psmouse broken for thinkpad touchpad on carbon x1 5th gen

[Fredrik Wendt]

On my Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 5th Gen with Swedish keyboard, the trackpoint and touchpad is defunct when running 16.04 LTS and 17.04 "out of the box". You're essentially required to attach an external USB connected mouse to complete (UI based) installation.

Workaround: I can get the trackpoint (red dot) and touchpad to work with IMPS protocol. When loading the `psmouse` Linux kernel module, passing arguments `protocol=imps`, clicks and moving the mouse around works. Using the middle button for scrolling works - both by moving the trackpoint, and by using the touchpad.

However, this disables two-finger scrolling using the touchpad.

I also own a X1 Carbon 3rd Gen which works just fine.
---
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: zesty
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-26 (3 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
MachineType: LENOVO 20HRCTO1WW
Package: xserver-xorg-input-evdev (not installed)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-20-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=591d9b02-d2fc-4ad4-8a2e-cc41bd853c0a ro i8042.reset i8042.nomux psmouse.proto=imps quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-20.22-generic 4.10.8
Tags: zesty ubuntu
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-20-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 03/10/2017
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N1MET31W (1.16 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20HRCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40697 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN1MET31W(1.16):bd03/10/2017:svnLENOVO:pn20HRCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadX1Carbon5th:rvnLENOVO:rn20HRCTO1WW:rvrSDK0J40697WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.name: 20HRCTO1WW
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 5th
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.04.20170109-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.76-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.0.3-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.0.3-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.3-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.9.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.14-0ubuntu1

[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

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[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

`dmesg` log is filled with this:

[24294.298247] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24294.298252] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b0
[24294.298254] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24319.896395] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24319.896400] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b1
[24319.896402] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24324.362898] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24324.362908] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b0
[24324.362911] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24333.505482] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24333.505487] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b1
[24333.505489] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24349.350913] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24349.350917] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b0
[24349.350919] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24351.489293] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24351.489298] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b1
[24351.489300] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>
[24354.430060] thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
[24354.430064] thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x60b0
[24354.430066] thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to <email address hidden>

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

Hi, I got the exact same syslog message and also use a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 5th Gen with Swedish keyboard. However, my trackpoint and mouse seem to work as expected. I.e., besides the syslog message. Two finger scrolling does as well. It also worked in 16.04, 16.10 and is currently working in 17.04 (upgraded two days ago). I have noticed the cursor skips in the text but have not excluded if it is the touchpad that is enabled while typing.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

FYI: while trying to get the "disable keyboard while typing" back online (is set to true in gconf and I'm testing gnome now before 18.04) the touchpad got disabled for some reason. I only changed one setting in gconf which should not disable the touchpad on login. Had to reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics and -libinput as well as running:

gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad/touchpad_enabled true

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad#Touchpad_not_working_after_login

However, still no luck with the disable keyboard while typing. Otherwise everything works as stated before. Perhaps you have the same gconf mixup @Fredrik

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

The "disable keyboard while typing" problem only affects Gnome (default) for some reason. In Unity (7) on Ubuntu 17.04 everything works perfectly.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

FYI: got a better experience in gnome when opening a terminal and running syndaemon -d in gnome. However, that seem to freeze the mouse slightly too long after I have stopped typing. The unity version works better (not sure what differs yet).

https://askubuntu.com/questions/505007/ubuntu-gnome-14-04-disable-touchpad-while-typing-not-working

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Fredrik Wendt (fredrik-wendt)]

@Anders: No, my problem is different from yours: both trackpoint and touchpad is unusable. Some users claim this is fixed in psmouse Linux kernel module psmouse, from version 4.0.12-rc4. My only workaround is to use IMPS protocol, which works predictably (stable) with the drawback of all multiple touchpoints (two finger scroll, for instance) not being useable.

[Anders Hall (a.hall)]

@Fredrik Ok, different problem then. I have tested some more now. It is still working good in most cases and it seems like disable while typing has improved as well (might be some update). However, I'm experiencing micro freezes/locks for the mouse (1-3 seconds) which is very annoying. I.e., everything is not perfect.

I use this kernel, with standard kernel modules, libunput etc:
Linux boll 4.10.0-24-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 14 08:14:34 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux