Risc OS Pi and unreliable mouse behaviour

Hi there,

I have been using Risc OS on the Pi for years now, it’s a great OS, but mouse has never worked well for me.
I have several mouses around.

-Simple, USB cabled Asus optical mouse. It takes AGES (sometimes even 10min) for the mouse to start working on Risc OS. Button presses are working since the first moment on the desktop (I can see the cursor changing color when I press left mouse button), but movement does not work until a LONG period of time passes. Once I reboot, it’s working immediately! What its going on here?

-Wireless Logitech mouse. Works immediately, but sometimes it moves by itself. Once it starts doing that, it keeps moving on the last direction I moved it, but with a constant speed. It’s annoying and I have to reboot…

Well, those mouses work perfectly on GNU/Linux on the Pi. It’s a Pi2, I also have a Pi3 and the same things happen.
I am using the latest Risc OS version available for download here in Risc OS Open. No strange modules, configurations, etc.
Also, I am using the official RAspberry Pi power supply, no low power advices are shown.
Is there something I can try to improve these problems? They are really annoying. And I don’t see Risc OS Pi as a BETA anymore.

Wireless Logitech mouse … moves by itself

Seen that one. It usually happens for me when I shutdown – though not every time. It’s a good game trying to click at the point that the pointer drifts across the icon you want. Pressing restart on the shutdown screen doesn’t always fix it. As you say you have to reset the computer. It’s nothing to do with the wireless mouse being plugged directly into the pi – my wireless mouse is plugged in via a powered hub. It may be a mechanical USB switch I am using – the powered hub is switched between devices with a USB switch though I’m not sure as I get good periods where I can’t get it to happen and bad periods where it seems to happen often. Are you using a USB switch?

Asus Mouse

That sounds odd – the mouse working but the pointer not. I’d be interested to see the descriptors for the mouse. If you feel inclined could you plug in the Asus mouse and run USBDescriptors from my web site. It just lists information about the usbdevices you have attached in a task window. Can you then email this info to me at the address found on the ftpc page at the same website. Can’t say that it will do any good but you never know.

Hi SenorNueces,

I have a number of different mice – all USB wired. Some work better than others.

One of the things I have found is that if a nouse does not start up quickly, then unplugging it and plugging it back in again almost always gets it going reliably.

@colin: e-mail sent with the usbdescriptors results. I hope it helps with RISC OS mouse suppor on the Pi, which is not very good :(

then unplugging it and plugging it back in again almost always gets it going reliably.

A little observation from me. My Beagle used to be running a build of RISC OS from around 2012 (I saw no pressing need to upgrade). It worked fine with a cheap generic USB mouse.
I recently upgraded to a recent build in order to have EDID work with my little LCD panel, and this recent version of RISC OS doesn’t see the mouse. There’s no red light so I’m not even certain the port is powered?¹ I don’t have SeñorNueces patience, so I unplugged it and plugged it in again; but it would be a rather annoying thing to have to do at every boot.

¹ I tried running the LCD panel powered by the USB port and while that worked, I did observe the Beagle xM’s USB power turning off and on again several times during boot. Is that normal? I can’t imagine spinning rust liking that much…

!USBKick sometimes get a keyboard going if the Pi boots up without it. It may do the same for a shy rodent.

Plug an external mouse into a pi-top and in short order you’ll get a mouse pointer with a mind of its own. Unplugging and plugging it back in cures it, but it’s very annoying having to do that every time. Plug said mouse into a Pi without the pi-top hub connected and it behaves.

I suspect it’s a USB issue, missed or dropped packets, but it could equally be an OS “feature” or even USB power related. Very hard to tell where the issue is without USB packet sniffing externally and internally simultaneously, to rule out packet loss.

!USBKick sometimes get a keyboard going if the Pi boots up without it.

I can confirm that it can also get a non responding mouse working!
I’ve also been able to test it on a RapidO Ig & RapidO Ti.

To get the mouse working I wrote an obey file with Filer_run !USBKick

To get the mouse working I wrote an obey file

You may have missed the Community Support post by Colin offering a test ROM which he thinks might deal with missing keypresses and mouse pointer issues.

If that works for people then it’s better than a work around that involves manual intervention prodding USB back to proper behaviour.

I’m even more confident now that I’ve fixed it. I’ve been running my pi all day powered from a usb hub with with some usb devices plugged in to the pi so that the voltage was below usb minimum spec voltage and it hasn’t missed a click and the pointer has never drifted. Previously my pi was unusable at anywhere near that voltage.

It also fixes the problem of the network port not being detected when overclocking.

You may have missed the Community Support post by Colin offering a test ROM which he thinks might deal with missing keypresses and mouse pointer issues.

Colins ROM is for only the Pi. I was seeing USBKick fix totally unresponsive mice or keyboard on an Iyonix, Pi and a RapidO Ig. The problem is only ever very occasional and whilst a proper fix is what we want. Ians USBKick is a useful tool in the interim.
Interesting that Colins fix also reportedly helps with the very common problem of Pi keys autorepeating.

I have the annoying problem that mouse clicks are ignored in around 30%-50% on my raspberry pi 3. It is a cabled usb mouse. Is this a known problem and is there something you can do? Reading this thread I tried !USBKick but it didn’t help.

I’m running 5.24 (16-Apr-18) on a Pi3 using a rather old cabled HP USB 3-button optical mouse (no scrollwheel), and it has been 100% reliable, both click- and pointer-wise for the last two years (the Pi generally runs 24/7). About once a fortnight I get an instance of autorepeating which does not persist. The Pi is not overclocked and is powered by a PiHut 5.1v/2.5a power supply.
Mouse speed is set towards slow, about 10% along the slow>fast slider), drag delay is 0.5s, drag start distance 32 OS units, Double-click delay is 1.0s, Double-click cancel distance is 32 OS units, Autoscroll delay is 0.5s – I think these are the defaults as I’ve not had cause to adjust them AFAICR.

I too have had mouse issues with some optical logitech wireless USB mice not working at all.

That said most wondering mice issue and for that matter keyboard typing issues with RISC OS are down to low or under voltage mains input (even if the pis not stating it has an issue).

Excluding the Pi4 all Pis from the 2012 model A/B originals to the newer 3B+ benefit from using a 5volt , 2.1 AMP or higher (AMP) supply.

Low amp-age can cause major operational problems such as wondering cursors and self typing keyboards

Its also worth noting that the Pi and most USB 5v power supplies dont have mains side filter capacitors (the things that normally blow up in BBC Micros) so other major issues can arise if you run from a ‘dirty’ mains supply.
So if the wiring in your house is very old or if you have a power hungry or old appliances running off the same socket. The Pi is very prone to frequency / voltage drops or large amounts of RF interference as the bare boards do not have RF shielding.

What i can suggest is try the really cheap USB mice from Poundland. These work great with RISC OS Pi if your still having issues with one of these, then something else local to your setup is the issue.

I do note Linux seems far less inflicted with USB controller issues but although its the same hardware its not the same USB controller driver. RISC OS might just be prone to this on the Pi.

The development version of the ROM 5.27 is far better than 5.24 regarding keyboard/mouse problems for me. Which version are you using Michael? Without the fix in the development rom I still see the problem on a pi4.

Thanks for the answers, I’m using RISC OS 5.27 and the original raspberry pi power supply delivering 2.5A. But I have plugged it in a multiple outlet power strip so there could be some interference. I will also try to get a second mouse to see whether this makes it any better.