Dear Sir,
I am emailing regarding some problems I have been having with the touchpad
on my laptop (a hp pavilion dv5046ea running Fedora Core 5 x86_64).
[ Here are the specifications for my laptop:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12319008-69074479.html]
Support for my touchpad seems to have gotten worse rather than better in
successive kernels from 2054 onwards.
While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154, 2174
etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the onscreen pointer
to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on computers with v. low
RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a) everything else works fine, there
is no slow down of any of the programs I run, only problems with the mouse
and b) I have just upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily use a
mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
Do you have any ideas what's wrong?
Thanks
LS
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live? Messenger has arrived. Click here to download it for free!
http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/?locale=en-gb
On 8/14/06, Luke Sharkey <[email protected]> wrote:
> Dear Sir,
>
> I am emailing regarding some problems I have been having with the touchpad
> on my laptop (a hp pavilion dv5046ea running Fedora Core 5 x86_64).
> [ Here are the specifications for my laptop:
> http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12319008-69074479.html]
>
>
> Support for my touchpad seems to have gotten worse rather than better in
> successive kernels from 2054 onwards.
>
> While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154, 2174
> etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the onscreen pointer
> to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on computers with v. low
> RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a) everything else works fine, there
> is no slow down of any of the programs I run, only problems with the mouse
> and b) I have just upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
>
> If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily use a
> mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
>
What kind of touchpad is this? Are you using synaptics X driver or
standard mouse driver? Also I am not quire sure what 2054 or 2154 is.
Can you please try vanilla kernels from kernel.org?
Dave, is there a place where one can see contents of a given RH kernel
(without downloadig and unpacking SRPM)?
--
Dmitry
On Monday 14 August 2006 09:58, Luke Sharkey wrote:
>Dear Sir,
>
>I am emailing regarding some problems I have been having with the
> touchpad on my laptop (a hp pavilion dv5046ea running Fedora Core 5
> x86_64). [ Here are the specifications for my laptop:
>http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-381
>91-12319008-69074479.html]
>
>
>Support for my touchpad seems to have gotten worse rather than better in
>successive kernels from 2054 onwards.
>
>While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154, 2174
>etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the onscreen
> pointer to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on computers
> with v. low RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a) everything else
> works fine, there is no slow down of any of the programs I run, only
> problems with the mouse and b) I have just upgraded from 512 MB of RAM
> to 1 GB.
>
>If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily use
> a mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
>
>Do you have any ideas what's wrong?
>
>Thanks
>LS
I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works just
fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad as its
way too sensitive, making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next keystroke
then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly destroying any
chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable email response to
anyone.
Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the ravings of
a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable it, dumbest bios
I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated in the last 3 months.
I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
stop such goings on.
So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
situation.
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
Gene Heskett wrote:
<snip>
> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works just
> fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad as its
> way too sensitive, making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
Enable the proper USB options, point X/GPM to /dev/input/mouse1 - or
whatever.
It'd be nice if you could do this for keyboards too - but AIUI, you can't.
HI Gene,
On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works just
> fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad as its
> way too sensitive,
Are you using synaptics X driver? It can be tweaked to adjust
sensitivity and lots of other things.
> making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
> without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
> often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next keystroke
> then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly destroying any
> chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable email response to
> anyone.
>
Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.
> Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the ravings of
> a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable it, dumbest bios
> I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated in the last 3 months.
>
> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
> pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
> hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
> lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
> responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
> cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
> stop such goings on.
>
> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
> situation.
>
There are ways to disable it:
echo -n "manual" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode
echo -n "none" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdrvctl
This should disable it completely.
--
Dmitry
On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 10:36:14AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On 8/14/06, Luke Sharkey <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Dear Sir,
> >
> > I am emailing regarding some problems I have been having with the touchpad
> > on my laptop (a hp pavilion dv5046ea running Fedora Core 5 x86_64).
> > [ Here are the specifications for my laptop:
> > http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/21675-38187-38191-38191-38191-12319008-69074479.html]
> >
> >
> > Support for my touchpad seems to have gotten worse rather than better in
> > successive kernels from 2054 onwards.
> >
> > While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154, 2174
> > etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the onscreen pointer
> > to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on computers with v. low
> > RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a) everything else works fine, there
> > is no slow down of any of the programs I run, only problems with the mouse
> > and b) I have just upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
> >
> > If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily use a
> > mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
> >
>
> What kind of touchpad is this? Are you using synaptics X driver or
> standard mouse driver? Also I am not quire sure what 2054 or 2154 is.
> Can you please try vanilla kernels from kernel.org?
>
> Dave, is there a place where one can see contents of a given RH kernel
> (without downloadig and unpacking SRPM)?
