tpuchpad not working on netbook

prudra · 12-07-2010, 09:15 AM

I am not sure whether it is a hardware problem or software problem.

I have got a new Netbook(OEM, HongKong made) which came with pre-installed Ubuntu-8.04 and its touchpad was working perfectly well. I installed opensuse-11.3 from a bootable usb created on debian-lenny platform by the terminal command
#dd if=opensusexxxx.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
Installation went without hitch and all the packages are behaving fine.
But the touchpad has stopped responding and I have to use an optical mouse which is a botheration.
I shall appreciate all help.
Thank you.
P.Rudra.

stress_junkie · 12-07-2010, 09:27 AM

I would boot the live SuSE CD of the same version. If the touchpad is working with that then you can see what modules are loaded using lsmod. Then you can make your installed SuSE use the same modules.

Soadyheid · 12-07-2010, 12:03 PM

Quote:

I am not sure whether it is a hardware problem or software problem.

As per stress junkie: You could also try booting a live Ubuntu CD, preferably 8.04 if such a thing exists, and see if the trackpad works again, if so... it's definitely not a hardware problem. (Which would be my guess anyway!

)

Play Bonny!

prudra · 12-08-2010, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soadyheid

As per stress junkie: You could also try booting a live Ubuntu CD, preferably 8.04 if such a thing exists, and see if the trackpad works again, if so... it's definitely not a hardware problem. (Which would be my guess anyway!

)

Play Bonny!

The point is that it being a Netbook, there is no optical tray for CD/DVD and I have to make the installation by USB. This being a software problem, is there a package that will activate the touchpad, or is there any keypad operation like say Ctrl+Fn+ ... that will operate the pointer?

Thanks for assuring me that it is not a hardware problem.
P.Rudra.

stress_junkie · 12-08-2010, 09:33 PM

You could use various commands to view the hardware. This will show you the make and model of the touchpad. Then you can use Google to find the Linux module driver for this hardware.

Find hardware make and model using any combination of the following:

Code:

lsusb
lspci
lshw
hwinfo
dmidecode
cat /var/log/messages
dmesg

Also your there may be GUI style applications that will show you information about hardware. KDE has KInfoCenter. I don't know what Gnome has in this department. (KDE has some excellent system tools.)

Then go to Google and enter a search phrase something like this:

Code:

linux <hardware> module

In the above example you would substitute your hardware for <hardware>. Also you may want to substitute the word "driver" for the word "module".

Let us know what happens.

prudra · 12-09-2010, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

You could use various commands to view the hardware. This will show you the make and model of the touchpad. Then you can use Google to find the Linux module driver for this hardware.

Find hardware make and model using any combination of the following:

Code:

lsusb
lspci
lshw
hwinfo
dmidecode
cat /var/log/messages
dmesg

Also your there may be GUI style applications that will show you information about hardware. KDE has KInfoCenter. I don't know what Gnome has in this department. (KDE has some excellent system tools.)

Then go to Google and enter a search phrase something like this:

Code:

linux <hardware> module

In the above example you would substitute your hardware for <hardware>. Also you may want to substitute the word "driver" for the word "module".

Let us know what happens.

I found a file /etc/sysconfig/mouse
with entries among others
MOUSEDEVICE="/dev/input/mice" [with option "/dev/psaux"]
MOUSETYPE="imps2" [eith options ms, ms3, msc, mman, ps2, syn, synps2 ]

I tried with all combinations but nothing changed. I plan to work now with
Live booting and see what happens.

stress_junkie · 12-09-2010, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prudra

I found a file /etc/sysconfig/mouse
with entries among others
MOUSEDEVICE="/dev/input/mice" [with option "/dev/psaux"]
MOUSETYPE="imps2" [eith options ms, ms3, msc, mman, ps2, syn, synps2 ]

I tried with all combinations but nothing changed. I plan to work now with
Live booting and see what happens.

All of the above suggestions were simply to find the brand and model of the touchpad hardware. They would not by themselves fix the problem.

When you boot the live Linux image you will be looking for which modules are loaded. You will then write them all down. Then you will boot your installed Linux and compare the list of loaded modules to the list from the live Linux image. The difference between the two should help us to find which module is missing in the installed system.

When you boot the live Linux image you will want to open a terminal and enter the following command.

