Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

DarioP · 2011-04-08 19:50:33

Dear all,

I'm using Synaptics drivers on my Asus U36JC. I disabled evdev detection and configured the driver to emulate the multitouch, so I was able to do ordinary stuffs like scroll the web pages and central click with two fingers. Everything was fine till yesterday: now when I touch the pad with the second finger the cursor start spinning around the screen and nothing else is done. The touchpad is still working fine when using only one finger, so I think this not to be an hardware problem.. but I haven't done upgrades or anything else!

Any ideas?

Last edited by DarioP (2011-04-08 19:56:37)

soloport · 2011-04-08 21:27:52

Rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf to, say, /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old and restart X. (This cleared up all synaptics issues for me, since last update.)

Gusar · 2011-04-08 21:36:08

There's a crazy quirk in the driver. You don't need to remove xorg.conf, just move all synaptics stuff from it into a dedicated file in xorg.conf.d. Also, multitouch emulation is on by default, you don't need to mess with that. As an example, this is my xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier    "touchpad"
    MatchIsTouchpad    "on"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Driver        "synaptics"
    Option        "TapButton1"        "1"
    Option        "TapButton2"        "3"
    Option        "VertEdgeScroll"    "1"
EndSection

DarioP · 2011-04-09 07:05:34

My synaptics conf file (which contains all the options founded in synaptics' man) was already in the directory xorg.conf.d/
Yesterday I tried to restart X (without deleting its conf file) and to reboot the pc but nothing changed.

Now, after a night of rest, it works again. I don't know what happened... I'll wait some time to try to understand the problem before adding the tag [SOLVED]

wankel · 2011-04-09 21:27:32

are you by any chance dualbooting with windows?

techmagyor · 2011-04-09 22:07:56

For my experience, with 2.6.38 kernel, the issue was solved.

Last edited by techmagyor (2011-04-09 22:08:10)

limaunion · 2011-04-10 13:17:36

I'm having the same issue, my synaptics mouse doesn't work any more since the last time I performed a pacman update. I'm running the stock kernel: Linux arch1 2.6.37-ARCH #1

I tried some of the advises without success, ie: (1) rename my xorg.conf file to .old and restart X and (2) use the configuration from #3.
Any other ideas how to solve this ?

techmagyor · 2011-04-10 17:14:18

from kernel.org, latest stable kernel version is 2.6.38.2, try to use this from aur or compile yourself using your actual .config. More on archwiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … rom_Source

Or you can make your own lackage from aur (remeber to change your .config md5 if you change it)

ijanos · 2011-04-10 18:56:33

wankel wrote:

are you by any chance dualbooting with windows?

Explain the correlation please.

Oh, and a tip for the OP: if the cursor goes mad, suspend and resume.

Last edited by ijanos (2011-04-10 18:57:55)

wankel · 2011-04-11 15:12:14

ijanos wrote:

wankel wrote:
are you by any chance dualbooting with windows?
Explain the correlation please.
Oh, and a tip for the OP: if the cursor goes mad, suspend and resume.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/To … om_Windows

I had the same issue. Whenever I was in windows and rebooted into linux, my cursor would jump around the screen if i put two fingers down. Suspending and resuming would fix it, as well as unplugging it and taking out the battery.

limaunion · 2011-04-11 16:56:07

Just for the record, my notebook doesn't have dual-boot (only ArchLinux); I'll wait till the kernel is updated in 'core', I'm not in a hurry.

limaunion · 2011-04-11 23:55:22

Well it seems that it's not related to the kernel version at least in my case, I've just upgraded to 2.6.38 (Core repo) and it's still not working; I'll have to investigate a little more.

hokasch · 2011-04-12 01:21:04

General info that might be helpfull to some:

For Synaptics touchpads > 7.2, multi-finger support was broken but has been fixed in 2.6.38.

It happened because Synaptics introduced some new proprietary protocol with those multitouch (gestures) enabled pads resulting in kernel drivers breaking (not detecting the multi-finger capability). Takashi Iwai from Novell figured it out first, but Novell prohibited him from sending patches upstream due to "possible patent infringing". Someone else reverse-engineered the protocol and it landed in 2.6.38.

Long story short, in case you have previously forced multitouch emulation and updated to 2.6.38, better remove it (or revert to 10-synaptics-conf.pacnew) to rule out any problems that may come with that transition.

Also for gnome, the (very limited) system settings override synaptics config in /etc/xconf.d which can be confusing. If you want to config through xorg only, deactivate in gconf "apps/gnome_settings_daemon/plugins/mouse/".

Solved Bug report (long and messy)

DarioP · 2011-04-23 16:41:36

wankel wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/To … om_Windows
I had the same issue. Whenever I was in windows and rebooted into linux, my cursor would jump around the screen if i put two fingers down. Suspending and resuming would fix it, as well as unplugging it and taking out the battery.

I have a small win7 partition that I use to play games and it have probably been this. I always run on AC power and unplug the battery when I'm at home. If there are many hours of downtime I unplug the AC too, so that's why it worked fine the day after

hokasch wrote:

General info that might be helpfull to some:
For Synaptics touchpads > 7.2, multi-finger support was broken

I noticed using synclient monitor...

hokasch wrote:

in case you have previously forced multitouch emulation and updated to 2.6.38, better remove it (or revert to 10-synaptics-conf.pacnew) to rule out any problems that may come with that transition.

The emulation is still working with the new kernel but I'll remove it! thanks for the infos

STEELBAS · 2011-04-25 10:17:15

I had a similar problem with the dual-touch emulation (two fingers -> hyperactive cursor), but strangely only when booting from the real-time kernel in AUR. I solved it by increasing the Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ", myself. (I think it was 20-something, I increased it to 35.)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-08 19:50:33

Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#2 2011-04-08 21:27:52

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#3 2011-04-08 21:36:08

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#4 2011-04-09 07:05:34

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#5 2011-04-09 21:27:32

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#6 2011-04-09 22:07:56

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#7 2011-04-10 13:17:36

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#8 2011-04-10 17:14:18

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#9 2011-04-10 18:56:33

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#10 2011-04-11 15:12:14

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#11 2011-04-11 16:56:07

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#12 2011-04-11 23:55:22

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#13 2011-04-12 01:21:04

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#14 2011-04-23 16:41:36

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

#15 2011-04-25 10:17:15

Re: Synaptic multitouch makes cursor go mad

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