[Jaunty] synaptics driver needs to be updated to work with devices known as "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" and "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" starting with 2.6.28 series kernels

[Alexia Death]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Some of the touchpads previously known as "Synaptics Touchpad" by kernel are now known as "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" and are not picked up with synaptics driver in X. The result is missing functionality, like tapping and scrolling. "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" also needs to be included, the same symptoms occur with this device if it is not included in the fdi file.

All it needs is a little secction in the synaptics fdi like this for Elantech:

      <match key="info.product" contains="ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
      </match>

For the original Synaptics touchpad:

      <match key="info.product" contains="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
      </match>

And all is well again.

EDIT: Newer driver is needed also. The bug is that current driver does not recognize the elantechs as synaptics touchpads. Same thing for original Synaptics touchpads.

[Alexia Death (alexiade)]

I litle amendment, newer driver for X is needed along the fdi, or the touchpad will become totally unfunctional.

[GiuseppeVerde (launchpad-digitasaru)]

Alexia: where do I get the newer synaptics driver?

[Alexia Death (alexiade)]

Im sorry, dont know what the right place is... I got mine I think from an eeepc source package or something that google netted for me...

[Daniel Miles (themono)]

I think this is likely more important than it's current "medium" importance - it renders my eeepc 901 virtually unusable - because everything is set to be so small on the screen, the touchpad needs to be responsive, and whatever driver is used in place of the correct one results in very jerky movement.

[Daniel Miles (themono)]

As I understand it from this - http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/ElantechTouchpad#head-a037b0abce86c15b70f9936931c0f97310f29fac - it's all fixed fine in a newer version of the synaptics driver, 0.99.1 and above. There's a package available for debian here (http://alioth.debian.org/~dsalt-guest/eee/), but it will not install on Jaunty.

So I guess this bug should, more accurately, be that we need to update the synaptics driver.

[Alexia Death (alexiade)]

That looks like the place I got it from. The package is not usable but the source is. It builds fine...

[Alexia Death (alexiade)]

It just like to note that this is not just eeepc issue. My hardware is about year old rebranded compal laptop, so this influences usual laptops too. I like the twofinger scroll btw:)

[Daniel Miles (themono)]

This is a deb package of a newer driver - installing this deb restores two finger scrolling and removes that jerkiness I spoke of. The version number I've kept the same as the current in Jaunty's archives so any subsequent Jaunty updates will supercede this. This is only an interim fix though.

[Chaose (mugenzero)]

The driver from the post above by D.Miles worked for me. Interestingly, scrolling region does not work.However, 2 finger scroll works. I have a Everex laptop.

[heartsmagic (heartsmagic)]

The above package worked for me, too. My touchpad stopped working totally with Jaunty. After installing this driver, i can use the touchped again.

[Tomasz Dominikowski (dominikowski)]

I can confirm this issue on my MSI Wind U100. The touchpad does not work at all.

[Quartz (ghexsel)]

Same here HP DV9000 laptop running 9.04 64bit, Synaptic totally dead (oh how I respect VI users after having to relearn all keyboard shortcuts again).

[Tomasz Dominikowski (dominikowski)]

To make it work again, I had to install the package attached in the comments and edit my 11-x11-synaptics.fdi to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.product" contains="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

The report only takes Elantech touchpads into consideration, but many laptops do have the good old Synaptics one. My MSI Wind U100 is from an early batch that still had the better, Synaptics one.

Now, if the bug needs to be fixed in such a way that all names of all touchpads need to be included in the *.fdi file, then I must say that it is a true clusterf*ck. Probably just including Elantech and Synaptics would fix most configs though.

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

Confirmed here with Kubuntu jaunty alpha 4 live-cd on Dell XPS 1330

[Pitabred (ubuntu-pitabred)]

I also have a Compal (HGL30), and my touchpad simply does not work under the lastest Jaunty packages, 64bit version (so the above .deb won't help me).

I used to get the jittery motion, but now, nothing whatsoever. The buttons work, but the touchpad will not move the cursor. Gotta use a USB mouse all the time.

