This started happening recently, but I’m not sure exactly when.
This is a very new install of Fedora 44 without a lot going on. Just a few apps like Steam, Krita etc, installed. The install is about a week old.
Randomly the touch pad, screen and stylus will either independently or all at once stop working or register random inputs, as seen In the GIF.
I haven’t been able to pinpoint a cause at all because it’s so random. Occasionally a restart or logging out and in will fix it, but other times it persists through restarts. This leads me to believe it’s the hardware, but I know fedora has been extremely buggy for me since 43, so I’m not sure what to blame here.
I’d be very interested to know if anyone else has experienced this. I am very tempted to just buy new display and data cables to see if that’s the issue since I don’t want to spend a month emailing support to get them.
This has rendered my laptop nearly unusable because it happens every few hours and almost every day, so any and all help or information would be appreciated.
Sorry, could you describe what’s going on in the gif?
Display glitches and random inputs?
When it stops working, does it appear fully dead? Does it ever seem like the cursor is being “held” in one spot?
I’d suggest checking if disabling your touch screen helps.
On my thinkpad touchscreen I’ve had random inputs, and also the cursor freezing due to the touchscreen holding it in one spot. For me it is just from using too much moisture on a cloth when cleaning the screen and some of it wicking under the frame edge, causing a phantom touch(es) until it dries.
I do xinput list to find the number of my touchscreen, then disable touch with xinput disable #. But I’m still on X rather than wayland.
Sorry, could you describe what’s going on in the gif?
Display glitches and random inputs?
It seems to be registering inputs from the left and right edges of the screen. You can see it by the way the green selection box is flickering all over in the gif.
To me it seems to be two things: It does what’s pictured in the gif where it seems to register phantom inputs from various places on screen, or it is just completely dead. Meaning I’m unable to click things using the Touch pad, Screen nor Stylus.
In this circumstance I have to power off the machine by holding the power button or using the keyboard only.
Unfortunately I rely on touch to do my drawing :\
I’ve been forced recently to abandon the laptop altogether to do work. I’ve been working traditionally and with another drawing tablet for digital projects.
Oh yeah, I don’t mean disabling the touchscreen as a solution, just to troubleshoot & find if it’s the sole source of your problem. Before you go and buy a new screen.
I will definitely try that!
I suspect it’s to do with one of the data or ribbon cables rather than the screen because my touch pad also exhibits weird behavior.
I have an issue with random touchscreen inputs (mostly when using stylus and basically out of the box) and it didn’t get fixed even after replacing display kit. Since you’re using KDE, you should try enabling touch visualization in System Setrings > Window Managment > Effects and at least see if it contributes to the problem.
Also it happens to me at least once a week, that stylus can be tracked but no pressure/touches can be sensed, unless I remove and insert the stylus battery. I’m using Fedora 44 too and keyboard started misbehaving several weeks ago - I still can use touchpad or screen inputs, but no key presses are registered until system is totally shut down. I hate how random this is and because of that haven’t attempted to reproduce this with live USBs.
It’s extremely random and intermittent which has made it very hard to troubleshoot or gather evidence for in order to give to support.
My biggest problems are with stylus, touchscreen and track pad inputs not being registered, (Can’t click on stuff) but I also get random inputs, and its absolutely maddening. It happens multiple times a day for me.
I will give the touch visualization a try though. Thank you!
I just read through your posts. I get the same but probably not as often as you.
I get it on Fedora 44 Gnome.
Through a touchscreen tester website I can also confirm it is the middle of the left and right edges, just with yours.
Logging out doesn’t solve the issue, so I created a keyboard shortcut to a to shutdown the system, because I can’t really click anything if it happens.
Yup I’ve been testing it with touch visualization and its coming from directly in the center of the right and left side (more on the left though for me.)
This is such a specific and odd thing.
Here’s my theory: It’s either a bug in the firmware or the cables that connect the display to the main board are wearing in a very consistent way so as to cause the same type of data corruption in the input across devices. That’s just a guess though.
For me when it happens it’s pretty stubborn and doesn’t really go away. It usually behaves for a few minutes if I either restart, close and open the lid or log in and out.
Still waiting on support to respond. We’ll see what they say I guess.
i think i’m having the same issue on my laptop, running Arch with Gnome. in my case it seems like it’s the touchscreen having an issue where inputs occur in the top left to top middle of the screen.
it normally happens after i open the lid and wake the laptop from sleep AFTER i have been using the pen. the issue goes away on reboot, but starts coming back if i use the pen or touch the screen. i couldn’t find a solid fix for it and have just been disabling the touchscreen with the framework tool when i don’t plan on using it.
