Questions[evdev](ubuntu)

I've just finished upgrading to Ubuntu Server 20.04.1 LTS, and so far, only one issue has come up: The beepcommand returns beep: Error: Could not open any device when run as user. Running sudo beep does not work, as expected. After a little bit of research, I have found that no beep group is existent on the system, as expected by the man page. I have tried reinstalling and reconfiguring without success.

To make things even stranger, beep works during boot via rc.local; at some point, however, it stops working and returns the error, thus breaking my rc.local-routine. Also, this command works just fine:

sudo env -u SUDO_GID -u SUDO_COMMAND -u SUDO_USER -u SUDO_UID beep

For clarification: I am running a headless home server that is not connected to any speakers; the simple noise-making-speaker is used for simple feedback during boot and if errors occur that require intervention. My setup used to work fine under Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS.

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 on a Dell Inspiron 15 7591 2-in-1. The laptop comes with a stylus, the Dell PN350M Active Pen, which unfortunately does not work properly under my system. I found out that the pen uses Microsoft Pen Protocol to pair with my device. Below are some of the outputs that might help with solving this issue.

I found out that sudo evtest shows the pressure readings perfectly however, xinput --test doesn't show the pressure readings at all and the tip is considered as Button 1.

sudo evtest
[sudo] password for parth: 
No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0:  Lid Switch
/dev/input/event1:  Power Button
/dev/input/event2:  Sleep Button
/dev/input/event3:  AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
/dev/input/event4:  Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate
/dev/input/event5:  DELL0908:00 04F3:30E3 Mouse
/dev/input/event6:  Dell WMI hotkeys
/dev/input/event7:  Intel HID events
/dev/input/event8:  Intel HID 5 button array
/dev/input/event9:  PS/2 Generic Mouse
/dev/input/event10: 2.4G Mouse
/dev/input/event11: 2.4G Mouse
/dev/input/event12: DELL0908:00 04F3:30E3 Touchpad
/dev/input/event13: Video Bus
/dev/input/event14: Video Bus
/dev/input/event15: CUST0000:00 27C6:0118
/dev/input/event16: CUST0000:00 27C6:0118 Stylus
/dev/input/event17: CUST0000:00 27C6:0118 UNKNOWN
/dev/input/event18: sof-hda-dsp Headphone Mic
/dev/input/event19: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=3
/dev/input/event20: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=4
/dev/input/event21: sof-hda-dsp HDMI/DP,pcm=5
Select the device event number [0-21]: 16
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x18 vendor 0x27c6 product 0x118 version 0x100
Input device name: "CUST0000:00 27C6:0118 Stylus"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
  Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
    Event code 47 (ABS_MT_SLOT)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max        9
    Event code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max     5760
      Resolution      17
    Event code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max     3240
      Resolution      17
    Event code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    65535
    Event code 58 (ABS_MT_PRESSURE)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max     1023
    Event code 59 (ABS_MT_DISTANCE)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max        1
Properties:
  Property type 1 (INPUT_PROP_DIRECT)
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Event: time 1599396868.187587, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID), value 43
Event: time 1599396868.187587, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X), value 3767
Event: time 1599396868.187587, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y), value 1597
Event: time 1599396868.187587, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1599396868.189591, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 59 (ABS_MT_DISTANCE), value 0
Event: time 1599396868.189591, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 58 (ABS_MT_PRESSURE), value 11
Event: time 1599396868.189591, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

