Crazy jumping mouse cursor after fresh install--did I choose the wrong mouse type?

ReaperX7 · 07-01-2012, 03:33 PM

It might not be Synaptics as listed, but there should be a common GPM driver for HP/Compaq Touchpads. The option is there, but you do have to dig for it.

Try editing /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm as such:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# Start/stop/restart the GPM mouse server:

if [ "$1" = "stop" ]; then
  echo "Stopping gpm..."
  /usr/sbin/gpm -k
elif [ "$1" = "restart" ]; then
  echo "Restarting gpm..."
  /usr/sbin/gpm -k
  sleep 1
  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t synps2
else # assume $1 = start:
  echo "Starting gpm:  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t synps2"
  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t synps2
fi

# There is another way to run GPM, where it acts as a repeater outputting a
# virtual MouseSystems mouse on /dev/gpmdata.  This is useful for feeding
# gpm's data to X, especially if you've got a busmouse (in that situation X
# and gpm may not coexist without using a repeater).  To try running a GPM
# repeater for X, change the gpm command line to look like this:
# /usr/sbin/gpm -R msc -m /dev/mouse -t imps2
# Then, make sure that the mouse configuration in your XF86Config file refers
# to the repeater device (/dev/gpmdata) and a MouseSystems mouse type.  If you
# edit the file directly, you'll want the lines to look like this (minus the
# comment marks '#' shown here, of course):
#Section "Pointer"
#    Protocol    "MouseSystems"
#    Device      "/dev/gpmdata"

You MIGHT also want to try rerunning the xorgsetup utility again and double check /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the Mouse (Input Device) configuration section to see which driver it is using and loading. It should be

Code:

Option "protocol" "auto"

To match the driver loaded from the GPM.

This should setup your system to use the Synaptics pad.

Kallaste · 07-01-2012, 03:55 PM

@ReaperX7: Thanks a lot! My computing window for today is gone, but I will give that a try tomorrow and see where it gets me. I do know, though, that there is no option under pkgtool > setup > mouse (which I ran to get to the GPM drivers) for HP/Compaq or touchpads.

I will update tomorrow. Thanks again.

ReaperX7 · 07-01-2012, 04:12 PM

It's not in pkgtool. pkgtool is mostly for package handling (installs, updates, etc.), not the main configuration tool.

When you install Slackware from the DVD (or CD and USB drive) there is an option in the "setup" menu called "CONFIGURE" which can be used to reconfigure the system if needed.

TommyC7 · 07-01-2012, 04:57 PM

Quote:

ReaperX7:
It's not in pkgtool. pkgtool is mostly for package handling (installs, updates, etc.), not the main configuration tool.

When you install Slackware from the DVD (or CD and USB drive) there is an option in the "setup" menu called "CONFIGURE" which can be used to reconfigure the system if needed.

What the OP is looking for is in pkgtool: pkgtool --> Setup --> [X] mouse as he pointed out already. I think everything that's done during that part of the installation can be re-done with pkgtool under the "Setup" section like "xwmconfig", "netconfig" and other such things. If not everything, then some things can and the mouse thing you've suggested is definitely there. Although I still recommend the driver upgrade.

Didier Spaier · 07-01-2012, 05:01 PM

@BloomingNutria: I don't know if that will help to solve your problem but still, here are the steps to upgrade xf86-input-synaptics, leaving the rest of your distribution unmodified.

First, you will need to make a local copy of the Slackware's subdirectory containing the X11 stuff needed. Simply type in a terminal e.g.

Code:

cd ~
lftp -c "open ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware/slackware-13.37/source/x/; mirror x11"

This will create an x11 directory and its subdirectories in your home.
Then:

Code:

cd x11/src/driver/
rm xf86-input-synaptics-1.4.0* #you don't need to re-compile the old one
wget  http://ftp.x.org/pub/individual/driver/xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2.tar.bz2 #to download the new one
cd ~/x11
su #become root
sh x11.SlackBuild driver xf86-input-synaptics# hopefully this will build a new xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2 package and put it in /tmp/x11-build
upgradepkg /tmp/x11-build/xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2*t?z

Then cross your fingers and (re)start X.

Of course if you made already a local mirror of slackware 13.37 you will skip the lftp command; and/or if you have a DVD at hand, you can simply copy the x11 directory on your hard disk.

In case building the driver fails, please post back the error messages.

EDIT Directory where the Slackware package is put and upgradepkg command corrected

Kallaste · 07-01-2012, 07:17 PM

Didier_Spaier, thank you so much for those clear and precise steps. I would like to try to upgrade the driver as TommyC7 has suggested using your instructions, but I do not have my network configured under Slackware yet. I was hoping to wait until my mouse was functional before I tried it. Is there an easy way to put the files I need on a flash drive under Xubuntu or Windows (the other operating systems I have access to) and transfer them over? Or do I need to configure my network first?

Thanks!

