Adjust Trackpoint speed on Lenovo P70 / Ubuntu 22.04

ts1971 · 09-30-2022, 10:35 AM

Hi,

I recently had to replace a failed keyboard on my Lenovo P70 running Ubuntu 22.04. Generally, everything is working fine, with one exception. The trackpoint (eraser in the middle of the keyboard) is VERY slow and I can't figure out how to adjust it. First I tried turning the speed up for both the touchpad and the mouse in the 'mouse and touchpad' settings dialog. The touchpad changes did take effect, though I don't use the touchpad so that's not much help. I don't use an external mouse, but I did confirm that those settings had no effect on the trackpoint. I've googled around a lot and tried a couple of things, but it seems like most of the suggestions are pretty old at this point, I'm skeptical that they are still relevant to 22.04.

Here is the output of 'input':

Quote:

ThinkPad-P70:~$ xinput
WARNING: running xinput against an Xwayland server. See the xinput man page for details.
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-pointer:16 id=6 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-relative-pointer:16 id=7 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ xwayland-pointer-gestures:16 id=8 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ xwayland-keyboard:16 id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]

It's not even clear to me if one of those devices is the trackpoint. If so, which one?

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions about how I could move forward here, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

thorkelljarl · 09-30-2022, 05:16 PM

man xinput...

Did you obtain your listing by running the command xinput with the argument --list in its variations and then again with --list-props and the number designation for the trackpoint if it is found by --list?

I would have thought that xinput should have been more informative than what you posted.

ts1971 · 10-01-2022, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thorkelljarl

man xinput...

Did you obtain your listing by running the command xinput with the argument --list in its variations and then again with --list-props and the number designation for the trackpoint if it is found by --list?

I would have thought that xinput should have been more informative than what you posted.

Hi.xinput --list returns exactly the same thing as xinput with no args. I agree though, it seems like there are things missing. It may have something to do with the warning about running xinput against wayland rather than x. I don't know much about this stuff though.

ferrari · 10-02-2022, 01:12 AM

I assume that you're running Gnome Wayland? If so, run

Code:

sudo libinput list-devices

It should be possible to adjust the trackpoint behaviour as described here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Tra...#device-quirks

thorkelljarl · 10-03-2022, 03:16 AM

If it's simpler...

Though the command libinput is not persistent and must run at each startup, it might be sufficient to compose an executable txt.sh file, put it in /home where it is easy to find and edit, and use the Ubuntu Startup Application GUI to run it on startup.

https://itsubuntu.com/auto-execute-linux-scripts/

I use this method with xinput in Mint 20.3 Cinnamon to adjust the ratio of my mouse movement to screen pointer movement.

ts1971 · 10-05-2022, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

I assume that you're running Gnome Wayland? If so, run

Code:

sudo libinput list-devices

I had to install libinput and after doing so here is the output of libiinput list-devices:

Code:

device:           Power Button
Kernel:           /dev/input/event2
Group:            1
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           Video Bus
Kernel:           /dev/input/event16
Group:            2
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           Video Bus
Kernel:           /dev/input/event14
Group:            2
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           Lid Switch
Kernel:           /dev/input/event0
Group:            3
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     switch
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           Sleep Button
Kernel:           /dev/input/event1
Group:            4
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           Integrated Camera: Integrated C
Kernel:           /dev/input/event7
Group:            5
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
Kernel:           /dev/input/event3
Group:            6
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
Kernel:           /dev/input/event4
Group:            7
Seat:             seat0, default
Size:             98x54mm
Capabilities:     pointer gesture
Tap-to-click:     disabled
Tap-and-drag:     enabled
Tap drag lock:    disabled
Left-handed:      disabled
Nat.scrolling:    disabled
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   *two-finger edge 
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: enabled
Accel profiles:   flat *adaptive
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           PS/2 Generic Mouse
Kernel:           /dev/input/event5
Group:            8
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     pointer 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      disabled
Nat.scrolling:    disabled
Middle emulation: disabled
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   *button
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   flat *adaptive
Rotation:         n/a

Device:           ThinkPad Extra Buttons
Kernel:           /dev/input/event6
Group:            9
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     keyboard 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      n/a
Nat.scrolling:    n/a
Middle emulation: n/a
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   none
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   n/a
Rotation:         n/a

It seems like it still doesn't really recognize the trackpoint, though I guess that it's the 'PS2 Generic Mouse'

It should be possible to adjust the trackpoint behaviour as described here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Tra...#device-quirks

I had a look at this, but it's not clear to me how it could work. If I create local-overrides.quirks and add the following:

Code:

[Trackpoint Override]
MatchUdevType=pointingstick
AttrTrackpointMultiplier=0.75

How does libinput know which device to map those changes to?

Generally, the behavior is even worse than I thought. Initially I thought that the only problem was the speed, but as I use continue to use the device, it has other problems like registering random clicks as I move the cursor around and continuing to move the cursor even after I've stopped touching the keybaord. Maybe I should have sprung for an OEM keyboard rather than this aftermarket one, but I expected the swap to be seamless.

ferrari · 10-05-2022, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ts1971

I had a look at this, but it's not clear to me how it could work. If I create local-overrides.quirks and add the following:

Code:

[Trackpoint Override]
MatchUdevType=pointingstick
AttrTrackpointMultiplier=0.75

How does libinput know which device to map those changes to?

That depends on how libinput detects/handles the trackpoint device. I assume this is the pertinent device?

Code:

Device:           PS/2 Generic Mouse
Kernel:           /dev/input/event5
Group:            8
Seat:             seat0, default
Capabilities:     pointer 
Tap-to-click:     n/a
Tap-and-drag:     n/a
Tap drag lock:    n/a
Left-handed:      disabled
Nat.scrolling:    disabled
Middle emulation: disabled
Calibration:      n/a
Scroll methods:   *button
Click methods:    none
Disable-w-typing: n/a
Accel profiles:   flat *adaptive
Rotation:         n/a

ferrari · 10-05-2022, 01:46 PM

You can specify the drive using "MatchName=****". Usually I'd expect something like "MatchName=*TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint*", but your case the device may only be being detected by the kernel as a "PS/2 Generic Mouse" perhaps. It may be that using a more recent kernel would get the device properly recognized (assuming the hardware in question is new).

ferrari · 10-05-2022, 04:27 PM

Just in case this is of value to you
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Tra...ves_on_its_own