[SOLVED] Synaptics touchpad not working on initial cold boot

vdemuth · 01-10-2010, 01:05 PM

Hello everyone,

What happens is on first boot, my Synaptics touchpad is not being recognised by the Kernel, so I have to boot a second time when it will start working.

I have followed and tried loads of advice from different threads, including the copying and editing of the 11-x11-synaptics.fdi file under etc/hal/policy. Also the psmouse proto=any trick. The rmmod and further modprobe of psmouse. Restarting both HALD and UDEV both later and earlier in the boot procedure . The results of all of which is the same. The touchpad only works on second and subsequent warm boots.

Below is the output of cat /proc/bus/input/devices for cold and warm boot

Cold boot

Code:

I: Bus=0017 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="Macintosh mouse button emulation"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input0
U: Uniq=
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=/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event1 
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3803078 f800d001 feffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0002 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (FF)"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event2 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (CM)"
P: Phys=PNP0C0C/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event3 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0003 Version=0000
N: Name="Sleep Button (CM)"
P: Phys=PNP0C0E/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event4 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=4000 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0006 Version=0000
N: Name="Video Bus"
P: Phys=/video/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:01/device:02/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event5 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=3f000b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=064e Product=a103 Version=0500
N: Name="Video WebCam"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:12.2-4
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event6 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="Lid Switch"
P: Phys=PNP0C0D/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input7
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event7 
B: EV=21
B: SW=1

Warm boot

Code:

I: Bus=0017 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="Macintosh mouse button emulation"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input0
U: Uniq=
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=/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event1 
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=4 2000000 3803078 f800d001 feffffdf ffefffff ffffffff fffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0002 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (FF)"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event2 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (CM)"
P: Phys=PNP0C0C/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event3 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0003 Version=0000
N: Name="Sleep Button (CM)"
P: Phys=PNP0C0E/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event4 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=4000 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0006 Version=0000
N: Name="Video Bus"
P: Phys=/video/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:01/device:02/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event5 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=3f000b 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0007 Version=01b1
N: Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event6 
B: EV=b
B: KEY=420 0 7000f 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=11000003

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=064e Product=a103 Version=0500
N: Name="Video WebCam"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:12.2-4
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-4/1-4:1.0/input/input7
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event7 
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0 0 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="Lid Switch"
P: Phys=PNP0C0D/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input8
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event8 
B: EV=21
B: SW=1

Anyone got any ideas on this at all.

TIA

SAFAD · 01-10-2010, 01:23 PM

Are You Sure That There Is Yast In Slacky ?
I Thought Its Execlusive To Suse

gargamel · 01-10-2010, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAFAD

Are You Sure That There Is Yast In Slacky ?
I Thought Its Execlusive To Suse

I guess the first sentence in his post clears this up, but to reuse this name for something completely different is indeed a bit confusing and may distract users from the thread that would otherwise take a look at it and might be able to help (other than me).

gargamel

vdemuth · 01-12-2010, 01:36 PM

Anyone?

affinity · 01-12-2010, 03:57 PM

Your Synaptics driver is not loading during the initial boot, go to /etc/rc.d and look at your rc.modules file. There is a section for the mouse, copy the relevant line that is commented out into the /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf file.

vdemuth · 01-13-2010, 02:33 AM

Hi Affinity,

Nope, done that. I have even moved the modprobe of psmouse to the beginning of rc.S before even Udev starts, but with the same result. The odd thing is that once it's running it works perfectly with multi button, scrolling etc, until I shut down the laptop and cold boot it again. It's becoming a real PITA to have to boot twice whenever I switch it on.

Any more ideas?

affinity · 01-13-2010, 06:09 PM

The next thing I would try is adding the mouse to rc.local, just copy the same entry from the rc.modules into rc.local. The only thing I can think of on why the driver would load after a reboot but not during an initial boot is that the kernel was not compiled with support for that module, did you do a custom kernel? You can always try reinstalling the Synaptics driver.

xflow7 · 01-13-2010, 07:28 PM

By "warm boot" I take it you mean a reboot from a running state. Correct?

Does it work if you manually modprobe psmouse after a cold boot?

I wonder if this is a goofy BIOS thing where the Touchpad isn't powered up in time for it to be recognized during a normal bootup sequence. The rc.local thing might show that up as rc.local is among the last things to run, IIRC.

