[Feisty] Thinkpad R31 trackpoint false clicks & movement

[jerrylamos]

IBM Thinkpad R31 usually running Dapper and sometimes XP no pointer problems.

Trying to run Feisty 20070207 which is a handful. Every so often the mouse pointer will disappear and BOOM something wild will happen. In some cases as if I had moved the pointer to the top right and then clicked the power off button 5 times in a row, requiring 5 cancels to get by it. Another couple times it suddenly decided to download 3 copies of Evolution(?).

Getting the pointer near a margin on the left might suddently get a display of a month calendar at the top right, and I can't find out how to get rid of it.

Then suddenly the top row of icons will show up on the right edge, and just now the top icon row jumped to the bottom of the screen? That's usually done with a right click on the margin, click properties, select position but I didn't do any of that.

Any clue on how to investigate, or any settings to calm it down?

[James_pic (james-pickering)]

I have exactly the same problem. Interestingly, I had the same problem when I first installed Dapper, but it went away the first time I updated, so presumably this problem was fixed in dapper. It never showed up in Edgy. If anyone can figure out how it got fixed first time round, and how it got unfixed, it should be pretty easy to fix it in Feisty

[jerrylamos (jerrylamos)]

Feisty final release still does the same thing on the Thinkpad R31. I have to be very careful and slow about moving the cursor not to get near the edges, because when I do Ubuntu thinks it has rapid fire gotten all sorts of left and right clicks such as seven Exit windows one on top of another when I had no intention of doing that. Laptop cursors are famously hard to see which doesn't help. None of the desktops do that.

Solution: Ubuntu 6.06.1 Dapper Drake on the Thinkpad, Feisty on the desktops.

Cheers, Jerry

[James_pic (james-pickering)]

A search on the Dapper problem turned up the solution. Apparently the problem is due to the R31 using the same controller (the i8042) for the keyboard, mouse and power management, and occurs every time something polls the battery. The Wrong Solution is to pass i8042.nomux=1 to the kernel - add it to the #defoptions line in /boot/grub/menu.lst, run "sudo update-grub", and reboot (I can vouch for the fact that this works). The Right Solution is to set this as the default in the next release of the kernel - presumably this is what happened with dapper.

Hope this helps, James.

[jerrylamos (jerrylamos)]

Thanks much, James. Currently the Thinkpad R31 is dual boot with XP and Dapper. I'd tripped on the problem with CD Live Ubuntu, Xubuntu, & Kubuntu. I'd try your fix now if "persistent" wasn't broken (since 20070210). Let me look at what it would take to salvage files & settings & modifications, and try a Feisty Ubuntu install plus your fix.

Thanks for looking at the trouble. # defoptions=quiet splash is the same on menu.lst for both Dapper and Feisty.

Cheers, Jerry

[jerrylamos (jerrylamos)]

James, I did install Feisty on the Thinkpad R31 and applied your Wrong Solution. First blush it seems to work.

Sometime I'll check to see if CD Live F6 on boot options would allow adding i8042.nomux=1, likely after Feisty is set up and running - example, wireless.....

Thanks, Jerry

[Masakazu Chou (mgdesigner)]

I use thinkpar R31 ,too.Updating form 6.10,the fixed problem comes again :-(

[Masakazu Chou (mgdesigner)]

I use thinkpar R31 ,too.Updating form 6.10,but the fixed problem comes again :-(

[HeelsFan (cngraham)]

I'm on an R31 as well and confirm the issue with the trackpoint movement and clicks.

[Wolf F. (wfogl)]

hi,

i got the same problem with my tp r31.

coulnd't write it to my menu.lst because i'm using wingrub and the solution doesn't work.

could someone explain it to me more detailed and in an easy english because i'm german and my english isn't very good!

thanx wubuntu

[jerrylamos (jerrylamos)]

Well, I last took German in college 50 years ago so I can guarantee your english is better than my german. What the line in menu.lst says is:

# defoptions=quiet splash

I don't know Ubuntu internals, but I think that means on an installed system the default options on the kernel command will be: quiet splash. After the fix, the line looks like

# defoptions=quiet splash i8042,nomux=1

Then "sudo update-grub" is run so that grub will read the line and use those new defaults.