Didier Spaier · 07-01-2012, 09:15 PM

Configuring your network shouldn't be that difficult even under run level 3, that is to say on the console, without GUI and using only your keyboard, not a mouse.

If you want to setup e.g. an Ethernet connection through DHCP, you can either do it permanently using as root the Slackware command:

Code:

netconfig

or do it manually once but not for all:

Code:

su #become root
ifconfig -a #to check the name of your network interfaces ; let's suppose you see eth0 being your wired interface
ifconfig eth0 up # to bring the interface up in case it shows in 'ifconfig -a' but not in 'ifconfig'
dhcpcd eth0 # to get a connection
route # to check that the connection be active (you should see 3 lines in the output, among which 2 for eth0)

If you need to edit some config file you can do it in run level 3 as well, using the simple and very intuitive text editor 'nano'.

On the other hand, it is very possible to save the files to a flash drive using another system and then you won't even have to transfer it to Slackware.

For instance, first with the other system put the aforementioned x11 directory (including xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2.tar.bz2 copied in x11/src/driver) on your usb key.
Then in Slackware, still in run level 3, plug in the USB key, wait 30 seconds for it to sync, then use type 'dmesg|tail'. This will tell the name given to the usb key by the kernel. For instance, here I see :

Code:

bash-4.1# dmesg|tail
[31809.307879] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[31809.307889] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 03 41 00 00
[31809.310501] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[31809.310509] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[31809.318846] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[31809.318854] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[31809.341705]  sdb: sdb1
[31809.348902] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[31809.348911] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[31809.348919] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
bash-4.1#

So the USB key being named /dev/sdb1 I can mount it as /media like this:

Code:

mount -t auto /dev/sdb1 /media

Then continue as stated in my previous post, knowing that the files will be in /media/x11 instead of ~/x11.

Still it is probably simpler to set up your connection first.

bormant · 07-02-2012, 08:45 AM

Try to add
i8042.nomux=1
to kernel parameters on boot. If it helps add this stansa in append= parameter of /etc/lilo.conf and run lilo (as root).

Kallaste · 07-02-2012, 12:57 PM

Thank you. I am trying to set up my connection first and then do the driver. Hoping to get over the flu today and hope to get this done tomorrow. Being sick is such a nuisance, agh.

Incidentally, I tried the kernel parameter just in case it was a quick fix, and was told by Lilo that there's no such image. I see other references to it online so I don't know why it isn't working for me, but I tried it 3 times and it wouldn't take.

bormant · 07-02-2012, 01:20 PM

If your menu item in LILO named "Linux" you need to press Tab on LILO screen then type (without quotes) "Linux i8042.nomux=1" at boot prompt where "Linux" is label and rest of string are parameters.
Otherwise, if you type "i8042.nomux=1" then LILO try to locate the same label and fail with "no such image" message.

Kallaste · 07-02-2012, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bormant

If your menu item in LILO named "Linux" you need to press Tab on LILO screen then type (without quotes) "Linux i8042.nomux=1" at boot prompt where "Linux" is label and rest of string are parameters.
Otherwise, if you type "i8042.nomux=1" then LILO try to locate the same label and fail with "no such image" message.

Thank you, I did not know that. I gave it that value, as well as another one (i8042.noloop=1), which I saw suggested on another forum describing a seemingly identical issue:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...24&postcount=1

However, it did not work. No effect whatsoever. Time to get back to work on the network.

Kallaste · 07-02-2012, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Configuring your network shouldn't be that difficult even under run level 3, that is to say on the console, without GUI and using only your keyboard, not a mouse.

If you want to setup e.g. an Ethernet connection through DHCP, you can either do it permanently using as root the Slackware command:

Code:

netconfig

or do it manually once but not for all:

Code:

su #become root
ifconfig -a #to check the name of your network interfaces ; let's suppose you see eth0 being your wired interface
ifconfig eth0 up # to bring the interface up in case it shows in 'ifconfig -a' but not in 'ifconfig'
dhcpcd eth0 # to get a connection
route # to check that the connection be active (you should see 3 lines in the output, among which 2 for eth0)

This worked like a charm for my wired internet, thank you!

However, the new driver does not seem to help. I am almost sure it installed properly, but there was a small hitch at the end, which I could not copy from the terminal due to my mouse shortcomings.

I got through this part with everything going exactly as you said it should:

Code:

sh x11.SlackBuild driver xf86-input-synaptics# hopefully this will build a new xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2 package and put it in /tmp

But I noticed it that the new driver was put in /tmp/x11-build/xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2... and not just /tmp/xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2... So I ran

Code:

upgradepkg/tmp/x11-build/xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2*

and something strange happened. First, it said "file not found," but then, without me typing anything else or even so much as blowing on the keyboard, it proceeded to complete the operation anyway. When finished, it said the old driver had been replaced by the new one. But nothing has changed with my mouse malfunction.

So is there a way for me to confirm the driver installed properly? Or did something fishy occur?

