[Asus X553MA] Touchpad features doesn't work

[Janne Heikkinen]

Asus X553MA uses FocalTech touchpad which gets recognized as PS/2 mouse and no touchpad
features shows up in System Settings / Mouse & Touchpad because of this.

I was able to get the touchpad of mine X553MA to work with 3.17.2 kernel after applying the following three patches:

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2c75ada6250990ea859b0b5498cb0b7c2823a9d7

 https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=3ace3686f198e656624d7ca2984d053e65f6e09d

http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-input/msg34223.html

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.13.0-39-generic 3.13.0-39.66
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-39.66-generic 3.13.11.8
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-39-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jamse 1501 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
CurrentDmesg: [ 30.140395] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning
Date: Sat Nov 15 08:17:42 2014
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=2b9bf124-e148-4417-b73e-43726a565b1c
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-11-07 (7 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04ca:3010 Lite-On Technology Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b424 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:07e6 Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. X553MA
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-39-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=33ef15f0-b76d-478a-b497-66cd13464760 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-39-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-39-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.8
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/08/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: X553MA.209
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: X553MA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrX553MA.209:bd08/08/2014:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnX553MA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnX553MA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: X553MA
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

Now when using patched 3.17.2 kernel, only thing that doesn't seem to work is that
"Pointer speed" slider doesn't seem to have any effect.

"Disable while typing", "Two finger scroll", "Tap to click" and "Natural scrolling" all
work.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

"only thing that doesn't seem to work is that "Pointer speed" slider doesn't seem to have any effect."

I was wrong about this. The slider does work also, it was just that as "Mouse" it was possible to make
the pointer somewhat faster using this slider.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

First of those three patches didn't work with Ubuntu 3.13.0-39.66-generic 3.13.11.8 so I made the changes by hand wihtout the change to synaptics.c. Then after applying all three patches I patched changes in drivers/input/serio from 3.17.2 to Ubuntu 3.13.0-39.66-generic and also added firmware_id field into include/linux/serio.h.

Now I'm running that patched 3.13.0-39.66-generic in my X553MA and all touchpad features work and haven't noticed any problems.

[Pilot6 (hanipouspilot)]

This has been fixed in kernel 4.2. So it works in Ubuntu 15.10 or you can install

linux-generic-lts-wily to 14.04.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

4.2 might not be very stable on X553MA. Some change after 4.1.0 causes few hangs per day. It started with 4.2rc-something and 4.2.0 was not stable. Haven't had time to test later versions.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

Just tried 4.2.6 and it crashed in less than one hour.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Janne Heikkinen, the scope of this now closed report is the touchpad features are not working for an ASUS X553MA (not about a crash).

Hence, it will help immensely if you filed a new report about the crash via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

It is kernel issue and I don't believe that filing new Ubuntu bug about it helps much.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Janne Heikkinen:

>"It is kernel issue"

Agreed. That's why I asked you to file a new report against the kernel (i.e. package linux).

>" and I don't believe that filing new Ubuntu bug about it helps much."

I don't understand why posting comments into a closed report is going to help your issue.

[Janne Heikkinen (janne-m-heikkinen)]

> I don't understand why posting comments into a closed report is going to help your issue.

I only commented to let people know that 4.2 might not be stable.

The issue still exists in 4.3. I use 4.1.0 when I need stable system. I've been running later
kernels with serial console set up in hope that I might get some clue about what causes
the hang but no luck. I would have done reverse bisection but have been too busy since
September with other things.