I also boot into Windows on this machine, so I'm certain the hardware is in fact working. And it used to work under older releases.

[Matt LaPaglia (mlapaglia)]

Same as Pitabred, I have a Compal Hel80 (the Hel81 also) and neither touchpads work with the latest version of jaunty.

I've attached my dmesg.

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

The xserver-xorg-input-synaptics was not installed by default on Jaunty.
 "sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" solved it for me.

See bug #323800

[unggnu (unggnu)]

I can confirm this bug with current Jaunty. xserver-xorg-input-synaptics is installed.

At least I guess I have this bug since scrolling doesn't work anymore since Jaunty.

[Daniele Napolitano (dnax88)]

I have the same problem with a Acer Aspire 5102WLMi, Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4 (with latest updates).

There is two solutions:
 * Use of evdev general input driver (by edit HAL fdi file), but without any Synaptics configurations like sensivity or touch-click.
 * Install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics and edit HAL fdi file for use that driver.

This bug block any (not expert) user interation... please fix in Alpha 5!

[unggnu (unggnu)]

Seems to be fixed in current Jaunty.

[M (mapathak)]

Even for me.

[Grizzly (sven-witterstein)]

Can you have a look at my bug #335297 - my logitech is recognised as elantech touchpad and does not really work - I don't know if the two problems are related.

[Pitabred (ubuntu-pitabred)]

Mine isn't fixed. I still can't get anything under Linux with this touchpad. It used to work, the upgrade to Jaunty broke it somewhere in the line:

From my dmesg:
[ 13.633647] input: ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio4/input/input8

And I see this in my Xorg.0.log:
[ 7.982748] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Macintosh mouse button emulation" (type: MOUSE)
[ 7.984782] (II) config/hal: Adding input device ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad
[ 7.984916] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
[ 7.990837] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[ 7.991035] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" (type: TOUCHPAD)

But when I run xev and touch the touchpad I get no events reported at all. When I cat /dev/input/event8 there's nothing coming through. I am positive that the touchpad works because it used to work under Linux and it still works under Windows installed on the same machine.

[Dann S. Washko (dann)]

I'm having the same problem posted by Pitabred; I see the exact same output. I'm on a System76 first gen Serval with the Elantech Touchpad. I have tried some of the proposed configurations above and nothing has made my touch pad work. I did an upgrade from Intrepid to Jaunty. The touchpad worked fine in Intrepid.

dmesg: [ 12.145366] input: ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/inpu/input8

Xorg.0.log:

[ 1.576148] (II) config/hal: Adding input device ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad
[ 1.576192] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[ 1.576360] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
[ 1.576575] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.5.99.901, module version = 0.99.2
        Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
        ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 4.0
[ 1.576621] (II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.99.2
[ 1.576644] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[ 1.577273] (II) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: x-axis range 32 - 544
[ 1.577295] (II) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: y-axis range 32 - 352
[ 1.577310] (II) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: device does not report pressure, will use touch data.
[ 1.577325] (II) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: finger width range 0 - 0
[ 1.577345] (II) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: buttons: left right middle double triple
[ 1.577422] (--) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad touchpad found
[ 1.577447] (**) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: always reports core events
[ 1.582310] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
[ 1.582408] (**) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[ 1.582426] (**) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: (accel) filter chain progression: 2.00
[ 1.582447] (**) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: (accel) filter stage 0: 20.00 ms
[ 1.582475] (**) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: (accel) set acceleration profile 0
[ 1.591381] (--) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad touchpad found

I see the Macintosh mouse support loading in too. Could this be interferring?

Here is the contents of my /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/11-x11-synaptics.fdi file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
        <!-- Arbitrary options can be passed to the driver using
             the input.x11_options property since xorg-server-1.5. -->
        <!-- EXAMPLE:
        <merge key="input.x11_options.LeftEdge" type="string">120</merge>
        -->
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

and finally /proc/bus/input/devices:

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=000e Version=0000
N: Name="ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse2 event8
B: EV=f
B: KEY=6420 0 70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3
B: ABS=3

[tlois (tlois3)]

Touchpad on IBM thinkpad t30 does not work at all with all updates on Jaunty. When I tried to install above mentioned package, it says there is a later version already installed. Will use external mouse and hope this is fixed soon. It also did not work when I was booting from flash drive on my eee 701.