Have you looked at dmesg output from a cold vs. warm boot?

vdemuth · 01-14-2010, 02:46 AM

Stock Kernel shipped with Slack 13. This gets even more frustrating as last night the touchpad worked on initial boot from cold, but this morning I had to reboot no less than 4 times before the pad was activated. Looks like a recompile of the kernel is on the cards to remove the synaptics driver from being built in the become a loadable module, and see what happens then. FWIW, and thanks for the suggestion BTW, I have tried the rc.local trick amongst many others.
There is one possible light though, it works every time with the latest kernel, except of course, ATI/AMD are having to play catchup on the drivers for the HD4200 graphics card, so you win some etc.

Meanwhile, if you have any more suggestions, I will happily give them a try.

allend · 01-15-2010, 06:12 AM

Quote:

I wonder if this is a goofy BIOS thing ...

See if you have a BIOS setting for Legacy Mouse emulation, and try enabling it. This was required on my laptop.

vdemuth · 01-24-2010, 08:13 AM

So, I am still no further forward with this. Attempts at recompiling the kernel to have the synaptics driver as a module does not seem to be allowed. It would appear that the driver must be built in so I am now stuck completely on this issue. Adding an append-i8042.reset=1 to my boot time parameters makes some improvement to the point where the touchpad now works first time for every 2 out of 10 boots, so any further suggestions from anyone.

TIA

vdemuth · 01-26-2010, 11:12 AM

I have solved this with help from the Arch and Ubuntu forums. It almost drove me to quitting Slackware completely and the only thing that has kept me here is the valiant attempts by affinity to help.
The question still remains unanswered though as to why every other distro I tried from Live CDs worked flawlessly, whilst Slackware (both 32 and 64 bit) did not. Even more of a concern is that it took a Ubuntu user to finally come up with the answer. I am so displeased currently that I don't even feel like sharing the solution, but I will, as that is surely what a slacker is meant to do.

Anyway here is the solution:-

1) Blacklist psmouse in /etc/rc.modules
2) Create a corepointer section in xorg.conf
3) Modprobe psmouse proto=auto in rc.S before udev starts
4) Append the kernel parameter i8042.reset=1 to lilo

When all this is done then the touchpad works every time

It seems then that the legendary slackware stability and community support is not what it used to be, and I have to question whether the expertise is deserting to a more 'point and click' distro because it is just easier in the long run?

allend · 01-26-2010, 11:09 PM

Thankyou for sharing your solution. It seems that you have been a victim of a hardware quirk. Having to batter the i8042 chip about the head and then modprobe to get the touchpad to work reliably should not be necessary.

Perhaps the kernel developers would be interested in your experience. Please note this recent patch review.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/1/26/404

mRgOBLIN · 01-27-2010, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vdemuth

It seems then that the legendary slackware stability and community support is not what it used to be, and I have to question whether the expertise is deserting to a more 'point and click' distro because it is just easier in the long run?

Wow I'm flabbergasted. Nice trolling.

affinity · 01-27-2010, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vdemuth

I have solved this with help from the Arch and Ubuntu forums. It almost drove me to quitting Slackware completely and the only thing that has kept me here is the valiant attempts by affinity to help.
The question still remains unanswered though as to why every other distro I tried from Live CDs worked flawlessly, whilst Slackware (both 32 and 64 bit) did not. Even more of a concern is that it took a Ubuntu user to finally come up with the answer. I am so displeased currently that I don't even feel like sharing the solution, but I will, as that is surely what a slacker is meant to do.

Anyway here is the solution:-

1) Blacklist psmouse in /etc/rc.modules
2) Create a corepointer section in xorg.conf
3) Modprobe psmouse proto=auto in rc.S before udev starts
4) Append the kernel parameter i8042.reset=1 to lilo

When all this is done then the touchpad works every time

It seems then that the legendary slackware stability and community support is not what it used to be, and I have to question whether the expertise is deserting to a more 'point and click' distro because it is just easier in the long run?

I'm glad you finally got it working. I would not have thought of that solution so thanks for posting it, now we have a reference if something like this happens again. As for switching to "a point and click" distro, use whatever you want. Every distro is going to have drawbacks, in this case it happened to be that Slackware for some reason was not working correctly with your hardware, in other distros you may end up with a similar scenario for something unrelated.