gpm
produces an empty list.
I eventually gave up and used cntrl-alt-backspace.
I'll try to remember the suggestions the next time it happens.

BTW when I had started another session with XFCE,
it was missing a couple things:
the hibernate option on logout
the icon to control whether my computer would interact with the network.

-- 
Michael   hennebry at web.cs.ndsu.NoDak.edu
"On Monday, I'm gonna have to tell my kindergarten class,
whom I teach not to run with scissors,
that my fiance ran me through with a broadsword."  --  Lily