Mouse does not work with GPM (on Raspbian)

[ArtemKiyashko]

I have a LCD touch screen connected to Raspberry PI with only terminal (Raspberry Pi OS Lite) and mouse events doesn't work there. For example i cannot switch tabs in tab view or click buttons, etc.

GPM module (General Purpose Mouse) working well in linux terminal (and Raspbian OS). But it does not triggering mouse events in Terminal.Gui. Would be perfect to have its support as well.

Currently i have to attach keyboard to work with terminal app using Teminal.Gui

[tznind]

Hey thanks for bringing this up. Are you able to run the 'Mouse' Scenario in UICatalog? when you do do you get any mouse events reported at all with the touchscreen?

My linux laptop has a touch screen and it works (kinda). To produce a click you have to tap the screen quite precisely but it does work.

For linux gui.cs uses ncurses library so it is possible that it doesn't support GPM or that a dependency is missing or something. I did an internet search for 'ncurses GPM touchscreen' and there were certainly other people having this issue.

[ArtemKiyashko]

Hi, i build UICatalog with parameters:
dotnet publish .\UICatalog.csproj --self-contained -r linux-arm -f net6.0 -c Release
Just for reference.

But result is not as expected. First of all some issues with colors. By default it running with black text on black background, so i have to swith theme color using hot-keys (and it works) But ok, its not my case.

Regarding mouse events: Mouse scenario does not register any event if i tap on screen or moving mouse pointer or clicking. But it reporting some events when i switching theme color with hot key :-)
I attaching couple of screenshots (these click events registered on after switching theme color, but not when i clicking the mouse). Hope it can help

UPDATE: I also checked GPM with htop tool and it works with mouse point (i can click the buttons) but doesnt work with taps :-) So im not really sure if the problem is in gui.cs only, probably there are 2 problems: one with mouse events (gui.cs) and second with my touchscreen or gpm + touch events

[tznind]

Thanks for helping investigate. What do you get when you type 'echo $TERM' at the console? If you set this environment variable to 'xterm-256color' does it change any of the behaviors?

Also would be good to know if running UICatalog with -usc changes anything? (this enables the UseSystemConsole setting)

[ArtemKiyashko]

When run echo $TERM i get just linux

• Without changing environment variable and just run UICatalog with -usc flags fix an issue with colors
• After changing TERM to xterm-256color i can run UICatalog without additional flags and there is everything fine with colors now

Attaching few photos to demostrate.

Mouse events still doesnt work here. Cannot click any button and Mouse scenario does not registering any events.

UPDATED: dont take into account 'invisible borders' mentioned here (i deleted this section) looks like it does not relate to gui.cs. Probably because i changed terminal font.

[ArtemKiyashko]

Here is small video with mouse scenario:

IMG_9461.MOV

[tznind]

Thanks for going into the detail on this. I'm not sure theres much I can do to help but at least the colors and keyboard are working. I do have a Raspberry Pi in one of my drawers so will try to have an explore at some point. It is strange that even a usb mouse does not register. It may be that one of the other maintainers would have more experience in this area.

[BDisp]

I can't help because I don't have a Raspberry Pi, sorry. But I notice that the more recent Linux versions, like the Debian 11.2.0 and the Ubuntu 22.04, using CursesDriver, the mouse events are messed by always repeating the last events on a mouse move. So, in simple mouse move CursesDriver is getting button click, double click or whatever wrong event.

[ArtemKiyashko]

No problems gents, using mouse in linux terminal definitely not a 'kill feature' :-) Especially if i can use a keyboard. Just wanted to have some touch-control in my app, but its not critical. Anyway thanks for support.

[tig]

I'm curious about what your app does.

[ArtemKiyashko]

@tig it has 2 tabs. first with telemetry from some sensors, second with data from custom ILogger implementation

IMG_9445.MOV

So i wanted to switch the tabs using touchscreen if need.

[tig]

That's awesome.

I am going to close this Issue as it appears this is not a bug in Terminal.Gui but in GPM or some dependent component. If you think I'm incorrect in this, please feel free to re-open it.