Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) 'ning all, This troublesome device is attached to a Toshiba Satellite A30-104 (sadly, a model not covered by the Linux-laptop sites) and, while it does work, it's temperamental. Item 1: Just updated Mdk 10.1 to the new kernel 2.6.11-6mdk from thac's RPMs. Since then, the pad seems less responsive both to dragging and tapping. It feels like the sensitivity went down by about 40%, which is baaaaaad. (On a sidenote, I use a USB wireless mouse which doesn't seem affected. It's always worked well, and even in tandem with the touchpad which I hear often doesn't happen.) Item 2: In Windows the pad has a vertical scroll-wheel functionality when dragging at the right-hand side of the pad. This is really useful, and I'd love to be able to use it in Linux too if it's supported. So basically I'd like to learn how to configure this device. I guess I am off to a good-ish start if it works at all, but I don't know the first thing about what to do next. I've only found a couple of topics here about touchpads and XOrg configuration seems to be involved, but what does it all mean? Any noobie guides and detailed info about this configuration task gratefully accepted. Edited April 30, 2005 by Havin_it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Touchpads are controlled by synaptic. Do you use kde?. Install ksynaptic and go to the kde control center and adjust the settings to your liking (just as you would configure a mouse). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Hi, thanks for the reply. I installed the ksynaptics package and opened it up, but don't like what I see. All the controls are greyed out, and in the 'detected information' panel I have the following: XFree86 version: any Synaptics driver version: none bad - no driver installation detected! bad - X Shared memory unaccessible! That can't be good. When I go to drakconf > Hardware > Mouse, the mouse is defined as Universal > Any PS/2 & USB Mice. If I change it to Synaptics Touchpad, both the mouse and the touchpad lose control, any use of either kicks the cursor to the corner of the screen and just jerks around crazily. (This happens with or without the USB mouse connected) So that's not so good. I also looked in Hardware > Hardware and what's defined under 'Mouse' is, oddly enough, this: (copied from right pane) Connection Bus: isa Vendor ID: 0002 Device ID: 0008 Features Emulated wheel: No Misc Vendor: Description: AlpsPS/2 ALPS TouchPad Module: mouse0 That's it - just one entry, for a touchpad. Just for fullness, these are the mouse entries from /etc/X11/xorg.conf (which is a symlink to XF86Config): Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse1" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2" Option "Device" "/dev/mouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "SynapticsMouse1" Driver "synaptics" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.12" Option "MinSpeed" "0.06" Option "BottomEdge" "4200" Option "SHMConfig" "on" Option "LeftEdge" "1700" Option "FingerLow" "25" Option "MaxTapTime" "180" Option "MaxTapMove" "220" Option "FingerHigh" "30" Option "VertScrollDelta" "100" Option "TopEdge" "1700" Option "RightEdge" "5300" Option "AccelFactor" "0.0010" EndSection I note that there's a lot more config information for the touchpad entry, though I'm not sure what that means. Can anyone figure out what's going on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 And here's some information about device files, if it helps: /dev/mouse is a symlink to /dev/input/mice There's also /dev/mouse1, which is another symlink to /dev/input/mice /dev/input also contains (as well as 'mice') the files mouse0 and mouse1. Please help me make sense of this, I've no idea which bits are wrong or odd because it's all 'odd' to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 bad - no driver installation detected! Strange, I thought urpmi would install the dependencies. Check if you have the synaptic driver installed. http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=7825 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Maybe the problem is... that it isn't a Synaptics touchpad? (It's an ALPS) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac_dispatcher Posted April 27, 2005 Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Try adding psmouse.proto=imps to your bootloader and reboot. Reload lilo if MDK uses it first. Try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Thanks ... is that the same if using GRUB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) Okay guys, I DL'd the driver package at http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/ and I'll install it and see what happens. Backing up my xorg.conf and removing the USB mouse in case things go haywire. EDIT: No, hang on. This is just the same driver I've already got installed, isn't it? The driver (iif I understand) is already there at /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input/synaptics_drv.o So I'll just go ahead and add the boot line above and see what happens. Edited April 27, 2005 by Havin_it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 (edited) Thanks to ac_dispatcher, Item #1 is nailed. Adding the boot option