There are cvs instructions at http://people.redhat.com/davej
A link to cvsweb is also there.
Quick version number mapping, based on cvs annotate kernel-2.6.spec ..
2054 - 2.6.16-rc6-git3
2154 - 2.6.17.3
2174 - 2.6.17.8
Dave
--
http://www.codemonkey.org.uk
On Monday 14 August 2006 11:06, Ian Stirling wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
><snip>
>
>> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
>> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works
>> just fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad
>> as its way too sensitive, making it impossible to type more than a line
>> or 2
>
>Enable the proper USB options, point X/GPM to /dev/input/mouse1 - or
>whatever.
Please describe how to do this and it will be done forthwith.
>It'd be nice if you could do this for keyboards too - but AIUI, you
> can't.
That too. I've had the feeling but cannot nail it to the wall, that some
of this IS keyboard related as it seems to happen much more frequently for
some keypress combo's. Typing a 't' is particularly dangerous, like the
rollover protection is zip...
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 10:38:04AM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
> pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
> hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
> lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
> responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
> cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
> stop such goings on.
>
> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
> situation.
I'm seeing issues as well on my Dell Inspiron 8000 (yes, it has a Synaptics,
NOT ALPS as usual on Inspiron):
(without a mouse plugged in) after random times the pointer exhibits
clear signs of craziness, moving on its own (mild issue) or jumping
uncontrollably (worse) or being completely off-screen most of the time
(worst).
IIRC (I'm quite sure about this) the very first time that I've seen
this phenomenon happen on my notebook was around 2.6.9,
and I attributed this to broken/grown-old hardware on my notebook
(thus from then on mostly running with external mouse attached),
but since several people now report very similar issues
one would think that it's a driver calibration or touchpad setup issue
instead of actually broken touchpad hardware.
Plus, I'm sometimes having issues with pointer movement (cursor won't advance
any more unless I stop touching the touchpad for a few seconds to let it
reset somehow - probably a bytestream hickup issue).
Any clues?
Andreas Mohr
On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 11:13:38AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> HI Gene,
>
> On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
[...]
> >making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
> >without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
> >often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next keystroke
> >then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly destroying any
> >chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable email response to
> >anyone.
> >
>
> Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
> when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.
oh, that should be the syndaemon ;)
--
mattia
:wq!
On Monday 14 August 2006 11:13, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
>HI Gene,
>
>On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
>> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works
>> just fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad
>> as its way too sensitive,
>
>Are you using synaptics X driver? It can be tweaked to adjust
>sensitivity and lots of other things.
No, I've tried to totally disable any references to it in the xorg.conf.
Unsuccessfully it would appear, even so far as to say no effect from doing
so.
>> making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
>> without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
>> often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next
>> keystroke then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly
>> destroying any chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable
>> email response to anyone.
>
>Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
>when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.
>
Its not installed that I know of. Availability?
>> Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the
>> ravings of a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable it,
>> dumbest bios I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated in the
>> last 3 months.
>>
>> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics
>> is a pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled
>> somehow, hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or
>> cutting every lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave
>> instead of responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've
>> gotten hand cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that
>> abomination to stop such goings on.
>>
>> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics
>> touchpad situation.
>
>There are ways to disable it:
>
>echo -n "manual" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode
bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode: No such file or directory
>echo -n "none" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdrvctl
bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdvrctl: Permission denied
The above is from a root bash shell while X is running the KDE desktop.
>
>This should disable it completely.
next step? :)
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 10:38:04AM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics is a
> > pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled somehow,
> > hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or cutting every
> > lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave instead of
> > responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand
> > cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that abomination to
> > stop such goings on.
> >
> > So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics touchpad
> > situation.
>
> I'm seeing issues as well on my Dell Inspiron 8000 (yes, it has a Synaptics,
> NOT ALPS as usual on Inspiron):
>
> (without a mouse plugged in) after random times the pointer exhibits
> clear signs of craziness, moving on its own (mild issue) or jumping
> uncontrollably (worse) or being completely off-screen most of the time
> (worst).
>
> IIRC (I'm quite sure about this) the very first time that I've seen
> this phenomenon happen on my notebook was around 2.6.9,
> and I attributed this to broken/grown-old hardware on my notebook
> (thus from then on mostly running with external mouse attached),
> but since several people now report very similar issues
> one would think that it's a driver calibration or touchpad setup issue
> instead of actually broken touchpad hardware.
>
> Plus, I'm sometimes having issues with pointer movement (cursor won't advance
> any more unless I stop touching the touchpad for a few seconds to let it
> reset somehow - probably a bytestream hickup issue).
>
> Any clues?
