Touchpad in Dell XPS M1530 unusable - Intrepid Beta (was Hardy Beta)

[Dylan Hunter]

Just bought a new Dell XPS M1530, (some relevant specs below) tried starting up a Live CD of Hardy beta, (AMD64 - tested for defects and passed on another computer). Have only gotten Live CD to actually work once, (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/216791) but one that one occasion, the Alps Touchpad was really unusable / nigh unto psychotic - whipping back, forth, up and down, opening windows, moving taskbars, etc.

Have seen some discussion on this issue elsewhere, (including a possible workaround by editing the boot line to include a 'i8042.nomux=1' switch) but since have only gotten that far, can't confirm whether it works or not. Even if it does, however, unless added as a default boot switch, makes the Live CD/Ubuntu unusable for new XPS M1530 users.

-----

Dell XPS M1530
Processor: Intel Dual Core T5450
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
LCD Panel Max Resolution: 1280x800
Touchpad: Alps Touchpad
Wireless: Intel 4965
BIOS: A08

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

Finally got Hardy Beta installed on my HD yesterday, and once updated, looks like this issue has definitely been improved, (i.e. someone must have done something to slow down the touchpad) but now it's gone the other way - at max acceleration, it now takes 29 full left-to-right travels across the touchpad to move from the left end of the screen to the right @ 1280x800, (still, _much_ better than the hyper-acceleration that happened before, which made the system unusable).

Tried again with the i8042.nomux=1 switch, and that's absolutely perfect - just the right amount of movement at the default acceleration speeds. Would suggest modding the default acceleration to that level.

It really is so nice to see things like this get addressed this quickly, and will go a long way toward getting more and more folks transferring over - well done, Guys! :)

Dylan

[janrikard (janrikard)]

I also have similar problem, both with i386 anf amd64.
But only when I use version A08, when i use a07 it work great(exept that the wireless doesnt work so good with a07)

you can try download that A07 bios firmware from dell (ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1530_A07.EXE) and see if it works better.

/rikard

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

Actually, would go with adding i8042.nomux=1 to your bootline in grub
- works perfectly for me, and lets you stay on A08

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 26, 2008, at 7:10 AM, janrikard <email address hidden> wrote:

> I also have similar problem, both with i386 anf amd64.
> But only when I use version A08, when i use a07 it work great(exept
> that the wireless doesnt work so good with a07)
>
> you can try download that A07 bios firmware from dell
> (ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/1530_A07.EXE) and see if it works better.
>
> /rikard
>
> --
> Touchpad in Dell XPS M1530 entirely unusable - Hardy Beta
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/216797
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.

[mac.ryan (macryan)]

Even wiht the kernel options as described, there are instances in which the touchpad get crazy.

The problem seems to occur only when multiple windows on the desktop are opened and login/logout seems to fix the problem. If not logging out, after some times - with no recurrent pattern (or at least none that I noticed yet) - the situation reverts to normality.

[Mike Jones (mikejones-zenbe)]

I tried the boot option trick to fix this and it didnt help me at all.

http://pastebin.ca/1069694

thats how i edited maybe I did it wrong?

I am having the problem of it taking a million swipes to move the mouse across the screen. Is there any way I can edit this?

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

I actually edited line 132 directly, adding i8042.nomux=1 to it, i.e.:

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic
root=UUID=8836da58-198d-4c8d-ae63-7ec5dff705ce ro quiet splash
i8042.nomux=1
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

Is definitely a pain, though, in that I have to keep re-editing for
each new kernel version. When I get back home will give it a try your
way, and see if it still works for me.

For you, try directly on the line as above, and see if it works, (the
million swipes to cross the screen was the first attempt at repairing
the billionth-of-a-swipe crossing the screen 50 times, as was the
original behavior - if I remove the nomux option on mine, that's the
behavior I'll get, as well).

Talk to you soon,

Dylan

Quoting Mike Jones <email address hidden>:

> I tried the boot option trick to fix this and it didnt help me at all.
>
> http://pastebin.ca/1069694
>
> thats how i edited maybe I did it wrong?
>
> I am having the problem of it taking a million swipes to move the mouse
> across the screen. Is there any way I can edit this?
>
> --
> Touchpad in Dell XPS M1530 entirely unusable - Hardy Beta
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/216797
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Dylan Hunter
Interactive Entrepreneur Making a Difference
http://dylanhunter.com

[mac.ryan (macryan)]

Dylan, I believe you can avoid re-editing the kernel option every time you get a kernel update by inserting i8042.nomux=1 in your default kernel options in the menu.lst file (it's in the commented part of automagic). I did not try it yet myself as there has not been a kernel update since I modified my wife's computer configuration. Just my two cents... :)

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

Interestingly enough, the behavior of the touchpad differs, (at least on my machine) depending on where you put the i8042.nomux=1 switch. In default kernel options, I get the very slow touchpad behavior; on another line that looked good in menu.lst, I got nothing, (i.e. as if it didn't get the argument at all - don't remember the exact line off-hand). It only works correctly if I put it directly on the boot line. Weird, but works! :)

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

On Intrepid now, and something in yesterday's, (i.e. 8/28) 91 updates just slowed our friend the touchpad using i8042.nomux=1 _way_ down, (without i8042.nomux, it's still as psychotic as ever) as if the switch had been on the default kernel options line described above. While it's definitely good to have the behavior of the switch be uniform throughout menu.lst, unfortunately, even at max acceleration & sensitivity, it's still 16 full swipes across the touchpad to make it from left to right on a 1280x800 monitor.

[Martin Erik Werner (arand)]

This issue remains as stated, on the daily livecd of 2008-09-04.
Have not tried the fix, since only running livecd.
- Arand

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

Still here on a clean install of 8.10 beta, but addition to default kernel options in /boot/grub/menu.lst works as expected.

[Krzysztof Debski (fantom15)]

I can confirm.
Dell XPS m1530 with a8 bios.
On 8.10 final touchpad works as crazy.
After adding "i8042.nomux=1" it is ok, but a bit to slow.

[ktulu77 (ktulu-highwaytoacdc)]

I can confirm too with Ubuntu 8.10 x64 with XPS M1530 with A09 bios.
Same problem if I add i8042.nomux=1, it is a bit to slow.

[Dylan Hunter (dylan-dylanhunter)]

Try commenting out any settings in your xorg.conf file, (which is now
the default way released Intrepid deals with). Sped things up for me,
(or maybe I'm just too used to it being slow by now! :) ).

Dylan

Quoting ktulu77 <email address hidden>:

> I can confirm too with Ubuntu 8.10 x64 with XPS M1530 with A09 bios.
> Same problem if I add i8042.nomux=1, it is a bit to slow.
>
> --
> Touchpad in Dell XPS M1530 unusable - Intrepid Beta (was Hardy Beta)
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/216797
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Dylan Hunter
Interactive Entrepreneur Making a Difference
http://dylanhunter.com

[Duncan Mundell (swaziboy)]

confirmed exactly the same behaviour currently being experienced on a Dell XPS M1530. Without the boot option, the trackpad does the funky chicken and with the boot option it works, but so slowly as to be unusable. This is on 8.10 with all updates as of 25/10/2008.

Interestingly enough the livecd worked perfectly ...

[iSmith (ismith-user)]

this is a dell bios problem and i will try to get it rectified from them.

[Krzysztof Debski (fantom15)]

For me, it works now in 9.04 Beta very well.
Bios version a8 and no "i8042.nomux=1".
It is fixed for me.

[Krzysztof Debski (fantom15)]

OK, Jaunty is not released yet. I will change to "Fix Committed" for now.