above has restored sensitivity to the pad so I don't have to jab it at finger-breaking force before achieving a click. Progress! Still no joy with the scroller, though. Is there anyone with a working scroll-function on their pad that can post their xorg.conf for comparison? All other symptoms/files/readouts described above are unchanged, BTW. Anything else I should be looking at? EDIT: The last line was not true. The second config (the ALPS one) is now gone from the xorg.conf, so I'm gonna try replacing it from the backup, plus to change the device reference to /dev/psaux. Pray for me... Edited April 27, 2005 by Havin_it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Okay, here's the new conf I hacked together from my old one and the one ac_dispatcher posted in the linked thread. Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse1" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2" Option "Device" "/dev/mouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "SynapticsMouse1" Driver "synaptics" Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.12" Option "MinSpeed" "0.06" Option "BottomEdge" "4200" Option "SHMConfig" "on" Option "LeftEdge" "1700" Option "FingerLow" "25" Option "MaxTapTime" "180" Option "MaxTapMove" "220" Option "FingerHigh" "30" Option "VertScrollDelta" "100" Option "UpDownScrolling" "on" Option "TopEdge" "1700" Option "RightEdge" "5300" Option "AccelFactor" "0.0010" EndSection ... Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "layout1" InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer" InputDevice "SynapticsMouse1" "AlwaysCore" Screen "screen1" Screen "screen2" RightOf "screen1" #Option "Xinerama" EndSection Both mice are still working at this stage, but ksynaptics is still dead. The Hardware panel is still showing one mouse only, but now it's a PS/2 Generic Mouse. It doesn't seem to matter what I do to the xorg.conf, but the synaptics configs there are still over my head so I can't be sure of anything. Can anyone help? Ideas about where the problem might lie would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2005 Well, just learned the hard way that the "SynapticsMouse1" can't be made "CorePointer" - X puked on that boot saying there was no Synaptics pad detected or something. God I hate Vi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac_dispatcher Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 (edited) Try "nano" instead. simple and easy to use. Also since I moved to xorg I had to change it to Driver "mouse" for both the usb mouse and the touchpad. Also with my Laptop it says no synaptics found - both scrool and taps work. Ill post my XF86Config-4 when I get home for ya. Plug- If you have a broadband connection try and download the Mepis3.3 cd - Its a "live-cd". It found and correctly setup my touchpad. You could boot to the cd check to see if it works then check the settings. Edited April 28, 2005 by ac_dispatcher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ac_dispatcher Posted April 28, 2005 Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 (edited) Here is the sections out of my XF86Config-4 Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "LeftEdge" "1700" Option "RightEdge" "5300" Option "TopEdge" "1700" Option "BottomEdge" "4200" Option "FingerLow" "25" Option "FingerHigh" "30" Option "MaxTapTime" "180" Option "MaxTapMove" "220" Option "VertScrollDelta" "100" Option "MinSpeed" "0.06" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.12" Option "AccelFactor" "0.0010" Option "SHMConfig" "on" Option "Repeater" "/dev/input/mice" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "USB Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Buttons" "5" EndSection and Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "XFree86 Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer" EndSection What I have also seen in this setup is an addition to the Serverlayout: InputDevice "Touchpad" "SendcoreEvents" Edited April 28, 2005 by ac_dispatcher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havin_it Posted April 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted April 28, 2005 (edited) Thanks ac, looks like good info - will try out the configs shortly (might have a look at this nano first ;) ) and report. Can I ask a couple of clarifications/expansions on the above? 1 - You mention both devices use "driver" "mouse" under XOrg but the config shows otherwise. Are you currently back with XFree86? 2 - My config file doesn't have the '-4' suffix - is this relevant, if so how? 3 - Do you know what the config entries for the pad mean? I guess the '-Edge' ones are defining its area, but what about FingerLow/High, ZAxisMapping, SHMConfig, VertScrollDelta? Can't find man pages for the driver so I'm a bit lost on it all. Thanks again for the input, I _really_ appreciate it. PS - Do you work on MEPIS? :deal: I have heard of it as "a Knoppix that doesn't suck for HD install" - accurate? I've briefly tried Knoppix 3.7 on this box (not installed) but I don't recall having better results with the pad. Might have another go, to refresh my memory. Edited April 28, 2005 by Havin_it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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