Macbook Air 2013

mkraemer · 2015-08-16 11:48:39

frank604 wrote:

@mkraemer, mtrack is working for you?

mtrack is working flawlessly for me, yes. I'm not using too many features it provides though.
The config I ended up with some time ago when trying to replicate OSXs touchpad behaviour (only in regards to speed and movement, not in gestures) is:

Section "InputClass"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    Identifier      "Touchpads"
    Driver          "mtrack"
    Option          "AccelerationProfile" "2"
    Option          "ConstantDeceleration" "2.5"  # Decelerate endspeed
    Option          "AdaptiveDeceleration" "3.0"  # Decelerate slow movements
    Option          "Sensitivity" "0.7"
    Option          "BottomEdge" "0"
    Option          "ScrollDistance" "50"
    Option          "VertScrollDelta" "2"
    Option          "ThumbSize" "35"
    Option          "PalmSize" "55"
    Option          "ClickTime" "25"
    Option          "SwipeDistance" "1000"
    Option          "TapDragEnable" "True"
    Option          "Swipe4LeftButton" "15"
    Option          "Swipe4RightButton" "16"
    Option          "SwipeLeftButton" "17" #xf86Back
    Option          "SwipeRightButton" "18" #xf86Forward
    Option          "SwipeUpButton" "0"
    Option          "SwipeDownButton" "10"
EndSection

I'm now using the newest broadcom-wl driver as well as Linux-4.1.4-ARCH. Wifi seems stable so far and power usage is a bit under 5W idle - perfect

frank604 · 2015-08-16 12:32:29

@mkraemer, cool looks like the latest two comments on aur resolved my troubles I had before with mtrack. Thanks for sharing your config. Is there anything extra I need to do to trigger xf86Back ? I've used your conf but it doesn't work for me

mkraemer · 2015-08-16 12:56:05

Hm, to be honest, I can't quite remember why I annotated this as xf86back and xf86forward..
I mapped those buttons 15-18 to custom actions with sxhkd.

Do you receive the proper keycodes when checking with xev?

Edit: forward and backword actions are usually mapped to mouse buttons 8 and 9, so if your goal is to map swipe left / right to e.g. use your browser history, you should map to those buttons.
How those buttons are interpreted is application-specific though.

Last edited by mkraemer (2015-08-16 13:15:55)

frank604 · 2015-08-16 16:03:08

@mkraemer, ah I see what you did there. Ok, got it working over here. Thanks for the help. I've never used mtrack before so I'll need to do a few trial and errors on the conf. Great news!

hobarrera · 2015-08-16 19:14:38

I'm using xf86-input-mtrack-git, since IIRC; the non-git version had some issue. I also believe I had to add myself to the input group for it to work (due to something not being up-to-date on the driver).

frank604 · 2015-08-16 19:19:32

Thanks for the feedback Hobarrera! Yeah, this is amazing. Can't believe I've been on synaptics the whole time. The last two comments are on aur:

sudo gpasswd -a <Yourusername> input
config file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

Mind sharing your mtrack.conf?

I'll edit this post and post mine when I get back to my mba.

From mkraemer's with some different options that I'm playing around with.

  1 Section "InputClass"                                                                                                                                      
  2     MatchIsTouchpad "on"
  3     Identifier "Touchpads"
  4     Driver "mtrack"
  5     Option "Sensitivity" "0.55"
  6     Option "BottomEdge" "25"
  7     Option "ScrollDistance" "75"
  8     #Option "VertScrollDelta" "150"
  9     Option "ThumbSize" "35"
 10     Option "PalmSize" "55"
 11     Option "DisableOnThumb" "true"
 12     Option "DisableOnPalm" "true"
 13     Option "IgnorePalm" "true"
 14     Option "IgnoreThumb" "true"
 15     Option "ClickTime" "25"
 16     Option "SwipeDistance" "1000"
 17     Option "SwipeLeftButton" "8" #8.back, 9.forward, 7.right, 6.left
 18     Option "SwipeRightButton" "9"
 19     Option "ScrollLeftButton" "7"
 20     Option "ScrollRightButton" "6"
 21     Option "SwipeUpButton" "0"
 22     Option "SwipeDownButton" "0"
 23     Option "TapButton1" "1"
 24     Option "TapButton2" "0"
 25     Option "TapButton3" "0"
 26     Option "ClickFinger1" "3"
 27     Option "ClickFinger2" "2"
 28     Option "FingerHigh" "16" #pressure for touch... needs to go lower, still testing
 29     Option "FingerLow" "7" #pressure for release
 30 
 31 EndSection

