Regression: 3.16.0-31-generic breaks touchpad on Dell XPS13 (2015)

[Jan Henke]

Today’s kernel update breaks the touchpad on the 2015 Dell XPS13. On 3.16.0-30-generic the touchpad worked fine.

Symptoms are that the touchpad stops responding at random times.

A possible cause is this patch: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=d1c7e29e8d276c669e8790bb8be9f505ddc48888

See also those two bug reports for a more detailed discussion of the I2C issues caused by the above patch and the XPS13:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1416601
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1188439

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: linux-image-3.16.0-31-generic 3.16.0-31.41
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-31.41-generic 3.16.7-ckt5
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-31-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8.2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jan 2547 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: jan 2547 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Wed Feb 25 10:19:01 2015
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-01-30 (25 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-GNOME 14.10 "Utopic Unicorn" - Release amd64 (20141022.1)
MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS 13 9343
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-31-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=e4431ecc-e85e-4e35-92af-58f455c46c2b ro kvm-intel.nested=1 "acpi_osi=!Windows 2013" psmouse.resetafter=0 quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.16.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.16.0-31-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.138.1
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 11/04/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A00
dmi.board.name: 0310JH
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA00:bd11/04/2014:svnDellInc.:pnXPS139343:pvr01:rvnDellInc.:rn0310JH:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: XPS 13 9343
dmi.product.version: 01
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Jan Henke (jhe)]

N.B.: The two kernel parameters "acpi_osi=!Windows 2013" and psmouse.resetafter=0 as a temporary work around until this bug gets fixed, the described bug happened without these parameters!

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Does this bug go away if you boot into the prior kernel?

[Jan Henke (jhe)]

It definitely worked before applying the kernel update.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

I'll build a Utopic test kernel with a revert of d1c7e29 and post a link to it shortly.

In the mean time, could you test the latest mainline kernel to see if this bug was already fixed? It can be downloaded from:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-rc1-vivid/

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

It looks like this could be a fix for this bug:

commit 6d00f37e49d95e640a3937a4a1ae07dbe92a10cb
Author: Seth Forshee <email address hidden>
Date: Fri Feb 20 11:45:11 2015 -0600

    HID: i2c-hid: Limit reads to wMaxInputLength bytes for input events

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

And that fix was also requested in stable, so this fix will come down through the normal stable updates for both Utopic and Vivid:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.stable/125242/match=inclusion+request+commit+6d00f37e49d9

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can folks affected by this bug test the latest Vivid updates and see if the bug still exists?

Thanks in advance!

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Should be fixed as of the 3.19.0-8 kernel:

commit 9933a927ded632fde949e0ef6f7a201534d2add8
Author: Seth Forshee <email address hidden>
Date: Fri Feb 20 11:45:11 2015 -0600

    HID: i2c-hid: Limit reads to wMaxInputLength bytes for input events

git describe --contains 9933a92
Ubuntu-3.19.0-8.8~625

[Jan Henke (jhe)]

For me the Vivid kernel works.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

This should also be fixed in Utopic as of 3.16.0-34:

git describe --contains 33f561e
Ubuntu-3.16.0-34.45~27