[tlois (tlois3)]

Oddly, second reboot after upgrade, it started working this morning. The only thing I did between first reboot and second is try to install that package, which didn't happen, so not sure what that was about.

[Pitabred (ubuntu-pitabred)]

Seconded. I just did an upgrade, and my mouse went from non-working to working. It looks like the bug is fixed with the current package set, even if no one knows what happened :) It may have been the kernel or something.

[dlamer (l-wojtus)]

Hi,

I created /etc/hal/fdi/policy/synaptics.fdi file with provided content. After reboot, touchpad still doesn't work.

[Dann S. Washko (dann)]

I've been keeping up with the updates and I even tried the 9.04 beta cd this morning. Nothing so far has brought my touch pad back to life.

[Petri Helin (phelin)]

Just tried the Jaunty Beta on my Compal HEL80 and the touchpad doesn't react at all. The same touchpad works reasonably well with Intrepid.

[Pitabred (ubuntu-pitabred)]

Going to have to retract my previous comment. My touchpad is no longer working, even with the latest updates.

[Ricardo Faria (ricardomiguelfaria)]

I also have a Compal HEL80 and tried both ways, <match key="info.product" contains="ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"> and <match key="info.product" contains="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"> and neither worked.
I've also tried to enable SHMConfig in /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi, also with no luck. I even tried xinput set-int-prop "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad" "Device Enable " 8 0, but when i do xinput list-props "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad", it appears
Device 'ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad':
 Device Enabled (89): 1
 Evdev Axis Inversion (227): 0, 0
 Evdev Reopen Attempts (224): 10
 Evdev Axis Calibration (225):
 Evdev Axes Swap (226): 0
 Evdev Middle Button Emulation (228): 2
 Evdev Middle Button Timeout (229): 50
 Evdev Wheel Emulation (230): 0
 Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (231): 0, 0, 4, 5
 Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (232): 10
 Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (233): 200
 Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (234): 4
 Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (235): 0
 Device Enable (613): 0

and it seems Device Enabled (89): 1 should be Device Enabled (89): 0 .
I can't figure this out. hope someone can.

[Ricardo Faria (ricardomiguelfaria)]

i solved my non working touchpad by doing in terminal:

modprobe -r psmouse
modprobe psmouse proto=imps

at this time the touchpad should be working

and add: options psmouse proto=imps
to: gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

best of luck.

[Dann S. Washko (dann)]

Hey, that worked for me too! Thanks!

[dlamer (l-wojtus)]

Worked for me also, thx man ;)

[Bálint Magyar (balintm)]

Same problem here as Pitabred described above, same log output, same Elantech touchpad. ricardofaria's workaround makes it work instantly.

[William Grant (wgrant)]

Please file a separate bug about that, against the 'linux' package.

[Simon (simon-senica)]

I also have Compal HEL 80i with Elantech Touchpad and it still doesn't work in Jaunty RC, luckily Ricardo Faria's workaround fixed the problem.

[mrphd (andrubuntu)]

I am running Jaunty RC and tapping is not working (despite being enable in touchpad preferences). Never had any problems in Intrepid.

[Roland (rolandu)]

Ricardo Faria's workaround fixed the touchpad issue on my Compal HEL80 too.

Thanks, Ricardo Faria.

[reygecko (reygecko)]

Ricardo Faria's solution worked really fine for me too!! Thanks a lot, Ricardo, good job!! :D

P.D.- Could anyone add a fix in the repositories?

[Noel J. Bergman (noeljb)]

I am NOT seeing this as fixed. I have edge scrolling, the mouse moves and the buttons work, but that's it -- I no longer have two finger scrolling nor tap-to-click.

I setup /etc/hal/fdi/policy/synaptics.fdi with:

<!-- See LP Bug 315882 -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
  <device>
    <match key="info.product" contains="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad">
        <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
    </match>
  </device>
</deviceinfo>

and rebooted (just in case).