>
Yes, you might want to reseat your touchpad connector and vacuum the
case a bit. Inspiron 8000 is almost the same as 8100 and I am using it
constantly ;) Well, I thought my keyboard broke because PgUp stopped
working but it recovered after I got a hairball from under the key.
Just make sure you do not pull ACPI battery info to often.
--
Dmitry
Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Monday 14 August 2006 11:06, Ian Stirling wrote:
>> Gene Heskett wrote:
>> <snip>
>>
>>> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
>>> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works
>>> just fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad
>>> as its way too sensitive, making it impossible to type more than a line
>>> or 2
>> Enable the proper USB options, point X/GPM to /dev/input/mouse1 - or
>> whatever.
>
> Please describe how to do this and it will be done forthwith.
Actually - I think it should be stock.
Try cat /dev/input/mouse0 - and moving the mouse/trackpad. if this
generates random text, then you're done.
/dev/input/mice is a fake device that globs all the mice in the system
together.
/dev/input/mouse[n] is the nth mouse on the system.
Also - you can just go to device drivers/input - and disable the ps/2
mouse driver.
Set up X and GPM to use /dev/input/mouse1 - if this is your USB mouse,
and it just works.
On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Monday 14 August 2006 11:13, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> >HI Gene,
> >
> >On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
> >> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works
> >> just fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics pad
> >> as its way too sensitive,
> >
> >Are you using synaptics X driver? It can be tweaked to adjust
> >sensitivity and lots of other things.
>
> No, I've tried to totally disable any references to it in the xorg.conf.
> Unsuccessfully it would appear, even so far as to say no effect from doing
> so.
Ok, so you are most likely using mousedev emulation mode. Not the best
choice with ALPS/Synaptics. I recommend usig specialized driver for X
(see below).
>
> >> making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
> >> without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the message,
> >> often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the next
> >> keystroke then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly
> >> destroying any chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable
> >> email response to anyone.
> >
> >Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
> >when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.
> >
> Its not installed that I know of. Availability?
>
http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/
It is a part of Synaptics X driver. And I apologize, it is called
syndaemon, not synclient.
> >> Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the
> >> ravings of a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable it,
> >> dumbest bios I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated in the
> >> last 3 months.
> >>
> >> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the synaptics
> >> is a pain in the ass and should be capable of being totally disabled
> >> somehow, hopefully short of opening the lappy up and unplugging or
> >> cutting every lead to it until such time as it can be made to behave
> >> instead of responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to 3/4" above it. I've
> >> gotten hand cramps trying to hold my thumbs far enough away from that
> >> abomination to stop such goings on.
> >>
> >> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics
> >> touchpad situation.
> >
> >There are ways to disable it:
> >
> >echo -n "manual" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode
> bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode: No such file or directory
> >echo -n "none" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdrvctl
> bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdvrctl: Permission denied
>
> The above is from a root bash shell while X is running the KDE desktop.
> >
> >This should disable it completely.
>
> next step? :)
>
serioX is the name of serio port your touchpad is connected to
(serio0, serio1, etc) You will have to look which port is bound to
psmouse driver.
--
Dmitry
On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 11:41:29AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Plus, I'm sometimes having issues with pointer movement (cursor won't
> >advance
> >any more unless I stop touching the touchpad for a few seconds to let it
> >reset somehow - probably a bytestream hickup issue).
> >
> >Any clues?
> >
>
> Yes, you might want to reseat your touchpad connector and vacuum the
> case a bit. Inspiron 8000 is almost the same as 8100 and I am using it
> constantly ;) Well, I thought my keyboard broke because PgUp stopped
> working but it recovered after I got a hairball from under the key.
Hmm, might need to verify that, but I've been cleaning it from time to time
(Murphy tells me that it was the regular cleaning which broke it ;).
> Just make sure you do not pull ACPI battery info to often.
Uh... why!?
Andreas Mohr
--
No programming skills!? Why not help translate many Linux applications!
https://launchpad.ubuntu.com/rosetta
(or alternatively buy nicely packaged Linux distros/OSS software to help
support Linux developers creating shiny new things for you?)
On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 11:41:29AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >Plus, I'm sometimes having issues with pointer movement (cursor won't
> > >advance
> > >any more unless I stop touching the touchpad for a few seconds to let it
> > >reset somehow - probably a bytestream hickup issue).
> > >
> > >Any clues?
> > >
> >
> > Yes, you might want to reseat your touchpad connector and vacuum the
> > case a bit. Inspiron 8000 is almost the same as 8100 and I am using it
> > constantly ;) Well, I thought my keyboard broke because PgUp stopped
> > working but it recovered after I got a hairball from under the key.