Last edited by frank604 (2015-08-17 07:06:08)

hobarrera · 2015-08-16 20:42:47

I haven't tweak the multi-touch stuff too much though, so I don't know how useful this'll be:

https://gitlab.com/hobarrera/sysconfig/ … track.conf

aurelieng · 2015-08-17 04:49:53

@frank604: I'm already using mba6x_bl. It raises an error when coming back from sleep: "Invalid response at reg: 0x1 (len:24)", but it's a known one. After a reboot - just in case -, I can't change the backlit level anymore (the % changes as I press the keys or change the display brightness in the power management widget, but the screen stays at full power)

@mkraemer: I'm not using x86-input-mtrack, nor the git version so far. I'll give it a try once I manage to install it. It currently fails with "./configure: line 18267: `PKG_CHECK_MODULES(XORG, xorg-server >= 1.7 xproto inputproto $REQUIRED_MODULES)'"

Last edited by aurelieng (2015-08-17 04:52:13)

frank604 · 2015-08-17 07:04:34

@Hob, thanks! I always like to see what others with same hardward have for conf. I see you disabled tapbutton1 *sigh. I hate disabling it but so far there is no way around it. Keeps jumping my cursor here as well.

@aurelieng, I find it so strange that we are on the same distro, same hardware and have different results. I haven't experienced that yet but it seems others have. Sorry I can't be of help. Perhaps chime in or open another bug report with Patjak on his git.

mkraemer · 2015-08-17 09:02:32

@hobarrera @frank604 What are your issues with tapbutton1? I never experienced any issues with that, tapping works as expected here.

aurelieng wrote:

@mkraemer: I'm not using x86-input-mtrack, nor the git version so far. I'll give it a try once I manage to install it. It currently fails with "./configure: line 18267: `PKG_CHECK_MODULES(XORG, xorg-server >= 1.7 xproto inputproto $REQUIRED_MODULES)'"

Hm, the current version compiles without error for me.. Which version of xorg-server are you running? Your error message seems to imply it's < 1.7, while >= 1.7 is required.

aurelieng · 2015-08-17 11:26:57

Strange, pacman -Q xorg-server reports I'm using xorg-server 1.17.2-4

frank604 · 2015-08-17 17:23:41

@hob @mkraem, tap button1 works. It works TOO well. My palm is tapping everywhere so I find myself writing in different lines. I am trying out different palm detect/size thumb detect/size settings to utilize tap button again. Just too many text errors that I'd rather push to click instead of tap.

@hob, that's what I thought you were referring to when you set tapbutton1=0 in your config with your #comment.

@aureliang, how is your keys binded for brightness? which de/wm? are you completely up to date? Now that I'm thinking about it, there has to be something different about your system compared to the rest of us who have mba6x working without the issue you mentioned. PS. the mtrack-git should compile. How are you trying to install it? If you are using an aur wrapper, try manual.

Last edited by frank604 (2015-08-17 17:29:20)

aurelieng · 2015-08-17 18:40:30

The compilation of xf86-input-mtrack failed because pkg-config was missing. I installed it and now mtrack-git compiles. I briefly tested it, but it does not provide the "tap and drag" I'm looking for, and requires that I remove the KDE configuration tool kcm-touchpad, which I obviously want to keep. I consequently switched back to xf86-input-synaptics.

About mba6x_bl-dkms, I've no idea. The keys are working, ie. when I press them, a slider with a changing percentage appears on the screen, but the backlit doesn't change. I observe the same behavior when clicking on the appropriate control in the power control widget, where I should be able to adjust the brightness of the screen.

My issues might be related to KDE. Which DE are you all using ?

frank604 · 2015-08-17 19:17:26

I use gnome or dwm. Gnome has the hotkeys already binded. Dwm is just a wm, so I use xbindkeys to bind to xbacklight. pkgconfig is part of base-devel. I highly recommend you have base-devel the group installed.

Last edited by frank604 (2015-08-17 19:19:10)

hobarrera · 2015-08-17 19:54:53

Regarding mba6x_bl-dkms, are you sure you have dkms enabled? Did you check that the module built/installed?

I really recommend that you install base and base-devel, which you didn't seem to have installed (and is required for all aur packages).

frank604 · 2015-08-17 20:05:10

@aurelieng, Did you setup and play with:

TapDragEnable - Whether or not to enable tap-to-drag functionality. Boolean value. Defaults to true.

