Tails

This issue is unrelated to issue Bug #17235 but complements and exacerbates it. It has existed in every version of Tails I have used, so going back as far as 3.10 at least, and continues to exist in 4.0. I have not tried Troubleshooting mode for this issue. This issue is not exhibited in Windows 10 on the same device, so I guess it’s not a hardware problem.

Essentially, what happens is that the cursor will frequently continue to move in the direction of last movement after user interaction with the trackpoint (this is a Lenovo device) has ended. This ‘drift’ is very slow (perhaps one pixel per second) and often unnoticeable at a short distance. So long as this ‘drift’ is in motion the user cannot use the trackpad, for example to perform a ‘two-finger scroll’ in a webpage.

A somewhat reliable way to fix the drift is to move the trackpoint in the opposite direction to the ‘drift’, but as this can result in a new ‘drift’ in the new direction, this is not a guaranteed fix.

This issue combines with Bug #17235 to make user interaction with Tails quite a chore, actually, hopefully one or the other can be addressed in the near future.