>
> Hmm, might need to verify that, but I've been cleaning it from time to time
> (Murphy tells me that it was the regular cleaning which broke it ;).
>
That could be too ;)
> > Just make sure you do not pull ACPI battery info to often.
>
> Uh... why!?
>
On many laptops (including mine) polling battery takes a loooong time
and is done in SMI mode in BIOS causing lost keypresses, jerky mouse
etc. It is pretty common problem. I think I have my ACPI client
refreshing every 3 minutes.
--
Dmitry
On Monday 14 August 2006 11:53, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
>On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Monday 14 August 2006 11:13, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
>> >HI Gene,
>> >
>> >On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >> I'm having similar problems with an HP Pavilian dv5220, and with a
>> >> bluetooth mouse dongle plugged into the right side usb port it works
>> >> just fine. What I'd like to do is totally disable that synaptics
>> >> pad as its way too sensitive,
>> >
>> >Are you using synaptics X driver? It can be tweaked to adjust
>> >sensitivity and lots of other things.
>>
>> No, I've tried to totally disable any references to it in the
>> xorg.conf. Unsuccessfully it would appear, even so far as to say no
>> effect from doing so.
>
>Ok, so you are most likely using mousedev emulation mode. Not the best
>choice with ALPS/Synaptics. I recommend usig specialized driver for X
>(see below).
>
>> >> making it impossible to type more than a line or 2
>> >> without the cursor suddenly jumping to someplace else in the
>> >> message, often highliteing several lines of text as it goes, and the
>> >> next keystroke then deletes wholesale quantities of text, thoroughly
>> >> destroying any chance of actually writing a cogent, understandable
>> >> email response to anyone.
>> >
>> >Have you tried synclient utility? It temporarily disables the touchpad
>> >when you start typing and re-enables it when you done.
>>
>> Its not installed that I know of. Availability?
>
>http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/
>It is a part of Synaptics X driver. And I apologize, it is called
>syndaemon, not synclient.
>
>> >> Unforch, my questions along those lines have been treated as the
>> >> ravings of a lunatic and ignored. The bios has no place to disable
>> >> it, dumbest bios I've seen in quite a while, and it has been updated
>> >> in the last 3 months.
>> >>
>> >> I don't *think* I'm a lunatic, but I'm equally sure that the
>> >> synaptics is a pain in the ass and should be capable of being
>> >> totally disabled somehow, hopefully short of opening the lappy up
>> >> and unplugging or cutting every lead to it until such time as it can
>> >> be made to behave instead of responding to every thumb waved 1/2 to
>> >> 3/4" above it. I've gotten hand cramps trying to hold my thumbs far
>> >> enough away from that abomination to stop such goings on.
>> >>
>> >> So count this as a vote FOR doing something about the synaptics
>> >> touchpad situation.
>> >
>> >There are ways to disable it:
>> >
>> >echo -n "manual" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode
>>
>> bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/bind_mode: No such file or
>> directory
>>
>> >echo -n "none" > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdrvctl
>>
>> bash: /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioXdvrctl: Permission denied
>>
>> The above is from a root bash shell while X is running the KDE desktop.
>>
>> >This should disable it completely.
>>
>> next step? :)
>
>serioX is the name of serio port your touchpad is connected to
>(serio0, serio1, etc) You will have to look which port is bound to
>psmouse driver.
What if there appear to be two functional mice running the same curser?
One being the M$ accessory mouse, the other the touchpad. So I would have
a serio0 and a serio1. How do I determine which to feed those commands
to? Is the device identified in those info trees?
I've printed this for reference the next time I fire it up, as I'd just now
shut it off after installing the synaptics driver and a few other updates.
Thanks.
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
On 8/14/06, Gene Heskett <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >serioX is the name of serio port your touchpad is connected to
> >(serio0, serio1, etc) You will have to look which port is bound to
> >psmouse driver.
>
> What if there appear to be two functional mice running the same curser?
> One being the M$ accessory mouse, the other the touchpad. So I would have
> a serio0 and a serio1. How do I determine which to feed those commands
> to? Is the device identified in those info trees?
>
It depends... One serio is your keyboard port, another one is aux
(mouse). The external mouse - is it also PS/2 or is is USB? If it is
USB then it won't be listed under serio bus but rather in USB bus...
Look at /sys/bus/serio/devices/serioX/inputX/name attribute in sysfs -
it should give you a clue what device is connjected to a serio port.
--
Dmitry
On 2006-08-14 13:58:09 Luke Sharkey wrote:
> While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154,
> 2174 etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the
> onscreen pointer to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on
> computers with v. low RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a)
> everything else works fine, there is no slow down of any of the
> programs I run, only problems with the mouse and b) I have just
> upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
>
> If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily
> use a mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
>
> Do you have any ideas what's wrong?
