Google Chrome cursor and text selection issues after upgrading to google-chrome-stable_41.0.2272.76-1_amd64

I upgraded from google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.95-1_amd64 to google-chrome-stable_41.0.2272.76-1_amd64 (automatic update on Ubuntu MATE 14.04 64 bit) and the mouse text selection stopped working and the cursor icons did not change when hovering over links in the updated browser, also got an annoying 'Enter you password to unlock login keyring' prompt when Chrome started.

To eliminate the distro from the mix I also upgraded Google Chrome on Xubuntu 14.04 64-bit from Google Chrome 39.0.2171.95-1 to 41.0.2272.76-1 and ran into the same problem.

I tried reinstalling the browser:

  sudo apt-get purge google-chrome-stable
  rm -rf ~/.config/google-chrome
  wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

But the problem still persisted so I downgraded back to the previous version, this worked, the problems dishappeared:

  sudo apt-get purge google-chrome-stable
  rm -rf ~/.config/google-chrome
  sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_40.0.2214.95-1_amd64.deb

Older versions of Google Chrome can be downloaded from http://mirror.pcbeta.com/google/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/

See also:

• how do I downgrade google chrome?
• http://ubuntuportal.com/2014/04/how-to-install-google-chrome-web-browser-in-ubuntu-14-04-lts-trusty-tahr.html

Have you tried the workaround?

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop ~/google-chrome.desktop.bak~
sudo sed -i 's/\/usr\/bin\/google\-chrome\-stable/\/usr\/bin\/google\-chrome\-stable \-\-touch\-devices=123/g' /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

If this workaround causes problems, use this command to uninstall:

sudo cp ~/google-chrome.desktop.bak~ /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Source: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=456222#c175