synaptic touchpad in HPmini 210 netbook
 

Hello:

I am trying to make it work in a fresh Squeeze install. After installation, only the left mouse works. It seems mouse driver and not synaptics is loaded. I checked the package manager and saw xserver-xorg-input-synaptics packaged installed.

How do I load the synaptics driver and how do I verify I have it? I would like to make sure that before playing with the options.

Thank you.

do you have an xorg.conf file? Mine looks like this (at least in part, anyway):

I've left a lot out, and only included the sections for Synaptics Touchpad, but maybe you get the idea. Hope this helps. I have a regular usb mouse too, and that one has it's own InputDevice section that I didn't include. It's called, not surprisingly, "Configured Mouse".

Thank you for getting back. If I understand correctly these are "configurations". Aren't they? What loads the driver?

I think the package being on your system is a sign that the driver is there. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, I agree the driver or at least a driver is in the system. But is it being used? Because

"lsmod" tells me that psmouse module is loaded and being used. When I removed it with "modprobe -r psmouse" the touchpad stopped working, ie the mouse driver is no longer used or loaded, but it is still available in the system. I can load it again with "modprobe psmouse" and it will work again, well only the left click as before.

So how do we know a synaptic driver is loaded/used?

if I 'lsmod' 'mouse' I don't get anything that has to do with synaptics. If I 'lsmod' 'syn' I get nothing. If you 'man' 'synaptics' there's no mention of a module there at all. If you look in the contents of the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package there's no '.ko' file (I don't see one, maybe I missed it.) Maybe someone else can chime in here.

So, when you do
lsmod|grep mouse
do you still get psmouse even though your synaptics seems to be driving the touchpad?

Please bear with me. I am just trying to understand how things work.

yep, but that's just my experience. The two work simultaneously. I can use the mouse and the pad at the same time. BTW, how did your squeeze install go? were there any problems?

It seems that way. I also checked my Dell notebook with Lenny which has a synaptic touchpad. I had the same results with lsmod. It seems psmouse module has to be loaded for the pad to work.

It seems I have to set synclient variables to make it work properly. I would like to know how to stop the jumpy cursor and enable the right mouse button.

I tried to get the xorg.conf once. The xorg.conf file i got from -configure was not complete i think. It would not work properly so I stopped using it. What is the minimum I need in xorg.conf to work so I can try your xorg settings for the touchpad?

Do you have the same netbook? Is your cursor jumpy?

I partitioned the drive with Gparted on a stick first. i had to try to get the netinstall on a stick. I used Unetbootin with a slight modification. Once I got the working stick it went through smoothly from beginning to the end.

I don't have a netbook at all. I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 that runs squeeze with a few packages from sid and that I compiled myself. It has a synaptics touchpad and a usb mouse attached. I don't have any problem with either one. I do use an xorg.conf file, and have since I installed debian a while ago. I've never had to re-install on this machine. I guess my advice is to work on that xorg.conf file, and then when you've got it working add a "InputDevice" section for a synaptics mouse, and then modify the server layout so that it includes your new section. If that doesn't work, at least you're satisfied that you've created a good xorg.conf file. If it helps any I'll repost my listing from above with the important parts in another color if I can.

Oh, "TapButton1" may not be necessary. I believe you can get all the options for the xorg.conf file with 'man synaptics'.

read this maybe

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1388164

it deals with the trackpad problem. No xorg.conf necessary.

I have tried that. The psmouse thing for the right mouse sort of worked with the very jumpy cursor. When i tried the other one, the system did not recognize the variable "JumpyCursorThreshold". I don't see that variable when I did synclient -l either. So did not work.

i reran Xorg -configure and here is the entire fresh xorg.conf file.

Does it give any clues?

It does not look like the touchpad is recognized correctly. I did not see any syn* in /dev/input folder either.

All I'm saying is to try this. Maybe it won't work. Maybe it'll be some slight improvement...

I was re-reading the instructions for the modprobe Ubuntu link.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1388164

I remember seeing somewhere that the contents of '/etc/modprobe.d/' had to end in '.conf' now. So I was thinking, maybe try this:

maybe that will work better than having that file named 'psmouse.modprobe'

I tried my new xorg.conf and no change. Tried your xorg.conf and no x. Tried the modprobe thing and got the right mouse and got the right mouse and lost the vert right edge scroll which is not the end of the world. But it leaves me with a very jumpy cursor which could sense where my palm is from about an inch away and moves it all over the place. I thought I would slow it down my tweaking the syncient. Then I got this
So it seems now mouse driver is taking over. Interesting. Anyway to make it less jumpy?

OH I also got the kernel failure on reboot which I saw before when I tried this a few days ago. It does not seem to be causing anything really.