This is a known problem (and fixed in Windows) with the synaptics touch
pad. About one year ago I did a web search amounting to something like
"synaptics rubber band" and found a fixed windows driver. But since
there is no OS of that kind on this machine, I contacted the developer
of the synaptics X driver.
We had a discussion (swedish only) in private mail, where I ran the
driver in debug mode - he no longer had a machine with that hardware.
Unfortunately I've lost the whole communication due to a voltage frying
of everything in the mail machine, so can not give any details.
If Peter ?sterlund still has the e-mails I hereby give full permission
to disclose a translated copy to anyone interested.
But I think it all came down to Peter not being able to do anything...
In earlier kernels the issue _seemed_ to lessen if booting with
i8042.nomux but nowadays that kernel option only gets rid of the 'lost
sync' messages from the pad that turn up in /var/log/messages
(Btw, excessive printing of that message Dmitry!)
Mvh
Mats Johannesson
On 8/14/06, Voluspa <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On 2006-08-14 13:58:09 Luke Sharkey wrote:
> > While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154,
> > 2174 etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the
> > onscreen pointer to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on
> > computers with v. low RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a)
> > everything else works fine, there is no slow down of any of the
> > programs I run, only problems with the mouse and b) I have just
> > upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
> >
> > If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily
> > use a mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
> >
> > Do you have any ideas what's wrong?
>
> This is a known problem (and fixed in Windows) with the synaptics touch
> pad. About one year ago I did a web search amounting to something like
> "synaptics rubber band" and found a fixed windows driver. But since
> there is no OS of that kind on this machine, I contacted the developer
> of the synaptics X driver.
>
> We had a discussion (swedish only) in private mail, where I ran the
> driver in debug mode - he no longer had a machine with that hardware.
> Unfortunately I've lost the whole communication due to a voltage frying
> of everything in the mail machine, so can not give any details.
>
> If Peter ?sterlund still has the e-mails I hereby give full permission
> to disclose a translated copy to anyone interested.
>
> But I think it all came down to Peter not being able to do anything...
> In earlier kernels the issue _seemed_ to lessen if booting with
> i8042.nomux but nowadays that kernel option only gets rid of the 'lost
> sync' messages from the pad that turn up in /var/log/messages
> (Btw, excessive printing of that message Dmitry!)
>
Hmm, have you tried lowering report rate of the synaptics driver
(psmouse.rate=40)? 80 ppsm is quite high and I know some Toshibas have
trouble handling the full rate...
--
Dmitry
On 8/14/06, Dmitry Torokhov <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 8/14/06, Andreas Mohr <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > (without a mouse plugged in) after random times the pointer exhibits
> > clear signs of craziness, moving on its own (mild issue) or jumping
> > uncontrollably (worse) or being completely off-screen most of the time
> > (worst).
> >
BTW, next time it gets stuck could you please do:
echo 1 > /sys/modules/i8042/parameters/debug
and if cursor is still stuck (or otherwise misbehaving) after that
send me your dmesg or /valog/log/kernel.
Thanks!
--
Dmitry
On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:27:52 -0400 Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On 8/14/06, Voluspa <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > On 2006-08-14 13:58:09 Luke Sharkey wrote:
> > > While on 2054 it generally works fine, On the latest kernels (2154,
> > > 2174 etc.) I have only to e.g. open a konqueror window for the
> > > onscreen pointer to start going funny, and jerking about (As happens on
> > > computers with v. low RAM). I know its not a RAM problem, as a)
> > > everything else works fine, there is no slow down of any of the
> > > programs I run, only problems with the mouse and b) I have just
> > > upgraded from 512 MB of RAM to 1 GB.
> > >
> > > If I plug in a mouse, the pointer works fine. Though I would happily
> > > use a mouse, this is often inconvenient on a laptop.
> > >
> > > Do you have any ideas what's wrong?
> >
> > This is a known problem (and fixed in Windows) with the synaptics touch
> > pad. About one year ago I did a web search amounting to something like
> > "synaptics rubber band" and found a fixed windows driver. But since
> > there is no OS of that kind on this machine, I contacted the developer
> > of the synaptics X driver.
> >
> > We had a discussion (swedish only) in private mail, where I ran the
> > driver in debug mode - he no longer had a machine with that hardware.
> > Unfortunately I've lost the whole communication due to a voltage frying
> > of everything in the mail machine, so can not give any details.
> >
> > If Peter ?sterlund still has the e-mails I hereby give full permission
> > to disclose a translated copy to anyone interested.
> >
> > But I think it all came down to Peter not being able to do anything...