So I as a test I just booted CD Live Feisty 7.04 on the R31, pushed F6 which prints the boot options line on the screen ending with: quiet splash so I added : i8042,nomux=1 on the same line just after quiet splash. The line on the screen after pushing F6 now reads:

Boot Options :casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash i8042,nomux=1

I haven't run very long however the trackpoint mouse seems to be O.K.

I don't know wingrub; is there anywhere the default options quiet splash appear that you can add i8042,nomux=1 to the boot options line, either in the code or as a manual F6?

Cheers, Jerry

[Wolf F. (wfogl)]

hi jerry,

thanx for your answer.

the menu.lst of wingrub has the following entries:

color white/blue black/light-gray

timeout 5

#splashimage (hd0,0)/boot/37454-KUBUNTU_splashscreen_faded_sky.xpm.gz

default 0

defoptions=i8042.nomux=1

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

there are no default options. where should I enter "i8042,nomux=1"?

greez wubuntu

[Wolf F. (wfogl)]

edit:

sorry, the line "defoptions=i8042.nomux=1" was entered by me, but I think it's not correct. I'm a linux-newbie...:-)

[jerrylamos (jerrylamos)]

There is a line in your menu.lst:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro quiet splash

Change it to:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro quiet splash i8042,imax=1

That did it for me.

I see you have a line
defoptions=i8042.nomux=1
which from my limited knowledge doesn't do any good, so might as well remove it.
A line exactly like this, character for character including the #,
# defoptions=quiet splash i8042,nomux=1
is only used by the program update-grub as follows entered as a command line in terminal:
sudo update-grub
So if you do not do
sudo update-grub
adding i8042,nomux=1 to the defoptions line it is of no use. The: # defoptions... is only used by the update-grub program which is only run when you issue it or else a new install is done.

Now changing your kernel line as in the beginning of this post should do it as it is without having to issue: sudo update-grub.

Do note that some updates or an install of course replace the kernel and change menu.lst, so if a kernel update should be done, you'd need to update menu.lst on the new kernel line.....

Cheers, Jerry

[Wolf F. (wfogl)]

hi jerry, thanx for your help. IT WORKS!!!!!!!!

Am Montag, den 30.04.2007, 12:23 +0000 schrieb jerrylamos:
> There is a line in your menu.lst:
>
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-
> b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro quiet splash
>
> Change it to:
>
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=aee7eebe-02ba-428a-
> b90b-afa9aed6dbcd ro quiet splash i8042,imax=1
>
> That did it for me.
>
> I see you have a line
> defoptions=i8042.nomux=1
> which from my limited knowledge doesn't do any good, so might as well remove it.
> A line exactly like this, character for character including the #,
> # defoptions=quiet splash i8042,nomux=1
> is only used by the program update-grub as follows entered as a command line in terminal:
> sudo update-grub
> So if you do not do
> sudo update-grub
> adding i8042,nomux=1 to the defoptions line it is of no use. The: # defoptions... is only used by the update-grub program which is only run when you issue it or else a new install is done.
>
> Now changing your kernel line as in the beginning of this post should do
> it as it is without having to issue: sudo update-grub.
>
> Do note that some updates or an install of course replace the kernel and
> change menu.lst, so if a kernel update should be done, you'd need to
> update menu.lst on the new kernel line.....
>
> Cheers, Jerry
>

[Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst)]

For this bug to be accepted by the kernel team please include the minimal information required as described in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies.

[Axel Pospischil (apos)]

Add "i8042.nomux=1" the following to the line which says "# kopt ..." into your "/boot/grub/menu.lst"

# kopt ... other settings... i8042.nomux=1

and then run ether "update-grub" or manually add "i8042.nomux=1" to your kernel.
This works on my R31 since all newer 2.6.x kernels.

[Masakazu Chou (mgdesigner)]

in 2.6.22 without i8042.nomux=1 ,the mouse will not lag no more.I think the kernel team have improved it.

[Masakazu Chou (mgdesigner)]

Sorry forgot it!I am wrong it still didn't be fixed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!