[Toshiba Portege Z35-AST3N01] Touchpad / Trackpoint recognised as generic mouse

[Ruth Marsden]

On fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 on Toshiba Portege Z30 series with both "Accupoint pointing device" and "Touch pad pointing device with multi-touch control" neither are recognised. In system settings the Touchpad tab is absent from System -> Preferences -> Mouse. Basic pointing and clicking is possible.

Note that dmesg reports:
...
[ 1.197365] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
[ 1.197715] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
...
[ 1.826029] hub 2-6:1.0: 3 ports detected
[ 1.866199] psmouse serio1: alps: Unknown ALPS touchpad: E7=73 03 0a, EC=88 b3 22
...
[ 2.901657] input: PS/2 Generic Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input6

Typing on the keyboard is seriously hampered by inadvertent touchpad contact because there is no "disable touchpad on typing" option. A workaround to this issue would greatly increase the usability of my computer.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic 3.13.0-32.57
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ruth 1842 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ruth 1842 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
CurrentDmesg: [ 125.723781] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (2849) terminated with status 1
Date: Fri Aug 1 13:26:49 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-28 (94 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
MachineType: TOSHIBA PORTEGE Z35-A
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-32-generic root=UUID=e4122401-9a01-43cd-9739-d0640d0646de ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-32-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-32-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.5
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/15/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.bios.version: Version 3.50
dmi.board.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.board.name: PORTEGE Z35-A
dmi.board.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.board.version: Version A0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0000000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: TOSHIBA
dmi.chassis.version: Version 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnTOSHIBA:bvrVersion3.50:bd04/15/2014:svnTOSHIBA:pnPORTEGEZ35-A:pvrPT243U-01201C:rvnTOSHIBA:rnPORTEGEZ35-A:rvrVersionA0:cvnTOSHIBA:ct10:cvrVersion1.0:
dmi.product.name: PORTEGE Z35-A
dmi.product.version: PT243U-01201C
dmi.sys.vendor: TOSHIBA

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Ruth Marsden (ruth-marsden)]

Attaching devices xinput -list and Xorg.0.log as requested in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingTouchpadDetection

[Ruth Marsden (ruth-marsden)]

Note BIOS was upgraded to latest version before reporting.

Have also tested in upstream mainline kernel 3.16-rc7 with same results.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Ruth Marsden, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. Could you please report this problem through the appropriate channel by following the instructions _verbatim_ at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel ?

Please provide a direct URL to your e-mail to the mailing list once you have made it so that it may be tracked.

Thank you for your understanding.

[John D Marsden (jdmarsden)]

Summary:

This is fixed in kernel 3.17-rc1.

Detail:

Researching this for my daughter (Ruth Marsden) I've found this issue has been known on the kernel mailing lists for sometime. See http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-input/msg29123.html.
The issue relates to touchpad devices using the ALPS v7 protocol. These devices are reported in this post to have device info as follows:
         Device ID = 0x73, 0x03, 0x0a
         Firmware ID = 0x88, 0xb*, 0x**
Which includes my daughter's Toshiba Z35 which has this Device ID and Firmware ID = 0x88, 0xb3, 0x22

A kernel patch has been in production over the last few weeks. See http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-input/msg32703.html and related posts. This patch was added on 9th August and can be found in the Ubuntu kernel daily builds from then and the weekly build at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.17-rc1-utopic/ .
To install this see the "Installing upstream kernels" section of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/MainlineBuilds .

We've tested the 3.17-rc1 kernel on my daughter's Toshiba Z35 laptop and can confirm that both touchpad and trackpoint devices work. They are recognised as an AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad and the touchpad section now appears in System Settings > Mouse & Touchpad. In particular "disabling while typing" is available and works.

Presumably a kernel with this patch will be released in Ubuntu in due course.