> > In earlier kernels the issue _seemed_ to lessen if booting with
> > i8042.nomux but nowadays that kernel option only gets rid of the 'lost
> > sync' messages from the pad that turn up in /var/log/messages
> > (Btw, excessive printing of that message Dmitry!)
> >
>
> Hmm, have you tried lowering report rate of the synaptics driver
> (psmouse.rate=40)? 80 ppsm is quite high and I know some Toshibas have
> trouble handling the full rate...
I've tried it now (without i8042.nomux) though not much progress on
this Acer notebook. But first, let me expand on the original issue here.
Doing the "synaptics rubber band" web-search it is easy to locate the
_very_ informative windows-info-driver-patch page. Due to copyright I
can't quote enough of it to make sense (the page is good all the way to
the bottom!) so here's the link about Synaptics 'supersensitive' mode:
http://www.rm.com/Support/TechnicalArticle.asp?cref=TEC360005
The debug runs I performed for Peter confirmed all the symptoms
described, but the problem then becomes how to discern this crazy state
as not being an intentional 'two-finger' 'hard-pressure'
'palm-touching' one (upon which some kind of reset could be issued).
Unless someone establishes a contact with people at Synaptics or
disassembles the win driver, linux will stay with the loony tunes...
Ok, back to psmouse.rate=40 :
Aug 15 04:07:21 sleipner kernel: psmouse.c: TouchPad at
isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Aug 15 04:07:21 sleipner last message repeated 4 times
Aug 15 04:07:21 sleipner kernel: psmouse.c: issuing reconnect request
This came from 1 use of "cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temp*" while
moving an xterm at the same time by way of the touch pad. Battery
readings are fine on this notebook - don't interfere with the input
system (anymore? Think ACPI has improved in this area).
Here's the next "cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/*/temp*":
Aug 15 04:07:45 sleipner kernel: psmouse.c: TouchPad at
isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 4
Aug 15 04:07:45 sleipner kernel: psmouse.c: TouchPad at
isa0060/serio4/input0 lost sync at byte 1
Aug 15 04:07:45 sleipner kernel: psmouse.c: TouchPad at
isa0060/serio4/input0 - driver resynched.
Mvh
Mats Johannesson
To all concerned,
thank you for your assistance. I sent the previous message concerning my
touchpad in order to provide some feedback for the developers of the
drivers.
>What kind of touchpad is this?
A Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad. The driver is "synaptics", according to
hwbrowser.
>Can you please try vanilla kernels from kernel.org?
Regrettably, no.
Though I am the most technologically minded person I know, I am still many
years from being a linux guru and should be considered a linux newbie.
Compiling my own vanilla kernel is still beyond my scope as a linux user. I
use the precompiled .rpm kernels provided on the fedora download website.
Secondly, as I like to upgrade my kernel as often as possible in order to
recieve the latest drivers for all my hardware, frequently compiling my own
kernels compared to simply installing a ready made one would be too much of
a burden upon my time.
>Can you please try vanilla kernels from kernel.org?
...Have I emailed the wrong address though? Should I have contacted someone
at redhat / working on the fedora project???
>In earlier kernels the issue _seemed_ to lessen if booting with i8042.nomux
Are you sure about this? I mean, I wasn't having any problem at all with
the 2054 kernel (sorry to use the fedora-kernel indexing system again). It
worked great.
>Unless someone establishes a contact with people at Synaptics or
>disassembles the win driver, linux will stay with the loony tunes...
But the driver was ok for the 2054 kernel. Can't the driver for my touchpad
be rolled back to the 2054 driver until this is fixed? Right now the
onscreen pointer is practically unusuable when I so much as open a konqueror
window. It frequently freezes on screen for many seconds. (When I said it
was jerky, I don't mean that it pings around all over the screen).
As I mentioned above, I only wished to alert somebody to the fact that
support for my touchpad was actually getting *worse*; this shouldn't really
happen.
(I'd stick with the older kernel except that the newer ones have the support
for my bcm43xx wireless card, which though still quite temperamental, I
need.)
Thank you,
LS
_________________________________________________________________
The new Windows Live Toolbar helps you guard against viruses
http://toolbar.live.com/?mkt=en-gb
On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:57:05 +0100 Luke Sharkey wrote:
> To all concerned,
[...]
> >In earlier kernels the issue _seemed_ to lessen if booting with i8042.nomux
> Are you sure about this? I mean, I wasn't having any problem at all with
> the 2054 kernel (sorry to use the fedora-kernel indexing system again). It
> worked great.
I'm referring back to kernels 2.6.11, .12, .13 etc. You're at 2.6.16
or thereabouts with that distro.
> >Unless someone establishes a contact with people at Synaptics or
> >disassembles the win driver, linux will stay with the loony tunes...
