Mouse problems with F30 and kernel 5.2.7

I have been experiencing mouse problems with F30 after upgrading to kernel 5.2.7 on two different computers:

  1. On a laptop with the Logitech mouse Master 2S using a bluetooth connection. The movement of the mouse is not smooth and no combination of speed and acceleration settings can fix it.

  2. On a desktop with the Logitech mouse Master using the Logitech Unified Connector. The mouse seems to fall asleep after periods of inaction and it takes 1 or 2 seconds before it can move again. The same applies to the Logitech keyboard also connected to the same unified connector. Furthermore, the wheel seems to be very slow.

Reverting to kernel 5.0.9 fixed my problems so there must be a problem with the latest kernel. Updating kernels so fast is not a good practice before extensive testing unless Fedora wants to use its community for beta testing. I decided to lock my kernel version to 5.0.9 in order to avoid similar future surprises. I suggest other people do the same unless they need an updated kernel for some reason.

New kernels can always come with a regression. That’s why your Fedora system always keeps at least two more older kernels. I would even suggest to increase that number to at least 5. So, in case somehing goes wrong, you can simply boot the slightly older kernel until the problem has been fixed.

However, locking the kernel is a really bad idea. New kernels fix security-related issue, which are not being patched if you lock your kernel. Not updating a system is always a bad idea,.

In general, Fedora is moving fast and pretty to close to upstream. If that’s too fast for you, simply chose a distro that is focused more on stability, like CentOS (or Debian, or…).

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Also, it seems you are not updating (or not using) your F30 regularily at all. Current kernel is 5.2.7, if the next older kernel installed on your system is v.5.0.9 then your kernel was last upated four months ago (mid April).

You can install kernel-5.2.6 and see if your bug was already present there.

I update it on a daily basis but I decided to go for the 5.0.9 because I know it works for sure. As for kernel version 5.2.6, I cannot see it in the repository at this time. The only available versions are 5.0.9 and 5.2.7.

I want to have a stable base but new versions of GNOME, apps and especially development tools. CentOS is still in version 7, RHEL 8 does not even have EPEL yet and Debian has very old packages. I like to play with my system but when I need to do work I don’t have time to spent dealing with basic problems like a mouse that does not work properly. I just think that some more testing is required before something like a new kernel is released to the community which can create all sorts of problems to a well working system.

And you can contribute to it.

As far as I understand (and I’m just a Fedora user like you), some test are done automatically, but it’s unreasonable to expect they’ll find all the possible problems on all possible hardware configurations.

Apart from that, test are done by a (small?) group of community members on the hardware they own with the time they can afford for such test.

I haven’t ever heard about Fedora having a large hardware testing lab, or hardware testing partners, etc. I would be surprised (pleasantly) if I hear that’s the case.

So the most practical way of providing some more testing would be for ordinary users – such as you and me – to contribute to it. Please tell me if I’m wrong.

And making newer kernel packages stay in updates-testing longer won’t provide anything useful unless more users won’t test then. It will only delay their availability for most users. I.e. no positive effects, just more delay.

It’s quite hard to have both. For me personally Fedora strikes a near perfect balance, although I understand I take a risk of some update braking something (usually not much, and usually I manage to troubleshoot and maybe temporarily revert the change quite quickly). But I’d say that stable base is not really about Fedora, there are too many updates too quickly. That’s my opinion. And that’s what I like about Fedora (one of the things better to say) – updates providing bug and security fixes, and newer versions of application. And I accept the reverse side of this coin: updates can and sometimes will brake something for me.

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I see that too, when I do a dnf repoquery kernel. But that means you had locked the kernel to 5.0.9 (or exlcuded the package kernelfrom updating) long ago.

You can find a list of all kernels built for F30 here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/?packages=kernel&release=F30 (There you can select a kernel and click on Builds).

You can download all kernels that have been built for F30 from here: kernel | Package Info | koji.

Then, simply use dnf to install them. I’d give 5.2.6 a try. If it still fails, continue backwards in time to identify the kernel that introduced the regression.

It’s also possible @paspro just installed 5.0.9 kernel after he’d encountered trouble in newer ones.

This is very interesting but unfortunately I don’t have time for testing. I went through 5.2.6 during the regular update process and I had no problems with the mouse. It was only the latest update to 5.2.7 which caused the problem so it should be easy for someone to find the cause of the problem.

I am sure that a Logitech mouse connected either by Bluetooth or the Unified connector is not an unusual hardware that only a few users will have in any case.

Perhaps Red Hat, or some part of the money that Red Hat gives to Fedora every year, should go for testing hardware and people. After all Fedora serves as the upstream for RH so it would make their life much easier if they fork from a well tested system. Less work for them to build RHEL and a happier Fedora community!

Well.
I think that in the free software world, a big part in testing things is made by users. And trust me, even in proprietary software…
The advantage in free and open source software is that you have some sort of power. Yeah, sometimes it feels like that nobody cares of users reports. But you can open bugs, you can discuss with other people, if many people have the same issue, their voice is more loud.
So, you can always file a bug.
In the future you can consider to participate in testing the distribution.

People involved in Fedora do an amazing work in testing (quality assurance), but you know, there are a wide range of hardware and environments, and software is software so bugs are always ready to pop up.

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In that case I would report a bug against kernel (v. 5.2.7) (and install 5.2.6)

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Actually, I installed the not yet released 5.2.8 and this does not have the problem with the mouse.

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