xinput --test 15
motion a[0]=44467 a[1]=32959 
button press   1 a[0]=44467 a[1]=32959 
motion a[0]=44467 a[1]=32939 
motion a[0]=44490 a[1]=32919 
motion a[0]=44501 a[1]=32878 
motion a[0]=44524 a[1]=32858 
motion a[0]=44546 a[1]=32818 
motion a[0]=44592 a[1]=32757 
motion a[0]=44626 a[1]=32716 
motion a[0]=44672 a[1]=32676 
motion a[0]=44717 a[1]=32656 
motion a[0]=44774 a[1]=32615 
motion a[0]=44831 a[1]=32595 
motion a[0]=44888 a[1]=32575 
motion a[0]=44956 a[1]=32575 
motion a[0]=45013 a[1]=32575 
motion a[0]=45070 a[1]=32575 
motion a[0]=45127 a[1]=32555 
motion a[0]=45195 a[1]=32555 
motion a[0]=45252 a[1]=32534 
motion a[0]=45309 a[1]=32514 
motion a[0]=45366 a[1]=32494 
motion a[0]=45422 a[1]=32454 
motion a[0]=45491 a[1]=32433 
motion a[0]=45548 a[1]=32413 
motion a[0]=45616 a[1]=32393 
motion a[0]=45695 a[1]=32373 
motion a[0]=45775 a[1]=32332 
motion a[0]=45832 a[1]=32312 
motion a[0]=45877 a[1]=32292 
motion a[0]=45912 a[1]=32292 
motion a[0]=45934 a[1]=32272 
motion a[0]=45934 a[1]=32251 
motion a[0]=45946 a[1]=32231 
motion a[0]=45946 a[1]=32211 
motion a[0]=45946 a[1]=32191 
motion a[0]=45957 a[1]=32150 
motion a[0]=45957 a[1]=32110 
motion a[0]=45968 a[1]=32049 
motion a[0]=45980 a[1]=32009 
motion a[0]=45991 a[1]=31928 
motion a[0]=46048 a[1]=31665 
motion a[0]=46037 a[1]=31705 
motion a[0]=46105 a[1]=31422 
motion a[0]=46094 a[1]=31443 
motion a[0]=46105 a[1]=31402 
motion a[0]=46116 a[1]=31341 
motion a[0]=46116 a[1]=31341 
button release 1 a[0]=46116 a[1]=31341

Any help would be appreciated!

A few weeks of experimentation with libinput led me to believe that many of its advanced mouse-related features are not (yet?) implemented. Most importantly to me, you cannot block the mouse wheel with it, nor can you emulate the mouse wheel system-wide with the middle button. My question is twofold:

1. Would it make sense to switch my Ubuntu from libinput to evdev? Am I going to lose anything important, either immediately or in the long run?
2. If there are no apparent disadvantages to this course, how should I go about it? apt lists dozens of packages for both, some labeled hwe and some not. What should I remove and what should I install instead?

I try to use uinput to make simple autoclicker. It worked just fine in linux mint 18.3, but something is wrong on Ubuntu 18.04.

This is what xinput list show:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                    id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB Optical Mouse                    id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SIGMACHIP USB Keyboard                        id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ uinput_autoclicker                            id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard                   id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                                  id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                                  id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                                  id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ USB2.0 Camera: USB2.0 Camera                  id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ SIGMACHIP USB Keyboard                        id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ SIGMACHIP USB Keyboard                        id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]

And evtest output:

Event: time 1528384945.343765, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 1
Event: time 1528384945.343765, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 0
Event: time 1528384945.343765, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1528384945.368880, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 1
Event: time 1528384945.368880, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 0
Event: time 1528384945.368880, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1528384945.394015, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 1
Event: time 1528384945.394015, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 0
Event: time 1528384945.394015, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1528384945.419128, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 1
Event: time 1528384945.419128, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 0
Event: time 1528384945.419128, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1528384945.444304, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 1
Event: time 1528384945.444304, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 272 (BTN_LEFT), value 0
Event: time 1528384945.444304, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

and so on…

grep -e "Using input driver " /var/log/Xorg.0.log:

[  3012.644] (II) Using input driver 'libinput' for 'uinput_autoclicker'

Same problem if I try emulating keyboard/etc. How can I fix it?

UPD: I use cinnamon installed on XUbuntu. xorg.conf is auto-generated by nvidia-settings.

I am facing a very strange problem. Out of the blue, my browser starts refreshing itself infinitely. My first guess was firefox is messing up. I installed chrome. But, it happens in chrome as well.

Other than that, sometimes my home folder automatically opens and keep opening itself infinitely. My next guess was Mouse is faulty. Replace the mouse - but same things.

This happens even if I remove my keyboard.

What can be the reason? This started happening after I installed Ubuntu 10.10 few days back. Earlier on windows, everything was working fine. So, I am a bit skeptical to assume that this is a hardware fault.

How to fix this problem?

UPDATE:

xev gives this kind of result:

KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001, root 0xb8, subw 0x0, time 29897358, (237,791), root:(1252,842), state 0x10, keycode 65 (keysym 0x20, space), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " " XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " " XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001, root 0xb8, subw 0x0, time 29897603, (237,791), root:(1252,842), state 0x10, keycode 65 (keysym 0x20, space), same_screen YES, XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (20) " " XFilterEvent returns: False