Dear Christopher, thank you for your prompt followup. I believe I caused the problem by installing the wrong version of xfce4 on top of ubuntu 12.04 when I did the reinstall. There is also some possibility that I corrupted the OS perl packages.
I have done a re-install. This time I installed 12.04. Then removed all the packages I did not want (gwibber, folks, zeitgeist, and various others) before I let the software update process run. Then I followed the process at: http://linuxaria.com/article/xfce-4-10-on-ubuntu-12-04?lang=en which has proved reliable in other ways. After this I installed perl, cpan for my user and so far so good. I have had a very good experience with ubuntu but I am going to return to debian and xfce4. The packages in ubuntu seem to be getting a bit intertwined and it is hard to get rid of packages you don't want and have them stay gone. I don't really know what gvfs is for example but I can't get rid of it. zeitgeist is anther hardy package that I have spent a lot of time purging and re-purging. It would be could if there was a stripped down release. Still I know it is a big job. Many thanks, J. E. Read -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to xorg in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/991707 Title: Mouse pointer (touchpad) gets stuck often Status in “xorg” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: In my Ubuntu 12.04, my mouse pointer gets stuck often. I'm talking about the touchpad and not the external mouse. The first thought would be to check whether we have given the option to lock the touchpad while typing. But, my pointer (touchpad) gets stuck simply often. The slightest of deductions I have been able to make is that this happens sometimes just after using the touchpad scrolling. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04 Package: gnome-shell 3.4.1-0ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic-pae 3.2.14 Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686 NonfreeKernelModules: wl ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu6 Architecture: i386 Date: Mon Apr 30 12:07:34 2012 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423) ProcEnviron: LANGUAGE=en_US:en TERM=xterm PATH=(custom, user) LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: gnome-shell UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/991707/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
