Comment 56 for bug 296610

Just installed Karmic, latest proposed/updates/security installed via network. I have a DELL M4400 with the infamous DualPoint TouchPad.

I can reproduce this issue at any time by merely using the "Stick" and "TouchPad" at the same time. No button presses required. Just move the pointer using the "Stick" and brush the "TouchPad" with my hand. That's it. The pointer goes crazy, jumps all over the place and I get this in dmesg:

[ 510.877630] psmouse.c: DualPoint TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 5
[ 510.878792] psmouse.c: DualPoint TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[ 510.886324] psmouse.c: DualPoint TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[ 510.887586] psmouse.c: DualPoint TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[ 510.888545] psmouse.c: DualPoint TouchPad at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[ 510.888552] psmouse.c: issuing reconnect request

The "reconnect request" appears if I do that for like a second or more. If I only brush the TouchPad, I just get lost sync. However, after reconnect is issued, I loose all configuration for the Stick and TouchPad I used to have via HAL (.fdi preferences). Both devices are found "anew" and get the next input number in sequence, e.g. ../serio1/input/input16.

This is a major pain in the a$$. I haven't been using stand-alone mouse for 5 years. I had a ThinkPad with a similar TrackPoint. I touch type and cannot afford to remove my hands from the keyboard to hold the mouse. I'm unable to work with this new DELL. There is obviously a bug in the kernel driver. There is some aspect of the underlying protocol, which is not understood by the driver...

Please help us! I'll be using this for a long time and I'm willing to do any testing required, incl. custom kernel patching, compilation, whatever it takes.

Thank you, David