I do not know if this is 18.10 specific, but I am running there so…
I have 18.10 on a z83 (Atom) system. It has a Del S2240T touchscreen (“cooltouch”).
It has a minimal install (this is intended to be a controller for a piano so it is not a complex install).
The top left menu pulldown works fine. The top right icons will pull down a panel, but nothing from any of those function - they are visible, look like they work, but touching them does nothing.
If I plug in a real mouse, they work fine.
It’s not an accuracy thing – when I touch (to click) on a menu item in those panels it flashes in the correct place, but nothing happens. And it does pull down the proper menu panel.
The corresponding item works fine, e.g. I cannot invoke the sounds app from there, but if I run it from control center it works fine. And it works fine with a mouse.
I am running this from the install account. I have reinstalled several times (for other unrelated reasons) and the problem continues. I am using the daily build from 10/13.
The OnBoard icon is also on the top right, and it functions as expected (bringing up or hiding the onscreen keyboard).
Any idea?
Linwood
PS. I just did a live run of 18.04 and get the same thing, so it’s not Cosmic specific.
I remembered I had a Surface Pro (the original) around with a touch screen, so I booted it to USB with 18.04 live, and it has the same symptoms – the top right panels will pull down, but cannot be selected by touch. Since it’s immediately after boot with no manual configuration, it cannot be something I am breaking.
So I think this is a bug (for me a big one as my app will have no keyboard). Is it appropriate to enter it somewhere, or do others have suggestions?
Also, I have tried going through Mate Tweak and trying all other panel orientations, and even when on the bottom these panels do not work with touch, so it is not a placement issue but something incompatible touch. I also tried all window managers from tweak without any change in behavior.
What’s sad about this is I tried plain Ubuntu and can’t get onboard to work properly there, so had been using Mate 16.04 (on Pi) where this worked just fine. I upgraded hardware and to 18.04 and now can’t get it to work - not sure if it’s hardware or software. But this definitely worked fine on Pi Mate 16.04, and now doesn’t work on Arm64 18.04 or 18.10, with at least two different pieces of hardware.
Postscript: A bit more info - the problem is not isolated to these controls (apparently “indicator applet” and related names), it appears elsewhere. Rhythmbox’s pulldown menus for example will not function with text (like the indicators they pull down but cannot be selected – BUT a real mouse can select them).
Fundamentally touch appears simply broken in Mate (at least my two different touch devices).
Still hoping for help, but I did find this bug report and added to it, cross-posted here for anyone who might stumble across a similar issue.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate/+bug/1792787
It seems that touch screens (without keyboards or touchpads) must not be widely used; my impression is that 18.04/10 just does not work with them, but it apparently bothers few people. I would be very curious if someone has one (no keyboard or mouse) that IS working properly?