TapDragTime - The tap-to-drag timeout. This is how long the driver will wait after a single tap for a movement event before sending the click. Integer value representing milliseconds. Defaults to 350.

TapDragWait How long after detecting movement to trigger a button down event. During this time pointer movement will be disabled. Increase this value if you find you're draggin when you don't wish it. Integer value representing milliseconds. Defaults to 40.

TapDragDist How far the finger is allowed to move during drag wait time. If the finger moves farther than this distance during the wait time then dragging will be canceled and pointer movement will resume. Integer value. Defaults to 200.

Ref: https://github.com/BlueDragonX/xf86-input-mtrack

aurelieng · 2015-08-18 04:52:45

@frank604 and @hobarrera: i realised base-devel was missing (in fact almost all packages were installed, except pkgconfig, bison and flex), and installed it to be able to build xf86-input-mtrack. I also have dkms, and mba6x_bl-dkms is properly installed/built/loaded - as reported by lsmod.

@frank604: i tried to enforce TapDragEnable to true, even if it's the default, but still no luck with xf86-input-mtrack.

Edit1: I just gave Gnome a try. The backlit problem is solved: buttons now work again. The problem is probably a KDE bug. I give up on that one. The TapAndDrag gesture is however still missing, and the touchpad setting panel in Gnome looks a bit... minimalistic to me.

Edit2: I also tried XFCE, which shows the same behaviour than KDE WRT the screen brightness, but the TapAndDrag gesture works with xf86-input-mtrack.

Last edited by aurelieng (2015-08-18 06:20:59)

frank604 · 2015-08-18 20:00:45

@aurelieng, if you do use gnome, you have to disable gnome taking control of your trackpad settings.
I think in dconf editor it is org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.mouse active false
See if mtrack works for tapndrag after a reboot in gnome

aurelieng · 2015-08-19 06:24:31

Thanks for the tip, I disabled org.gnome.settings-daemon-plugins.mouse and it works. I finally have a desktop environement (Gnome), with both the screen brightness and the touchpad (with the synaptics driver) working as expected. I'm not used to Gnome, but I can live with it.

Everything is unfortunately not solved yet, since powertop now reports a battery drain of approx. 10W, which is roughly twice what I get on KDE, and dramatically reduce the battery life (now 27% remaining = 1h23).

frank604 · 2015-08-19 07:10:47

Look into your battery savings effort. I don't know kde, but I have 5-7W in powertop (I'm not sure powertop is a valid measurement though) and I have at least 10 hrs on batt doing light stuff.

hobarrera · 2015-08-19 07:56:40

I get 5-7W as well (using i3wm and no real DE). I too get ~11hours battery life. Even with 10W usage, you should be getting a lot more though.

I do believe that the whole "acpi_osi=" thing is still relevant, so you might want to look into that as well.

frank604 · 2015-08-30 20:21:28

@hobarrera, you are right the acpi_osi= is still our only workaround for the darwin issue. Regulament linked the bug in the macbook pro thread.

Has anyone had success compiling a custom kernel? For some strange reason, either via modprobed-db or using default config my kernels do not allow me to use the keyboard/mouse. Anyone getting their custom kernel working?

Edit: ah, I forgot to ignore some modules for modprobed-db. Removing them from the list fixed the boot issue.

Edit2: On a side note, if anyone likes to use an sd card permanently in the macbook such as a jetdrive, you do need to make a custom kernel with xhci_hcd removed and manually loading this module at bootup. Then remove module on suspend and load module on resume. If you trust me, I have binary packages for linux kernel + broadcom-wl + mba6x_bl on my github in mba-fixes repo. Otherwise, I will post my pkgbuilds to my github later on when I have time to clean it up. WOO HOO! kudos to LordVampire for the tip.

Last edited by frank604 (2015-08-31 02:30:57)

step-2 · 2015-09-01 22:16:28

after a lot of digging around , turns out most macbooks with intel graphics have the fan noise & heat issue ,

i stumbled upon a solution which works under osx & supposedly affect linux too :

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol

turns out osx keeps the fan down by software through the smc , which linux doesn't .

anyone tried this ?

frank604 · 2015-09-02 00:04:53

@step-2, I don't have fan noise and heat issue at the moment. Do you?

step-2 · 2015-09-02 00:15:51

@frank604, yes i do , watching videos in webm or mp4 in chrome make the fans go crazy ( above 5000 rpm ) ,

but i don't have thermald nor macfanctld installed , i tried them with very little success .

Arch Linux

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Re: Macbook Air 2013

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