Trackpad freezing in Slackware startx

stephenpi · 05-03-2012, 04:52 PM

I installed Slackware on my new Gateway LT4004u netbook. After startx, the touchpad frequently freezes for no apparent reason. Sometimes "rmmod psmouse & modprobe psmouse" brings it back to life. Sometimes it comes back all by itself.

dmesg has repeated messages about psmouse losing sync.

At the moment, the command synclient gives
"Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?"

Do I need a synaptics driver? As far as I can glean by googling, I'd need that to use extra features of the touchpad. That would be fine, I guess, but I really just want a basic functioning mouse.

Here are two other things I tried:

In /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf, uncomment the line
#options psmouse proto=imps

Make the file /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm not executable.
(Some sites suggested that it could interfere with the x.org mouse).

As may be obvious, Slackware is really out of my league, but I'm determined to make a go of it. Any suggestions?

transitive · 05-04-2012, 02:37 AM

First thought as I have just dealt with a mouse. Turn off GPM.

(open root terminal: /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm stop)

Do away with the clutter and see if things improve.

yars · 05-04-2012, 07:45 AM

In a kernel config, you must a option that makes enabled support for touchpads. Check it:

Code:

$ zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -i "touch"

I have suggestion, you must replace with it the psmouse kernel module... But it is suggestion only.

stephenpi · 05-05-2012, 01:25 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. The touchpad became completely and permanently frozen, so I re-installed slackware. To reduce the clutter I said no to KDE and GPM. However it's still frozen. Typing:

$ zcat /proc/config.gz | grep -i "touch"

gives:

CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_TOUCHKIT=y
CONFIG_MOUSE_APPLETOUCH=m
[... lots of stuff about a touchscreen ...]

I'm going to have to go away and teach myself about this psmouse kernel.

For an extremely low-tech solution, is there something like "mousekeys", to operate the mouse with the keyboard?

yars · 05-05-2012, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephenpi

For an extremely low-tech solution, is there something like "mousekeys", to operate the mouse with the keyboard?

Yes, in the KDE Control Center on a page in the mouse settings dialogue, with name like a "Control mouse pointer with keyboard".
But navigation in a "Menu K" with a keyboard I have does not work with a default settings. (I use old KDE 3.5.9). To enable it, see files in the ~/.kde/share/config directory... It is a bad idea, because you need to know exactly which line in which file you want to add. I don't know about this.
Also, please show the output

Code:

# lspci

PS. Touchpad is not PS/2 device, and I have suggestion that psmouse does not work with it, for this may be a another kernel module.
UPD:

Quote:

But navigation in a "Menu K" with a keyboard I have does not work with a default settings.

No, this is incorrect. It is working, "Menu K" can opened with alt+F1 keyboard shortcut.

stephenpi · 05-05-2012, 06:21 PM

Here is the output of lspci:

Quote:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Cedarview DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Cedarview Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5209 (rev 01)

yars · 05-06-2012, 01:12 PM

As expected, the output of lspci did not give any clues.

Quote:

Do I need a synaptics driver?

Yes, searching in a russian-speaking Internet gives a positive answer to this question, but it is for a P10B notebook and with Ubuntu. One solution is to switch the laptop into sleep mode and then exit out of it, then the touchpad is working correctly. A problem is the same.
The multitouch is enabled with script below:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
 sleep 8
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Device Enabled" 8 1
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure" 32 60
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Width" 32 7
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Edge Scrolling" 8 0 0 0
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Jumpy Cursor Threshold" 32 110
 xinput set-int-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling" 8 1 0

I sorry, but I don't have a more other suggestions...

stephenpi · 05-07-2012, 02:03 AM

So far, no luck installing a driver, maybe because the driver I downloaded was for a 32bit system, and mine is 64bit. So I could start again with 32bit Slackware. Or buy a USB mouse and hope for better luck with that. Or learn to live without a mouse. Anyway, thank you transitive and yars - I really appreciate your time and suggestions.

yars · 05-07-2012, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Or buy a USB mouse

Yes, I think it be would the most convenient solution, because there are wireless mice, in which the module that connects to a computer has a very modest size. And the mouses are small...
Good luck! Write about the results if you try the 32-bit Slackware.

stephenpi · 05-08-2012, 02:18 PM

I bought a small inexpensive USB mouse and it works great! Does that count as "solved"?

For anyone else reading this, my problem might be related to this kernel bug, which I found in this thread. My setup is different to theirs, but my dmesg also showed the touchpad being mistaken for a "Generic PS/2" mouse.

I switched to 32bit Slackware, and I also tried Linux Mint, so the problem doesn't seem to have to do with the distro.

It's strange that the touchpad worked a little bit when I first installed, then became completely frozen, and stayed frozen even after I reinstalled. I accidentally partly fixed it the first time? Or it just got tired? Weird.