Linux – Mouse scroll wheel has stopped working

linuxlinux-mintmousemouse-wheelscrolling

As of about a week ago, the scroll wheel on mice have stopped working (not just one, all mice). Here's what I've tried to investigate and fix the problem, all to no avail so far:

  • Confirmed the problem persists across three mice. One is Corsair, two are Logitech
  • Confirmed that all three mice work just fine on other operating systems
  • Booted Windows on the same machine and confirmed scroll works, so it's not a hardware problem
  • xinput shows the mouse, including the scroll wheel, and the button map is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
  • xev does not display any event for when the scroll wheel is moved. However, middle mouse click does work just fine.
  • Restarting the window manager had no effect
  • Switching to a different window manager had no effect
  • Restarting X had no effect
  • Rebooting had no effect
  • I have three USB ports, changing to any of them has no effect.
    Tried switching to a different mouse, same problem. Tried a third mouse, same problem.
  • Updated all software and upgraded the kernel
  • Searched for answers on Reddit, Super User, Quora, etc. but all the solutions have already been ruled out by the above
  • Asked a question on Reddit r/linuxmint but they were no help

Here's some info on what I'm using:

  • OS: Linux Mint 18.1
  • Kernel: x86-64 Linux 4.10.0-14-generic
  • WM: i3, also tried awesome and cinnamon

The biggest issue I see is that xev doesn't show an event and that the problem is consistent across different mice. Again, this problem just popped up a week ago, it had been working without a care for about a year prior. I can't think of any changes that could have caused this in the last days preceding and I'm growing increasingly frustrated.

Any ideas on cause, a fix, what to investigate next?

Update: As per comment, here's the output of xinput list-props:

Device 'ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse':
Device Enabled (152):   1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (154): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (276): 0
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (277):   1.000000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (278):   1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (279):    10.000000
Device Product ID (269):    6940, 6959
Device Node (270):  "/dev/input/event8"
Evdev Axis Inversion (280): 0, 0
Evdev Axes Swap (282):  0
Axis Labels (283):  "Rel X" (162), "Rel Y" (163), "Rel Z" (581), "Rel Rotary X" (582), "Rel Rotary Y" (583), "Rel Rotary Z" (584), "Rel Horiz Wheel" (489), "Rel Dial" (585), "Rel Vert Wheel" (275), "Rel Misc" (586), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0)
Button Labels (284):    "Button Left" (155), "Button Middle" (156), "Button Right" (157), "Button Wheel Up" (158), "Button Wheel Down" (159), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (160), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (161), "Button Side" (273), "Button Extra" (274), "Button Forward" (298), "Button Back" (299), "Button Task" (300), "Button 8" (579), "Button 9" (580), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272), "Button Unknown" (272)
Evdev Scrolling Distance (285): -77, -77, 1
Evdev Middle Button Emulation (286):    0
Evdev Middle Button Timeout (287):  50
Evdev Third Button Emulation (288): 0
Evdev Third Button Emulation Timeout (289): 1000
Evdev Third Button Emulation Button (290):  3
Evdev Third Button Emulation Threshold (291):   20
Evdev Wheel Emulation (292):    0
Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (293):   0, 0, 4, 5
Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (294):    10
Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (295):    200
Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (296): 4
Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (297):  0

And the output of evtest as I scroll the wheel up and down:

Event: time 1491756163.211018, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756163.211018, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756163.459021, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756163.459021, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756163.684019, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756163.684019, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756164.165007, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756164.165007, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756164.582066, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value 1
Event: time 1491756164.582066, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756164.712050, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value 1
Event: time 1491756164.712050, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756164.872037, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value 1
Event: time 1491756164.872037, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756165.095999, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value 1
Event: time 1491756165.095999, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756166.027074, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756166.027074, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1491756166.419054, type 2 (EV_REL), code 8 (REL_WHEEL), value -1
Event: time 1491756166.419054, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

Update 2: Relevant section of /var/log/Xorg.0.log. To be clear, here the mouse being used is Corsair, but I've also had the same issue with Logitech and Microsoft mice.

