Touchpad is detected as a pointer

sonay · 2010-08-31 00:18:54

Bought a new netbook and seems like my touchpad is detected as a pointer not a synaptics touchpad. Does that mean it is not really a touchpad or is there a problem with evdev? If it's not really a synaptics touchpad, is there a way to emulate it as is?

My 10-evdev.conf file is:

# Catchall classes for input devices
# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers
# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below
# matches everything but joysticks.

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
    Option "XkbLayout" "tr"
EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
#        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
#        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
#        Driver "evdev"
#EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#        Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"
#        MatchIsTablet "on"
#        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
#        Driver "evdev"
#EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
#        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
#        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
#        Driver "evdev"
#EndSection

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bought a new netbook, everything is just working fine, except the problem at the title. Here is my 10-synaptics.conf file:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
EndSection

I have tried some possible combinations of those lines, like commenting some of those. But nothing seems to change, as none of those seem to work. Even "syndaemon -t -i 2 &" in .xinitrc is ignored, though that may be due to not using .xinitrc for starting KDE with autostart in KDE

and here is the output of

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

:

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=000f Version=0000
N: Name="FSPPS/2 Sentelic FingerSensingPad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio2/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio2/input/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event8
B: EV=7
B: KEY=670000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=143

Last edited by sonay (2010-09-06 16:27:07)

sonay · 2010-09-03 02:14:04

As I was trying to solve the problem, I stumbled to a command

synclient -m 100

which gave me that interesting output:

Can't access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?

As SHMConfig is enabled in my 10-synaptics.conf file, does that mean my synaptics driver is not loaded? If so, how come my touchpad works like a mouse?

sonay · 2010-09-03 02:49:31

OK, now I am bit closer to the end, I hope.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log says:

[ 23.255] (**) FSPPS/2 Sentelic FingerSensingPad: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"

Google directed me to Gentoo Wiki whom says the driver is included in the kernel:

"From kernel 2.6.32 the driver is included in the kernel. Just include it."

If I only knew what "include it" meant...

Hessiess · 2010-09-03 14:57:22

sonay wrote:

OK, now I am bit closer to the end, I hope.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log says:
[ 23.255] (**) FSPPS/2 Sentelic FingerSensingPad: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
Google directed me to Gentoo Wiki whom says the driver is included in the kernel:
"From kernel 2.6.32 the driver is included in the kernel. Just include it."
If I only knew what "include it" meant...

On Gentoo kernels are compiled manually, so ``include it'' here probably just means ''enable in the kernel settings''. The package is available in the arch repositories: ''xf86-input-synaptics''.

Does anything on this wiki page help? http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics

sonay · 2010-09-03 16:45:53

Hessiess wrote:

sonay wrote:
OK, now I am bit closer to the end, I hope.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log says:
[ 23.255] (**) FSPPS/2 Sentelic FingerSensingPad: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
Google directed me to Gentoo Wiki whom says the driver is included in the kernel:
"From kernel 2.6.32 the driver is included in the kernel. Just include it."
If I only knew what "include it" meant...
On Gentoo kernels are compiled manually, so ``include it'' here probably just means ''enable in the kernel settings''. The package is available in the arch repositories: ''xf86-input-synaptics''.
Does anything on this wiki page help? http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics

I have tried everything (except HAL as it is deprecated) suggested on that wiki before posting here. Now I am worried if my touchpad is a synaptics device, not like an ALPS. I also have evdev and synaptics drivers installed and xorg says "[ 23.255] (**) FSPPS/2 Sentelic FingerSensingPad: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall" " and udev confirms it is detected and loaded. However, somehow 10-synaptics.conf is bypassed.

Interestingly, synclient claims "no drivers loaded", it has to do something with this, but I don't really know what to do, something like a configuration mistake is done somewhere but I didn't change anything at all except 10-synaptics.conf.

One last strange thing I have noticed is although vertical scrolling is really slow, if I sweep my finger and keep it pressed, vertical scrolling works, but too fast. The only that bothers me most is when a very long page is browsed, scrolling using the bar is pain, as it is too fast for a very small scroll bar (I hope you understand what I mean, I am not a native speaker), other than that I can live with it.

I am having a busy weekend, this week. I won't be able to search or try anything. So if I don't feed back here for your suggestions, please excuse me.

Last edited by sonay (2010-09-03 16:47:38)

farhad_hf · 2010-09-06 12:43:11

I don't know if you've solved this problem or not , but there is something that might be helpful... It seems that if you have any configuration about touchpad in 10-evdev.conf, then xorg will skip other configurations (like those in 10-synaptics.conf) about the touchpad and use the evdev configs... try commenting the InputClass with "evdev touchpad catchall" identifier in 10-evdev.conf

sonay · 2010-09-06 16:19:10

farhad_hf wrote:

I don't know if you've solved this problem or not , but there is something that might be helpful... It seems that if you have any configuration about touchpad in 10-evdev.conf, then xorg will skip other configurations (like those in 10-synaptics.conf) about the touchpad and use the evdev configs... try commenting the InputClass with "evdev touchpad catchall" identifier in 10-evdev.conf

thank you for your suggestion, it did work in some way. Uncommenting every device except keyboard made me realize my touchpad is detected as a pointer, hence it was natural to skip synaptics configuration. So does that mean my touchpad is not really a touchpad? if so is there a way to emulate it as a toucpad like ALPs? I should work on that...

farhad_hf · 2010-09-30 19:54:48

Well... I have this problem two , my touchpad is recognized as mouse (and drived using psmouse module). I couldn't make it work as a touchpad, so If you have any success or progress please post here and let me know!

Thanks,
Farhad

nbtrap · 2011-07-15 20:27:32

I'm having this same problem now. Touchpad detected as a pointer.

nbtrap · 2011-07-19 19:14:57

There is a kernel patch that has been filed with the relevant bug on Linux' Bugzilla. See https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27162 for the report and https://launchpadlibrarian.net/71387234 … 6.38.patch for the patch. I compiled the kernel from ABS with the patch and it does indeed work. That is, the kernel now successfully detects the touchpad as a touchpad and loads the synaptic driver without any problems (I'm running on an Asus K53e laptop). Unfortunately, I'm not a dev, so I don't know how to commit the patch or how to tell if it has already been committed for 3.0.

sonay · 2011-07-23 00:18:15

@nbtrap

Thanks for your suggestion and taking the time to share your solution, however I don't think I will compile the kernel as this is not a powerful machine and I don't have much free time these days. I hope your message works for someone in need and the patch gets included in the kernel tree. Btw, your second link doesn't seem to be working, in fact it looks like a dumb page.

eworm · 2011-08-10 06:11:14

Take a look at this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 25#p973025
Hope that helps.

nbtrap · 2011-08-10 13:28:03

eworm, I had already installed the patch that your AUR package installs, and I can verify that it words on the Asus K53e, much better in fact than the patch I posted above. Thank you for your help.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-31 00:18:54

Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#2 2010-09-03 02:14:04

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#3 2010-09-03 02:49:31

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#4 2010-09-03 14:57:22

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#5 2010-09-03 16:45:53

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#6 2010-09-06 12:43:11

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#7 2010-09-06 16:19:10

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#8 2010-09-30 19:54:48

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#9 2011-07-15 20:27:32

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#10 2011-07-19 19:14:57

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#11 2011-07-23 00:18:15

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#12 2011-08-10 06:11:14

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

#13 2011-08-10 13:28:03

Re: Touchpad is detected as a pointer

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