Arch Linux

skualito

Member

Registered: 2008-11-19

Posts: 203

Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

Hi
Since the upgrade to kernel 2.6.29, my touchpad stopped working. Only the middle (with 4 directions) button would from time to time move the cursor in an incontrolable way. What disturbed me is that it would not even work in console mode with gpm and the correct options set.
I tried anyway to make it work with the synaptics driver and the hal hotplugging fdi thing without success.
When booting from a live cd with kernel 2.4 series ( I took randomly one of my rescue cds) the touchpad worked.
So I went recompiling the kernel, and figured out that it's the elantech driver included since kernel 2.6.28 which was messing up. Removing the "elantech extension" to the psmouse driver from menuconfig solved my problem.
Maybe this topic will help others having this problem/computer.

romio_012

Member

Registered: 2009-10-25

Posts: 2

Re: Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

Hi
Since the upgrade to kernel 2.6.29, my touchpad stopped working. Only the middle (with 4 directions) button would from time to time move the cursor in an incontrolable way. What disturbed me is that it would not even work in console mode with gpm and the correct options set.
I tried anyway to make it work with the synaptics driver and the hal hotplugging fdi thing without success.
When booting from a live cd with kernel 2.4 series ( I took randomly one of my rescue cds) the touchpad worked.
So I went recompiling the kernel, and figured out that it's the elantech driver included since kernel 2.6.28 which was messing up. Removing the "elantech extension" to the psmouse driver from menuconfig solved my problem.
Maybe this topic will help others having this problem/computer.

hello.
i have the same problem when i install linux "ubuntu" or any other linux on my acer travelmate 3210.
i'm new to linux, and u r the only one who can help me.
please tell me how to make my elentech touch pad work on linux with steps.

thanks

gog

Member

Registered: 2009-10-13

Posts: 103

Re: Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

romio, like he said, it involves recompiling the kernel and removing an option.

See custom kernel in the wiki.

After doing that, when you're configuring the kernel go to drivers>input devices>mouse> and deselect "elantech" from the ps2 mouse section.

romio_012

Member

Registered: 2009-10-25

Posts: 2

Re: Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

romio, like he said, it involves recompiling the kernel and removing an option.

See custom kernel in the wiki.

After doing that, when you're configuring the kernel go to drivers>input devices>mouse> and deselect "elantech" from the ps2 mouse section.

Dear gog,
i really appreciate you participation
as i said i'm new to linux, i don't know how to recompile the os kernel,
so could you please help me with steps ??

thanks :-)

gog

Member

Registered: 2009-10-13

Posts: 103

Re: Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

dude this is all you right here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cus … n_with_ABS

it has more info that anyone would care to replicate, trust me. read that and you're set

skualito

Member

Registered: 2008-11-19

Posts: 203

Re: Elantech touchpad on Acer Travelmate 3210 working again

I never succeeded to use the synaptics driver with my travelmate3210. But  it was working fine without anyway. My touchpad died some weeks ago so I now use an usb mouse.
At any rate here is my custom kernel config for the 3210 http://pastie.org/669787. I ripped off most of the drivers, except tg3 (ethernet card) and ipw2200 (wifi card). The pcmcia stuff and ieee1394 are disabled, so is the sd card reader. The elantech extension is also disabled.
This is a config I use for kernel 2.6.31 with the bfs patch, but i guess you can use it as a base for a custom (stock) kernel.
But I think for a start it will be easier to just disable elantech extension from a stock config. Good luck.