From dmesg:

Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 6.2, id: 0x81a0b1, caps: 0xa04791/0x300000
serio: Synaptics pass-through port at isa0060/serio1/input0
input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input8

From Xorg.0.log:

$ grep -iF synaptic Xorg.0.log
(II) config/hal: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
(II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 1.1.99
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: x-axis range 1472 - 5472
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: y-axis range 1408 - 4448
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: pressure range 0 - 255
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: finger width range 0 - 0
(II) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: buttons: left right middle double triple
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) filter chain progression: 2.00
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) filter stage 0: 20.00 ms
(**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) set acceleration profile 0
(--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad touchpad found

The "modprobe fix" does not work. With proto=imps, clicking works and scrolling stops. Without it, edge scrolling works, but clicking does not.

[Noel J. Bergman (noeljb)]

** NEVERMIND ** -- bad synaptics driver. Reinstalled and at least some things work again.

[Nonninz (nonninz)]

Another Compal HEL80/81 Jaunty user here.

Ricardo Faria's fix works instantly, I have back my scrolling and multi-finger tapping :)
I didn't have to install or remove anything.

Thank You!!

[imachine (m-jedrasik)]

I too have a Compal EL80 and Ricardo's fix worked so well for me.

Thanks Ricardo, this should be incorporated in mainstream if a machine says it's a COMPAL EL80 (and it does and is quite linux friendly so it deserves to be there in acpi-fixes list or however it is called in Ubuntu;-))

Cheers

[David Roberts (david.roberts)]

Ricardo's fix got the touchpad working for me (Lenovo ThinkPad R500), but edge-scrolling was disabled. So instead I just reloaded the psmouse module (i.e. without the proto argument), after which the touchpad worked perfectly:
sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse

To make this fix permanent I added the following to /etc/rc.local:
/sbin/modprobe -r psmouse
/sbin/modprobe psmouse

See <https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/191024/comments/40>

[Chris Lasher (chris.lasher)]

I had to reinstall the synaptics driver first with

sudo aptitude reinstall xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

after which Ricardo Faria's fix worked for me.

[ergatif (georges-comptoirip)]

This worked for me to correct mouse failure after first click with a U100 Wind and both 9.04 and 9.10...

I had to put the commands :
/sbin/modprobe -r psmouse
/sbin/modprobe psmouse

in /etc/init.d/rc.local in order that they will be executed as root

Thanks for this fix.

[ergatif (georges-comptoirip)]

To be more acurate, on my U100 the mouse was unusable after a few seconds, cursor moved but click has no effect. Removing the psmouse module at startup solved this issue.

So I put only the following command (and not the other one which reloads the unwished module) in /etc/rc.local :
/sbin/modprobe -r psmouse

The built-in trackpad and buttons doesn't work anymore but the external USB mouse is working fine.

This is the only fix that worked for me (and it worked in both distribution 9.04 and 9.10)

This should probably be reported as a different bug, but I feel a little lazy after a couple of hours working on it.

[grolma (pdcooper)]

modprobe fix didnt work for me.
touchpad appears in System->prefs->mouse

FWIW the machine is an Asus 901
$ uname -a
$ 2.6.32-33-generic #72-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 29 21:08:37 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
$
ive added the Xorg when the machine starts and heres the other reference to synaptics that Ive found in Xorg
(--) ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad: touchpad found
(II) Power Button: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) Video Bus: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) Power Button: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) Sleep Button: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) CNF7129: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) Asus EeePC extra buttons: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Device reopened after 1 attempts.
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "AUO", prod id 4128
(II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
(II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "AUO", prod id 4128
(II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
(II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "AUO", prod id 4128
(II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
(II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "AUO", prod id 4128
(II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
(II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
(II) intel(0): EDID vendor "AUO", prod id 4128
(II) intel(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:
(II) intel(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625 -hsync -vsync (37.5 kHz)
(II) config/udev: removing device ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad
(II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"