Arch Linux

nevadeon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-22

Posts: 3

[Solved] Broken trackpad after update

Hi,

This is my first post here. I'm new to arch and everything was going smooth for about 2 weeks but yesterday I made the mistake to pacman -Suy without making a snapshot first and now i'm stuck with a broken trackpad. The thing is I don't even know where to look. My first instinct was to reinstall the kernel and firmware but it didn't fix anything. Any help or redirection to other posts is appreciated.

thanks.

Last edited by nevadeon (2024-10-26 08:23:30)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: [Solved] Broken trackpad after update

My guess is that your update session included the kernel.  That will overwrite the kernel modules in /usr/lib/modules with those for the new kernel.   At the same time, it would have written the new kernel itself to /boot

If you did an update without your boot partition mounted on /boot., then your boot loader will still pick up the old kernel which won't be able to find its modules.

Checlkthe output of uname -a and pacman -Q linux.  I wager the versions don't match.

If so, mount the boot partition on /boot and reinstall the kernel with pacman -S linux

Then reboot
Then check the versions match
Then fix your /etc/fstab to mount the boot partition on /boot

Last edited by ewaller (2024-10-22 18:23:29)

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nevadeon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-22

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Broken trackpad after update

Thank you for the answer.

TLDR the issue is fixed.

The update session indeed included the kernel but there is a very high chance that my boot partition was mounted at the time. On restart my boot partition is mounted like expected and I didn't unmount it myself.
Anyways I booted on a live environment, chrooted on my system partition, reinstalled kernel with pacman -S linux (like I did the first time I tried to fix the problem) and also installed synaptics input driver with pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics. I don't know which one fixed the issue but it's fixed.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: [Solved] Broken trackpad after update

Glad it is fixed.  We can follow up if it breaks again with the next kernel update.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

nevadeon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-22

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Broken trackpad after update

Quick update. I was completely wrong and the boot partition was indeed not mounted. I updated the kernel with the partition unmounted for the sake of the experience and reproduced the exact same issue.
Mounting the boot partition on /boot and reinstalling kernel with pacman -S linux solved the issue exactly like you suggested.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,230

Re: [Solved] Broken trackpad after update

Cool.  Go ahead and edit your first post and prepend [SOLVED] to the thread title.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way