Dell track stick pointer is too slow [libinput]

[Øyvind Stegard]

The track stick on my Dell E7440 has become almost unusable as a general pointing device on Ubuntu 17.04, due to the slow speed and acceleration. It literally takes 2+ seconds to move the pointer from left to right end of a 1920-width screen with full force, and it is worse in the vertical direction, since it is physically more difficult to apply the same force.

I am using the max acceleration speed the libinput driver has to offer of "1.0":

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "DualPoint Stick"
        MatchIsPointer "true"
        MatchProduct "DualPoint Stick"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

        # When using libinput:
        Option "AccelSpeed" "1"
[...]

I even modified the udev hardware database, after some research, to attempt to adjust low level device characteristics:
/etc/udev/hwdb.d/70-dell-pointing-stick.hwdb:

# Latitude E7440
evdev:name:*DualPoint Stick:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE7440*:pvr*
 POINTINGSTICK_CONST_ACCEL=10.0
 POINTINGSTICK_SENSITIVITY=300

This rule successfully matches the pointing stick input device, confirmed by "udevadm info ...", but the settings still appear to have no effect on the actual behaviour in Xorg. The Xorg log even picks up the (very high) constant acceleration factor:

[ 5.146] (II) input device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint Stick', /dev/input/event6 is tagged by udev as: Mouse Pointingstick
[ 5.146] (II) Device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint Stick' set to const accel 10.00
[ 5.146] (II) input device 'AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint Stick', /dev/input/event6 is a pointer caps
[ 5.176] (**) Option "AccelSpeed" "1"
[ 5.176] (**) Option "ScrollMethod" "none"
[ 5.176] (**) Option "config_info" "udev:/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input8/event6"
[ 5.176] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint Stick" (type: MOUSE, id 13)
[...]

I tried uninstalling xserver-xorg-input-libinput and instead installed xserver-xorg-input-evdev. This brings back old behaviour of previous Ubuntu releases, with accompanying xorg.conf options, and at least allows to speed it up using the various acceleration options supported by generic Xorg input frameworks and the evdev driver. But it is not a nice solution.

Also I should mention, the mouse sensitivity settings in the Ubuntu control panel, which was the first place I went to attemt to fix things, have absolutely zero effect on the track stick.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: xserver-xorg-input-libinput 0.25.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-20.22-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity:Unity7
Date: Sun Apr 30 12:24:19 2017
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: zesty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-04-29 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude E7440
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-20-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=a4a0ad72-6313-4827-9391-c4108ed0e6c9 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-input-libinput
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/22/2016
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A20
dmi.board.name: 07F3F4
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.type: 9
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA20:bd12/22/2016:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeE7440:pvr00:rvnDellInc.:rn07F3F4:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct9:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude E7440
dmi.product.version: 00
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.13.1+17.04.20170109-0ubuntu1
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.76-1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 17.0.3-1ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 17.0.3-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.19.3-1ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:7.9.0-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20170309-0ubuntu1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.14-0ubuntu1

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is now dead
http://news.softpedia.com/news/ubuntu-17-04-zesty-zapus-has-reached-end-of-life-upgrade-to-ubuntu-17-10-now-519360.shtml