> But the driver was ok for the 2054 kernel. Can't the driver for my touchpad
> be rolled back to the 2054 driver until this is fixed? Right now the
> onscreen pointer is practically unusuable when I so much as open a konqueror
> window. It frequently freezes on screen for many seconds. (When I said it
> was jerky, I don't mean that it pings around all over the screen).
Ok, there seems to be two distinct issues here. 1) Synaptics
'supersensitive' mode, 2) pointer 'freezing'.
Number 1 can not be fixed by the kernel developers (assumingly) and not
by the Synaptics X driver author. Number 2 I've seen myself, even when
using i8042.nomux, but it is _very_ sporadic on this machine.
Pointer freezing would be Dmitry's domain, but he'd have to work with
someone who can trigger it easily, and who can write scripts to capture
debug data, since it's 'hard' to move a frozen pointer to a terminal
and issue commands...
Mvh
Mats Johannesson
On 8/15/06, Luke Sharkey <[email protected]> wrote:
> But the driver was ok for the 2054 kernel. Can't the driver for my touchpad
> be rolled back to the 2054 driver until this is fixed?
The synaptics driver itself was not changed for many month, it is the
surrounding code that was changed and somehow it interferes with your
box.
> Right now the
> onscreen pointer is practically unusuable when I so much as open a konqueror
> window. It frequently freezes on screen for many seconds. (When I said it
> was jerky, I don't mean that it pings around all over the screen).
>
Does it exibit the same behavior when you switch to text console?
Also, is there programs that poll status of your battery or monitor
box's temperature? How often do they do the polling? Have you updated
any of them recently?
Oh, another one... try booting with "ec_intr=0" on the kernel command
line to disable embedded controller interrupt mode.
And finally, can I mples get a dmesg (or /var/log/messages) of boot
with "i8042.debug=1 log_buf_len=131072" please?
--
Dmitry
On 8/15/06, Voluspa <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Pointer freezing would be Dmitry's domain, but he'd have to work with
> someone who can trigger it easily, and who can write scripts to capture
> debug data, since it's 'hard' to move a frozen pointer to a terminal
> and issue commands...
>
The trick is to have a terminal open and then do alt-tab (presuming
that it does not unfreeze the pointer)...
--
Dmitry
On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:12:58 -0400 Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On 8/15/06, Voluspa <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Pointer freezing would be Dmitry's domain, but he'd have to work with
> > someone who can trigger it easily, and who can write scripts to capture
> > debug data, since it's 'hard' to move a frozen pointer to a terminal
> > and issue commands...
> >
>
> The trick is to have a terminal open and then do alt-tab (presuming
> that it does not unfreeze the pointer)...
Yeah :-) Hitting send a bit too quickly there... But still, from what I
saw of the freezes, they are in the region of 5 to 10 seconds, so
having a prepared script ready (maybe even tied to a key-combo) would
ensure success and ease the stress.
Mvh
Mats Johannesson
Hello
>Ok, there seems to be two distinct issues here. 1) Synaptics
>'supersensitive' mode, 2) pointer 'freezing'.
Hmmm... perhaps "jerky" was the wrong choice of word. I don't at all mean
I've had a supersensitive touchpad: quite the opposite. What I was trying
to convey was the fact that when my pointer freezes, sometimes it becomes
unfrozen again suddenly (for a brief time) and then moves forward a little,
then gets stuck again, and in this way is "jerky". So not supersensitivity.
(Apologies for any confusion).
>The trick is to have a terminal open and then do alt-tab (presuming that it
>does not unfreeze the pointer)
Yes, I've been doing that as a worthwhile precaution. Sometimes the pointer
seems to get so stuck even when I plug in a normal mouse, it remains frozen.
Seeing as Linux is less easily controlled with the keyboard compared to
MS-Windows, sometimes all I can do is Alt-tab to the terminal window and do
a command line reboot.
(Off topic question: why not have the K menu open when the "MS-Windows"
button on the keyboard is pressed, as happens with the "Start" button on
MS-windows?)
*However*, I have noticed that sometimes when I alt-tab between any windows
/ programs I have open, sometimes the pointer becomes unstuck again...
>Also, is there programs that poll status of your battery or monitor box's
>temperature?
Battery charge level, yes, but not the box's temperature. I have tried lots
of apps to try and do this, e.g. gkrellm, but there is no support for this
on my laptop. Besides, these problems often evidence themselves soon after
I switch on, so I don't think laptop temperature would still be a problem
that early. Also, I rip the occasional DVD, sometimes leaving my computer
on for 5+ hours: it doesn't overheat.
>Oh, another one... try booting with "ec_intr=0" on the kernel command line
>to disable embedded controller interrupt mode.
