Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

alpez · 2018-03-28 20:02:27

I replaced the T440 touchpad with the three-keys one, which is default on the more recent T450.
It doesn't work at all: as soon as one tries to move the cursor with the touchpad, it goes crazy.

I had bought one on ebay, arrived crooked and had the same defect. I thought it was because of the damage, so I asked a replacement. Still the same problem with the new one which doesn't seem to be damaged.

halocaridina · 2018-03-29 01:01:38

From the sound of it, you might want to try a different vendor for purchasing the touchpad from.

FYI: I did the same replacement on a T440s back in late 2015 and its identified by xinput as a:

SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad

Haven't had any issues with it on Arch (but Windows 10 was a different story with drivers until some combo of a system update + using the latest T450s Synaptic driver recently made it start behaving flawlessly) and the physical description of being "crooked" sounds like a plain case of defective hardware.

Good luck.

Last edited by halocaridina (2018-03-29 01:02:13)

alpez · 2018-03-29 08:08:18

Thanks for the info.

halocaridina wrote:

SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad

On mine xinput gives

PS/2 Generic Mouse

(I assume it refers to the trackpad, because it doesn't give this output when I deactivate it via modprobe.)

halocaridina wrote:

Haven't had any issues with it on Arch (but Windows 10 was a different story with drivers until some combo of a system update + using the latest T450s Synaptic driver recently made it start behaving flawlessly) and the physical description of being "crooked" sounds like a plain case of defective hardware.

Yes, the fact of being crooked was because of a poor envelope. But I returned the item and got a new one.

alpez · 2018-03-29 11:53:44

If it is of any help, this is the corresponding entry in /proc/bus/input/devices

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="PS/2 Generic Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input2290
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event6 mouse1
B: PROP=1
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I saw some people experienced the same and they solved by installing ALPS drivers (like psmouse-alps-driver, but these are quite old threads and some packages have been replaced).. Anyway, it didn't seem to be a hardware problem, but rather a software.. Any idea?

halocaridina · 2018-03-29 13:20:32

Thanks for the extra details. As for drivers, I couldn't tell what you are currently using from the provided info. For me, it's the default Archlinux libinput:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Libinput

which requires little-to-no configuration for fairly sane defaults.

Along with libinput, I also have:

/etc/modprobe.d/psmouse_serio2_setup.conf

with:

options psmouse synaptics_intertouch=0

2) the following script is run as a systemd service during start-up:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

/usr/bin/echo -n "140" > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/sensitivity
/usr/bin/echo -n "25" > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/drift_time

/usr/bin/systemd-cat -t "Trackpoint" /usr/bin/echo "***** MODIFYING TRACKPOINT ATTRIBUTES ON $(date) *****"

but these two are for the Trackpoint configuration since I rarely use the touchpad itself (its disabled by another script when logging into i3 WM).

If you go with the initial suggestion of finding another vendor for the touchpad, the item # I ordered through Eb_y was 251863932008.

Last edited by halocaridina (2018-03-31 05:20:58)

alpez · 2018-04-01 11:58:24

I installed libinput (was already there actually) and uninstalled xf84-input-synaptics.
In this trial and error process things have changed, and now the touchpad is seen as PS/2 ALPS GlidePoint
and the output of xinput list-props "PS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" is

Device 'PS/2 ALPS GlidePoint':
	Device Enabled (142):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (144):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (278):	0
	libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (279):	0
	libinput Scroll Methods Available (280):	0, 0, 1
	libinput Scroll Method Enabled (281):	0, 0, 1
	libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (282):	0, 0, 1
	libinput Button Scrolling Button (283):	2
	libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (284):	2
	libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (285):	1
	libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (286):	0
	libinput Accel Speed (287):	0.000000
	libinput Accel Speed Default (288):	0.000000
	libinput Accel Profiles Available (289):	1, 1
	libinput Accel Profile Enabled (290):	1, 0
	libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (291):	1, 0
	libinput Left Handed Enabled (292):	0
	libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (293):	0
	libinput Send Events Modes Available (263):	1, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (264):	0, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (265):	0, 0
	Device Node (266):	"/dev/input/event7"
	Device Product ID (267):	2, 1
	libinput Drag Lock Buttons (294):	<no items>
	libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (295):	1

BTW: I cannot see the touchpad tab in the mouse preferences either.. The touchpad is still completely unusable: the effect of the physical buttons is to make the cursor move right by a little bit; dragging the cursor results in trying to close tabs/windows, clicking on things..
Any idea?

halocaridina · 2018-04-02 15:43:19

Hmmm, my suggestion at this point would be to try another Linux distribution to narrow down whether its a hardware or software issue. My suggestion would be a recent Live Distribution of Ubuntu since users at the Thinkpad Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/

have reported that they had no need to install and/or update drivers with it following the trackpad swap.

If the touchpad is still problematic in Ubuntu, then its most likely that a product from another vendor is the way to go.

alpez · 2018-04-07 17:22:40

Tried it also with a live Ubuntu distribution and.. same problem. I guess the issue really is the hardware.. I'll do as you suggested: trying to change vendor.
Thanks

halocaridina · 2018-04-07 23:31:53

Sorry to hear that it looks to be the hardware itself. I stuck the item # for the touchpad I purchased in post #5 in case you wanted to look into that one. Please post back here whether hardware from a different vendor addressed the issue since it might prove useful to someone else.

Good luck.

alpez · 2018-04-10 16:44:31

halocaridina wrote:

Sorry to hear that it looks to be the hardware itself. I stuck the item # for the touchpad I purchased in post #5 in case you wanted to look into that one. Please post back here whether hardware from a different vendor addressed the issue since it might prove useful to someone else.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I contacted the vendor which was very responsive and said the touchpads they sell are Synaptics.. Has anybody experienced a Synaptic touchpad being recognized as ALPS, like in my case?
For the moment I mounted the dear old crappy-but-working clickpad back and is recognized as SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad, as it should.

halocaridina · 2018-04-12 04:29:30

Unless someone else chimes in otherwise, I have not seen any reports of a Synaptic touchpad being reported as ALPS when it comes to the T440s swap, so I suspect that the touchpad is in fact an ALPS model that is mistakenly thought to be a Synaptic one by the vendor. It will be interesting to see what hardware from a different vendor gets reported as and how it behaves relative to what you have now.

Again, good luck.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-03-28 20:02:27

Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#2 2018-03-29 01:01:38

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#3 2018-03-29 08:08:18

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#4 2018-03-29 11:53:44

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#5 2018-03-29 13:20:32

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#6 2018-04-01 11:58:24

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#7 2018-04-02 15:43:19

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#8 2018-04-07 17:22:40

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#9 2018-04-07 23:31:53

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#10 2018-04-10 16:44:31

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

#11 2018-04-12 04:29:30

Re: Three keys touchpad not working on Lenovo T440

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