Thank you very much!

Edit: Oh, I see what happened with the "file not found" error. Since I used the asterisk, it was looking for another similarly named file that it could not find before it moved on to xf86-input-synaptics-1.6.2-x86_64-1.txz and updated it. Sorry, I'm just still getting used to Linux package management.

So it looks like everything went the way it was supposed to. Oh well. Still no luck.

ReaperX7 · 07-02-2012, 08:31 PM

Can you get a USB Mouse and test it and see if it works correctly with your laptop?

Didier Spaier · 07-03-2012, 01:41 AM

You are right about the directory where the package is put, and the reason for the "file not found" error. For the records I just corrected the path and the package name in the post you mentioned, thanks for noticing.

That said, yes the new package is installed. You can check that by looking in the /var/log/packages directory: it should be there.

And the old package should show in /var/log/removed_packages.

To make sure which drivers for X are in use, have a look at the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

Kallaste · 07-03-2012, 08:38 AM

Thank you very much for that. I think I am learning a lot doing this.

Anyway, I have some new information. A USB mouse does indeed work in the system, but also, when I plug in a USB mouse, the touchpad works perfectly! (Well, except for the scroll; still cannot do that, but it doesn't jump around anymore . . .) If I take the USB receiver out and reboot, the touchpad goes crazy again.

I did look at the Xorg.0.log, and I cannot tell which driver is in use (not reading it properly I'm sure), but I do see some differences between when the touchpad works and when it doesn't. Here is what I found:

Quote:

Working Xorg.0.log:

[ 237.825] (**) Option "xkb_options" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
[ 237.825] (II) config/udev: Adding input device PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event7)
[ 237.825] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
[ 237.825] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[ 237.825] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Device: "/dev/input/event7"
[ 237.833] (--) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Found 3 mouse buttons
[ 237.833] (--) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Found relative axes
[ 237.833] (--) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Found x and y relative axes
[ 237.833] (II) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Configuring as mouse
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 6
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
[ 237.833] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: MOUSE)
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 0
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[ 237.833] (**) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[ 237.833] (II) PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: initialized for relative axes.
[ 237.833] (II) config/udev: Adding input device PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse0)
[ 237.833] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 237.834] (II) config/udev: Adding input device ST LIS3LV02DL Accelerometer (/dev/input/event5)
[ 237.834] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 237.834] (II) config/udev: Adding input device ST LIS3LV02DL Accelerometer (/dev/input/js0)
[ 237.834] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 237.839] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Speakup (/dev/input/event0)
[ 237.839] (**) Speakup: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"

problem-Xorg.0.log:

[ 156.352] (**) Option "xkb_options" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
[ 156.352] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/event8)
[ 156.352] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "evdev touchpad catchall"
[ 156.352] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: Applying InputClass "touchpad"
[ 156.352] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[ 156.353] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[ 156.353] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 156.353] compiled for 1.9.5, module version = 1.6.2
[ 156.353] Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[ 156.353] ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 11.0
[ 156.353] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event8"
[ 156.416] (--) x-axis range 1472 - 5672
[ 156.416] (--) y-axis range 1408 - 4550
[ 156.416] (--) pressure range 0 - 255
[ 156.416] (--) finger width range 0 - 15
[ 156.416] (--) buttons: left
[ 156.416] (--) Vendor 0x2 Product 0x7
[ 156.416] (**) Option "TapButton1" "1"
[ 156.416] (**) Option "TapButton2" "2"
[ 156.416] (**) Option "TapButton3" "3"
[ 156.416] (--) touchpad found
[ 156.416] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: always reports core events
[ 156.432] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" (type: TOUCHPAD)
[ 156.432] (**) (accel) MinSpeed is now constant deceleration 2.5
[ 156.432] (**) MaxSpeed is now 1.75
[ 156.432] (**) AccelFactor is now 0.038
[ 156.432] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[ 156.432] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration profile 1
[ 156.432] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[ 156.432] (**) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[ 156.456] (--) touchpad found
[ 156.456] (II) config/udev: Adding input device SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (/dev/input/mouse0)
[ 156.456] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 156.456] (II) config/udev: Adding input device ST LIS3LV02DL Accelerometer (/dev/input/event6)
[ 156.456] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 156.457] (II) config/udev: Adding input device ST LIS3LV02DL Accelerometer (/dev/input/js0)
[ 156.457] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 156.462] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Speakup (/dev/input/event1)
[ 156.462] (**) Speakup: Applying InputClass "evdev keyboard catchall"

Now I obviously just started learning about this (yesterday), but is it a problem that it seems to be applying InputClass (blue) twice? Does this mean that it is loading conflicting instances of the module? In the first log, it looks like after the InputClass is applied, it goes about finding all the components of the device and configuring it. But in the problem log, it seems to do something different that I do not understand.

I have attached the complete log files in the hope that someone more adept than I may want to take a look.

Thank you!