What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

cfr · 2022-10-17 23:06:58

What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do?

I know this is a kernel parameter which can be set to address some problems with touchpads. For example, the wiki mentions setting it to 1 to solve problems on certain laptops. A web search also yields a lot of advice/reports concerning it solving/not solving/causing problems, including some which seem rather confused (or I'm even more confused).

I also found what I guess is code which determines whether the following is written to the journal or not

psmouse serio1: synaptics: Your touchpad (PNP: LEN2046 PNP0f13) says it can support a different bus. If i2c-hid and hid-rmi are not used, you might want to try setting psmouse.synaptics_intertouch to 1 and report this to linux-input@vger.kernel.org.

However, I'm still not much the wiser about what this does, why I would want to set it or why I should report the journal message to the email provided.

Is it significant that my touchpad says it can support a different bus? Or that i2c-hid and hid-rmi aren't used?

Last edited by cfr (2022-10-18 23:44:29)

seth · 2022-10-18 06:11:37

modinfo wrote:

parm: synaptics_intertouch:Use a secondary bus for the Synaptics device. (int)

lsmod | grep hid

According to google the kernel message causes a lot of confusion:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22says … ch+to+1%22

As long as your input devices work, I'd maybe test whether they also operates w/ intertouch enabled but otherwise just ignore that.

I had this years ago w/ an elantech device, but that simply ceased to function w/o the intertouch parameter.
(And since it's a popular way to think "my touchpad broke", check the touchpad lock on your keyboard as well)

cfr · 2022-10-18 18:48:49

Thanks.

What would a touchpad lock on my keyboard look like?

I'm definitely not using the modules mentioned in the message. The only one with hid is mac_hid. My touchpad works OK I think. The pointer suddenly disappears occasionally, but that's not related specifically to the touchpad. I was scrutinising the journal because of the Xorg CPU % issue I'm having and not because of any problem with the touchpad. (My mouse is more problematic, but that may be the mouse rather than the software.) I just really wondered why I might want it to use a different bus or different modules.

seth · 2022-10-18 19:07:39

According to https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7119y81kGpL.jpg there doesn't seem to be a function key and google tells me to use the windows settigns, so I assume the model does't have such.
(It's a usually function key or a a spot in the touchpad itself)

Pointers will "disappear" when a client hides it (video players do so frequently for obvious reasons) - if that's not the case and the pointer does "wild stuff" it might relate to the xorg server load.
You can dis- and enable devices w/ "xinput", https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/xor … input.1.en

cfr · 2022-10-18 23:03:56

seth wrote:

According to https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/7119y81kGpL.jpg there doesn't seem to be a function key and google tells me to use the windows settigns, so I assume the model does't have such.
(It's a usually function key or a a spot in the touchpad itself)

Ah, thank you. I don't think I've ever had a laptop which had such a key or, at least, I've never knowingly had one. There are function keys whose function I've never ascertained, but I think those would probably only do something if I had Windows.

Pointers will "disappear" when a client hides it (video players do so frequently for obvious reasons) - if that's not the case and the pointer does "wild stuff" it might relate to the xorg server load.

The xorg load is almost certainly responsible. I don't mean it disappearing when it makes sense but disappearing when it doesn't (on a web page or in Inkscape, say). It's not really a problem. I was only curious about the journal message.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-10-17 23:06:58

What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

#2 2022-10-18 06:11:37

Re: What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

#3 2022-10-18 18:48:49

Re: What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

#4 2022-10-18 19:07:39

Re: What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

#5 2022-10-18 23:03:56

Re: What does psmouse.synaptics_intertouch do? [solved]

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