>And finally, can I mples get a dmesg (or /var/log/messages) of boot with
>"i8042.debug=1 log_buf_len=131072" please?
Thank you for the suggestions. I will try the kernel option, and post the
results of the error log.
Yours,
LS
_________________________________________________________________
Be the first to hear what's new at MSN - sign up to our free newsletters!
http://www.msn.co.uk/newsletters
On Wednesday 16 August 2006 09:59, Luke Sharkey wrote:
> Seeing as Linux is less easily controlled with the keyboard compared to
> MS-Windows,
Careful, you are threading dangerous waters here ;)
> sometimes all I can do is Alt-tab to the terminal window and do
> a command line reboot.
>
> (Off topic question: why not have the K menu open when the "MS-Windows"
> button on the keyboard is pressed, as happens with the "Start" button on
> MS-windows?)
>
It doesn't? Indeed it does not! Alt-F1 does it though and it is much harder
to hid by accident (I can't count how many times I hit that key by accident
on windows box and then have to grab mouse to switch focus back to the window
that had it before). Anyway, it is indeed offtopic for kernel, try asking on
KDE lists...
> *However*, I have noticed that sometimes when I alt-tab between any windows
> / programs I have open, sometimes the pointer becomes unstuck again...
>
> >Also, is there programs that poll status of your battery or monitor box's
> >temperature?
>
> Battery charge level, yes, but not the box's temperature. I have tried lots
> of apps to try and do this, e.g. gkrellm, but there is no support for this
> on my laptop. Besides, these problems often evidence themselves soon after
> I switch on, so I don't think laptop temperature would still be a problem
> that early. Also, I rip the occasional DVD, sometimes leaving my computer
> on for 5+ hours: it doesn't overheat.
>
No, it is not overheating, just the act of polling battery status or
temperature may cause pointer stalls on some boxes.
--
Dmitry
On 8/17/06, Luke Sharkey <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > > Seeing as Linux is less easily controlled with the keyboard compared
> >to
> > > MS-Windows,
> >
> >Careful, you are threading dangerous waters here ;)
>
> Well, I wasn't trying to be inflammatory. It's just that Microsoft seems to
> make such a big deal of how their OS can be controlled solely from keyboard.
>
I guess there is a difference as to what you call controlling. You
probably mean that in Windows is is easier to navigate GUI with
keyboard whereas I mean that in Linux or Unix you just start a
terminal program and do all necessary setup from within it (with
keyboard ;) )
> >Alt-F1 does it though
>
> Thanks for that.
>
> >Oh, another one... try booting with "ec_intr=0" on the kernel command line
> >to disable embedded controller interrupt mode.
>
> I tried this. Was this meant to cause a major improvement in mouse control?
> If there *was* a difference, it was only subtle. I'd have to boot in to
> the kernel with and without this option a few times to see whether it truly
> makes a difference or not.
>
Well, it was just a thing to try. On some boxes interrupt mode of EC
was reported to hurt mice, while on others there was no effect or even
was an improvement.
> >And finally, can I mples get a dmesg (or /var/log/messages) of boot with
> >"i8042.debug=1 log_buf_len=131072" please?
>
> Yes. Here is the output of dmesg with "i8042.debug=1 log_buf_len=131072"
> appended to the kernel line:
>
Hmm, don't see anything bad happening here.. Could you please send me
your /var/log/messages (still after booting with i8042.debug=1
log_buf_len=131072)? You should probably spare other people's
mailboxes and send it to me directly... Or put it on FTP somewhere.
Thanks!
--
Dmitry
Hi,
I just got a HP dv8301nr laptop and found out about this problem. I'm
running kernel 2.6.17-debian and 2.6.17-ck1. The Touchpad is a model: 1,
fw: 6.2, id: 0x1a0b1, caps: 0xa04713/0x200000.
I've tried many suggested workarounds that I found on the net to no
avail. Even forcing the imps/exps protocols cause a similar problem
here: no pointer freezes as with the SynPS protocol, but yes periodical
random jerky mouse movements and clicks. Moreover, I haven't found a way
to disable the mouse-tap feature (which I find annoying) when using this
protocol and X. I haven't tried the bare protocol because I'm very used
to the scrolling wheel behavior.
Incidentally, it seems that the driver resynchs are always useless, at
least for me.
I booted with the ec_intr=0 option (it took effect according to the boot
logs) to no avail. I'd like to help fix this problem, so if there is
anything that I can do, please let me know. I modified synaptics.c to
print the packets that were failed the validation check to fail, but
they don't say much to me.
Meanwhile, I think I'll get a cheap external mouse (I read they work
fine) and keep my hopes up.
Thanks in advance,
--
Javier Kohen <[email protected]>
ICQ: blashyrkh #2361802
Jabber: [email protected]