Code:

lsmod

This will show two columns. Write down what you see.

Then boot the installed Linux and do the same thing. (Open a terminal and issue the lsmod command.)

Post both lists here.

The differences between the two lists should help us to figure out how to make the touchpad work.

It seems less likely that the differences between the /etc/sysconfig/mouse files are the problem but it is possible. You should also copy what is in that file in the live Linux image and post that here as well.

I'm sorry that this did not work "out of the box" for you. Most computers do not have this sort of problem with Linux.

Soadyheid · 12-09-2010, 10:57 AM

Just a thought... My Netbook is an Asus EEE PC1001 HA and has a little button which disables the trackpad...

Does yours have anything similar which may inadvertently have been pushed?

Play Bonny!

prudra · 12-10-2010, 10:32 PM

First even in the Live version the touchpad does not work. All the entries for lsmod in the Live version except for nfs, lockd, fscache, nfs_acl, auth-rcpgss, sunrpc, ext3, jtd2, crc16, squashfs, nts_htt8, st, sr_mod, cdrom, dm_mod, brd, usb_storage are present in the Installed version. But the installed version has much more. However in both the versions no entry "psmouse" could be found.

I ran lsmod on my other laptop with debian-lenny OS and found the entry "psmouse". Can it be that opensuse-11.3-Gnome has no psmouse in its Kernel 2.6.34.-7-0.5-default ?
I am wondering if it is the cause of the trouble.

stress_junkie · 12-11-2010, 05:51 AM

I often choose a distribution based on the ability to work with the hardware that I've got. This is particularly true on laptop computers. If your other computer is the same model then I would consider using Debian Lenny on this computer.

prudra · 12-12-2010, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

I often choose a distribution based on the ability to work with the hardware that I've got. This is particularly true on laptop computers. If your other computer is the same model then I would consider using Debian Lenny on this computer.

The other Laptop is Debian-Vostro-1014 and this is a HongKong based OEM machine. So I am not sure whether Debian will behave well here. The only thing I am sure is that Ubuntu-8.04 worked here. The problem is that I downloaded Ubuntu-10.04 and tried to create a installation-usb by the terminal command
#dd if=ubuntu-10.04xxx.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
the usb showed all the files but the netbook refused to recognize it during booting.
I consulted the Ubuntu homepage which gave the procedure for creating installation-usb on ONLY Ubuntu and Windows platform while opensuse clearly states that the above procedure is vaid on ANY Linux/GUI platform. In Debian's case it has been stated that only netinstall and business images can be burnt. I wanted to have two different Linux
versions on two different machines. I like only Debian and openSUSE. So I think I will make do with the otical mouse for now.

prudra · 12-12-2010, 02:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soadyheid

Just a thought... My Netbook is an Asus EEE PC1001 HA and has a little button which disables the trackpad...

Does yours have anything similar which may inadvertently have been pushed?

Play Bonny!

I have only F1,....,F12, Num Lk/Scr Lk,Inser/Prt Scr, Pause/Break,Delete/Sys Rq, Alt Gr,
Fn, (Windows logo), (a picture like a ladder with a pointer) and the usual keyboards. What does the button you refer looks like?

Soadyheid · 12-13-2010, 10:09 AM

Quote:

I have only F1,....,F12, Num Lk/Scr Lk,Inser/Prt Scr, Pause/Break,Delete/Sys Rq, Alt Gr,
Fn, (Windows logo),

These are keyboard keys, not buttons. My trackpad button looks like my power on button but has something like a square with a diagonal line through it. It's additional to any keys, just a small silver button.

Play Bonny!

prudra · 12-14-2010, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soadyheid

These are keyboard keys, not buttons. My trackpad button looks like my power on button but has something like a square with a diagonal line through it. It's additional to any keys, just a small silver button.

Play Bonny!

I am afraid this netbook does not have any button but the power-on one.

thorkelljarl · 12-14-2010, 10:23 AM

xorg.conf...

Try to make a USB installable version of Ubuntu 8.04, to see if the touchpad functions as it did under the original 8.04 installation, then open the 8.04 "xorg-conf" file and copy the section for your mouse/touchpad, either to paste into or to use as a basis for editing the "xorg.conf" in openSUSE 11.3.

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/ubuntu/ubuntu-8.04.4/