Synaptic Touchpad issues in Slackware 12.0
 

I have a Dell 1420N laptop that came preloaded with ubuntu and everything worked fine but I got to the point where I could not stand ubuntu anymore and wanted to revert back to slackware (which i have used for so long). Anyways formatting the laptop and I put slack 12.0 on it and spent the night setting up the media keys/wireless card etc etc. But my current problem has me completely stumped how do i enable the touchpad scrolling again? so i can drag my finger down the side and have it scroll.

Well I went around googling for solutions and have tried several things. I installed the synaptics driver (0.14.6 i believe) via slapt-get and via source (no compiling errors) and did a make install. And for good measure i moved synaptics_drv.so and synaptics.o to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers and /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input. Then I added the following sections to my xorg.conf


Section "Module"

Load "synaptics"

EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Mouse"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection


Then under server layout i added synaptic mouse so now the section looks like this

InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Synaptics Mouse" "AlwaysCore"

I have tried making synaptics mouse "CorePointer" but X simply wont load then. I have done modprobe evdev and even tried reloading the psmouse module before loading X but it did not work. dmesg says nothing about any synaptic device and my xorg log says

(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
(II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) Reloading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input//synaptics_drv.so
Synaptics Mouse no synaptics event device found (checked 14 nodes)
(EE) Synaptics Mouse no synaptics touchpad detected and no repeater device
(II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"



My /proc/bus/input/devices has the following


I: Bus=0017 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="Macintosh mouse button emulation"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
H: Handlers=mouse0 event0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab41
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input1
H: Handlers=kbd event1
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3802078 f840d001 feffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0010 Vendor=001f Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="PC Speaker"
P: Phys=isa0061/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input2
H: Handlers=kbd event2
B: EV=40001
B: SND=6

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="PS/2 Generic Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input5
H: Handlers=mouse1 event3
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I am a long time user of linux but this is my first exploration into linux on a laptop. If anyone could help me with this I would be thankful. And i apologize for the very sloppy format of this post.

Solved
 

Apparently my touchpad was of a newer generation and the 2.6.21.5 kernel was not recognizing it properly so the device would fall back as a Generic PS/2.

I know this is an older post, but I was wondering what you did to get it working, assuming you did. I am using gentoo and I think I have everything configured correctly, including xorg, but it is still treated like a normal mouse. The dragging, and scroll areas, etc, just don't work. It sound like a very similar problem to yours. Does upgrading the kernel fix it? thanks

I know this is an older post, and I´m using 12.1 but when I install synaptic driver it doesn´t show up in the menu to set the config.

What is the correct method to get the touchpad configured in slackware?

In Debian I just install the driver and add one line to xorg.conf and use the menu item for synaptic to configure the mouse.

If it helps, I've outlined how to get it working at the bottom of this page, but I'm completely unaware of any menu that you would use in Slackware to configure this.

Ok well the synapic driver package that is installed in debian is a GUI.

No the driver package for Debian isn't a GUI, it's an xorg driver module. You're probably thinking of the configuration application gSynaptics which is a GUI config tool for the touchpad. That application will not function unless the synaptics driver module loads correctly and the touchpad is configured in xorg.conf with the option "SHMConfig" "on"

I got my scrolling via the touchpad working just by running xorgsetup. My laptop's an ASuS X50RL.

Running synclient -l will show you all of the settings currently being used for the touchpad. You can change them using synclient, but it's better to put them in xorg.conf or you'll have to change them every time you boot.

Your right! I stand corrected. Is there a gui package available for slackware? That was what I was looking for. I guess I'm just lazy, I'll get around to getting it right in xorg sooner or later.

When I run synclient this is my return, I guess that means I need to add SHMConfig line to xorg.

Correct, you need to enable SHMConfig in your xorg.conf

You can download and compile gsynaptics, but in all honesty just editing the xorg.conf is your best bet.

Here's the relevant sections from mine:

Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Touchpad" "SendCoreEvents"


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "0"
Option "MaxTapMove" "0"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "0"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "0"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "0"
Option "CircularScrolling" "0"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "off"
Option "EdgeMotionUseAlways" "0"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Ok I put this in my xorg.conf file;
But I'm still getting a tapclick and gsynaptics is still erroring out and will not start.
Now I've tried "true" and "on" both, resulting with the same outcome.

There is one other item of interest to me. This IBM T41 Thinkpad has two pointers. A track pointer, and a touchpad. It also has 5 buttons, there are three between the touchpad and keybroad and two below the touchpad.

With other installs, I've always had a three button configuration, two working as the left button and two working as a right button. With the fifth working as the middle button.

With this install of Slackware 12.1, I have only a left and right on each pointer. (meaning 4 buttons work) but the fifth does nothing. If I want a middle click I have to do a two button click.

One last thing as a side note. I seem to have forgotten how to reboot x without rebooting the whole system.