Acer laptop trackpad toggle button makes mouse freeze until restart (Linux Mint and Lubuntu)

THX1138b · 10-22-2017, 07:12 AM

I have an old Acer Aspire 7535G laptop and it has a button next to the trackpad which toggles the trackpad on and off which is useful to be able to type without accidentally touching the trackpad and moving the cursor. I've installed Linux Mint 18.2 Cinammon 64-bit and tried a live Lubuntu 16.04.3 64-bit on this machine and when the mouse trackpad toggle button is activated, the mouse stops moving as expected; however when the button is pressed again, the mouse functionality does not resume until the machine is restarted. I tried to search for a solution to this but nothing I find relates to this problem. Could there maybe be a work-around to reactivate the mouse using a keyboard shortcut? Thanks for any advice.

ondoho · 10-23-2017, 12:16 AM

off the top of my head, i'd start investigating with

Code:

xev > xev.txt

enter that command in a terminal, then push the button once to deactivate and once to reactivate the touchpad, and look at the file xev.txt.
try not to move the mouse at all while you do it, otherwise there's going to be too much output.
maybe post it here so we can look at it together.

THX1138b · 10-23-2017, 07:04 AM

Thanks for responding! Here is the xev output. Incidentally, this same issue also occurs on an Acer Aspire 5738Z laptop.

Code:

Outer window is 0x1c00001, inner window is 0x1c00002

PropertyNotify event, serial 8, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x27 (WM_NAME), time 110885, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 9, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x22 (WM_COMMAND), time 110885, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 10, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x28 (WM_NORMAL_HINTS), time 110885, state PropertyNewValue

CreateNotify event, serial 11, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    parent 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00002, (10,10), width 50, height 50
border_width 4, override NO

PropertyNotify event, serial 14, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x13b (WM_PROTOCOLS), time 110885, state PropertyNewValue

MapNotify event, serial 15, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00002, override NO

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x180 (_NET_WM_VISIBLE_NAME), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x19d (_NET_WM_VISIBLE_ICON_NAME), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1b8 (_OB_APP_ROLE), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1ba (_OB_APP_NAME), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1bb (_OB_APP_CLASS), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1bc (_OB_APP_GROUP_NAME), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1bd (_OB_APP_GROUP_CLASS), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1b9 (_OB_APP_TITLE), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1be (_OB_APP_TYPE), time 110886, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x144 (_NET_WM_ICON), time 110887, state PropertyNewValue

ReparentNotify event, serial 18, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00001, parent 0x1400394,
    (0,0), override NO

PropertyNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x149 (_NET_WM_STATE), time 110887, state PropertyNewValue

ConfigureNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00001, (0,0), width 178, height 178,
    border_width 0, above 0x14003e0, override NO

ConfigureNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00001, (1,26), width 178, height 178,
    border_width 0, above 0x14003e0, override NO

PropertyNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x140 (_NET_FRAME_EXTENTS), time 110888, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 26, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x1a1 (_KDE_NET_WM_FRAME_STRUT), time 110888, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x19f (_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS), time 110888, state PropertyNewValue

ConfigureNotify event, serial 28, synthetic YES, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00001, (50,60), width 178, height 178,
    border_width 2, above 0x0, override NO

PropertyNotify event, serial 28, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x143 (_NET_WM_DESKTOP), time 110888, state PropertyNewValue

MapNotify event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    event 0x1c00001, window 0x1c00001, override NO

VisibilityNotify event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    state VisibilityUnobscured

Expose event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    (0,0), width 178, height 10, count 3

Expose event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    (0,10), width 10, height 58, count 2

Expose event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    (68,10), width 110, height 58, count 1

Expose event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    (0,68), width 178, height 110, count 0

PropertyNotify event, serial 43, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x16e (WM_STATE), time 110898, state PropertyNewValue

FocusIn event, serial 44, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    mode NotifyNormal, detail NotifyNonlinear

KeymapNotify event, serial 44, synthetic NO, window 0x0,
    keys:  68  0   0   0   16  0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   
           0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   

PropertyNotify event, serial 44, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x19e (_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY), time 110904, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 45, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x19e (_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY), time 110922, state PropertyNewValue

PropertyNotify event, serial 45, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    atom 0x19e (_NET_WM_ICON_GEOMETRY), time 110926, state PropertyNewValue

KeyRelease event, serial 45, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 110945, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 36 (keysym 0xff0d, Return), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (0d) "
"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 113146, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 201 (keysym 0x1008ffb1, XF86TouchpadOff), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 113154, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 201 (keysym 0x1008ffb1, XF86TouchpadOff), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 114395, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 200 (keysym 0x1008ffb0, XF86TouchpadOn), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 114401, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 200 (keysym 0x1008ffb0, XF86TouchpadOn), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 117472, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 9 (keysym 0xff1b, Escape), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1b) ""
    XmbLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1b) ""
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 117588, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 9 (keysym 0xff1b, Escape), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1b) ""
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 119945, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

FocusOut event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    mode NotifyGrab, detail NotifyAncestor

ClientMessage event, serial 48, synthetic YES, window 0x1c00001,
    message_type 0x13b (WM_PROTOCOLS), format 32, message 0x139 (WM_DELETE_WINDOW)

ondoho · 10-23-2017, 11:40 AM

i'm not quite sure why i suggested what i suggested this morning;
of course it would be best to ascertain what is really happening there and if it can be fixed.
i'm not really sure how, though.
'dmesg' might shed some light, and 'journalctl'.
the keyword ACPI comes to mind, but i could be wrong.

is this a synaptic touchpad?
if so, there's most likely a dedicated command to dis/enable it, with 'synclient'.

the good news is that X recognizes the keys and if all else fails, we can map them to a dedicated touchpad on/off script.

Quote:

Originally Posted by THX1138b

Code:

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 113146, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 201 (keysym 0x1008ffb1, XF86TouchpadOff), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 113154, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 201 (keysym 0x1008ffb1, XF86TouchpadOff), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 114395, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 200 (keysym 0x1008ffb0, XF86TouchpadOn), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 48, synthetic NO, window 0x1c00001,
    root 0xe1, subw 0x0, time 114401, (214,441), root:(266,503),
    state 0x0, keycode 200 (keysym 0x1008ffb0, XF86TouchpadOn), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False