[Acer C720] Touchpad not recognized since kernel upgrade

[Fred Laxton]

This is on Ubuntu 13.10, kernel 3.11.0-15 on an Acer C720 Chromebook with a Synaptics touchpad.

A USB or bluetooth mouse works fine.

The trackpad is no longer in the list of devices in xinput as it had been before.

$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
xserver-xorg-input-synaptics:
  Installed: 1.7.1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.7.1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.7.1-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: linux-image-3.11.0-15-generic 3.11.0-15.25
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-15.25-generic 3.11.10
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.12.5-0ubuntu2.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: fredlaxton 1532 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: fredlaxton 1532 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Wed Feb 5 13:16:57 2014
MachineType: Acer Peppy
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB:
 0 inteldrmfb
 1 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-15-generic root=UUID=b9c60669-34d9-460f-ac3e-35db5665dfeb ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.11.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.11.0-15-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.116
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 10/29/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: coreboot
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvncoreboot:bvr:bd10/29/2013:svnAcer:pnPeppy:pvr1.0:cvnAcer:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Peppy
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Fred Laxton (fred-laxton)]

The touchpad works fine when I boot into ChromeOS. I have dual-boot set up.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can you see if this issue also happens in the latest 3.11 upstream kernel, which is available from:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11.10.3-saucy/

[Fred Laxton (fred-laxton)]

Still a problem.

fredlaxton@chrubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux chrubuntu 3.11.10-03111003-generic #201401160535 SMP Thu Jan 16 10:35:52 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
fredlaxton@chrubuntu:~$ xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HD WebCam id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]

[Daniel Dyla (dyladan)]

I had the same problem with my C720.

I solved it by recompiling the kernel with benson leung's haswell chromebook patches

https://patchwork.kernel.org/bundle/bleung/chromeos-laptop-deferring-and-haswell/

[Daniel Dyla (dyladan)]

important to note that the touchpad actually did not work with the old kernel either but if you installed using the chrubuntu script as most people did then these patches were already applied for you at install time.

[Fred Laxton (fred-laxton)]

Thanks, Daniel, I may try that. Been years since I compiled a kernel tho!

[Fred Laxton (fred-laxton)]

A patch script is available in the meantime, to patch the kernel. It is located here:

http://goo.gl/kz917j

[Toby Corkindale (tjc-wintrmute)]

Just noting this still is broken on Trusty's current beta kernel, 3.13.0

[Malte S. Stretz (mss)]

For testing I installed the utopic kernel (3.16.0.6.7) on trusty and the touchpad is still not recognized.

[Tim Peeters (tpeeters)]

hurray :) the issue seems to have been fixed in linux-3.17rc1. I downloaded:
- linux-headers-3.17.0-031700rc1-generic_3.17.0-031700rc1.201409021903_amd64.deb
- linux-headers-3.17.0-031700rc1_3.17.0-031700rc1.201409021903_all.deb
- linux-image-3.17.0-031700rc1-generic_3.17.0-031700rc1.201409021903_amd64.deb

from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17-rc1-utopic/ and installed the three files using 'dpkg -i *.deb'. Now the touchpad works without applying an additional patch.

[Tim Peeters (tpeeters)]

Silly me, I could have gotten the final 3.17 kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17-utopic/ (instead of rc1).

Anyway, I installed that kernel, and the touchpad still works :)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Fred Laxton, Saucy reached EOL on July 17, 2014.
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Is this still an issue for you on a supported release?

If so, could you please test the latest mainline kernel 3.18-rc3 following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds advise to the results?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]