 (II) config/udev: Adding input device ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse (/dev/input/event6)
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
 (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse'
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: always reports core events
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Device: "/dev/input/event6"
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Vendor 0x1b1c Product 0x1b2f
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found 20 mouse buttons
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found keys
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Forcing relative x/y axes to exist.
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Configuring as mouse
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Configuring as keyboard
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
 (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/virtual/input/input15/event6"
 (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse" (type: KEYBOARD, id 14)
 (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
 (**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
 (**) Option "xkb_layout" "us"
 (II) config/udev: Adding input device ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse (/dev/input/event8)
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Applying InputClass "Natural Scrolling"
 (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse'
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: always reports core events
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Device: "/dev/input/event8"
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Vendor 0x1b1c Product 0x1b2f
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found 20 mouse buttons
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found scroll wheel(s)
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found relative axes
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found x and y relative axes
 (--) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Found keys
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Configuring as mouse
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Configuring as keyboard
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: Adding scrollwheel support
 (**) Option "VertScrollDelta" "-77"
 (**) Option "HorizScrollDelta" "-77"
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
 (**) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
 (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/virtual/input/input16/event8"
 (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse" (type: KEYBOARD, id 15)
 (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
 (**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
 (**) Option "xkb_layout" "us"
 (EE) BUG: triggered 'if (axnum >= dev->valuator->numAxes)'
 (EE) BUG: ../../Xi/exevents.c:2103 in InitValuatorAxisStruct()
 (EE) 
 (EE) Backtrace:
 (EE) 0: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (xorg_backtrace+0x4e) [0x560d79deaade]
 (EE) 1: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (InitValuatorAxisStruct+0x67) [0x560d79d7b677]
 (EE) 2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/evdev_drv.so (0x7f48d221e000+0x4b15) [0x7f48d2222b15]
 (EE) 3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/evdev_drv.so (0x7f48d221e000+0x58de) [0x7f48d22238de]
 (EE) 4: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/evdev_drv.so (0x7f48d221e000+0x6d23) [0x7f48d2224d23]
 (EE) 5: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (ActivateDevice+0x4a) [0x560d79c80c4a]
 (EE) 6: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x560d79c38000+0xa2b19) [0x560d79cdab19]
 (EE) 7: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x560d79c38000+0xb4f0b) [0x560d79cecf0b]
 (EE) 8: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x560d79c38000+0xb54f3) [0x560d79ced4f3]
 (EE) 9: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (config_init+0x9) [0x560d79cebea9]
 (EE) 10: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (InitInput+0xbb) [0x560d79ccefdb]
 (EE) 11: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (0x560d79c38000+0x57d91) [0x560d79c8fd91]
 (EE) 12: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xf0) [0x7f48d8c8d830]
 (EE) 13: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (_start+0x29) [0x560d79c7a049]
 (EE) 
 (II) evdev: ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: initialized for relative axes.
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: (accel) acceleration profile 0
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
 (**) ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
 (II) config/udev: Adding input device ckb1: Corsair Gaming Sabre PRO RGB Mouse (/dev/input/mouse0)
 (II) No input driver specified, ignoring this device.
 (II) This device may have been added with another device file.

The output of xinput --test when I scroll is:


motion a[8]=-1
motion a[8]=-2
motion a[8]=-3
motion a[8]=-2
motion a[8]=-1
motion a[8]=0
motion a[8]=1
motion a[8]=2
motion a[8]=3
motion a[8]=4
motion a[8]=3
motion a[8]=2
motion a[8]=1
motion a[8]=0

Best Answer

Many honest thanks to everyone here and on Reddit, especially @dirkt, for all the help. In the end, I went with the nuclear option: I wiped my root partition and reinstalled Linux. My scrollwheel works flawlessly now, and it fixed a few other problems I was having.

I don't recommend this for most users who run into a problem like this, though it does work. Go through some work trying to fix it before nuking everything (and of course, back up all your data first).

I'm now on Linux Mint 18.2 using the default 4.8 kernel. I can update my question with more information if anyone is curious about what the same command outputs are now.

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