[SOLVED] How To Find My Touchpad

gentisle · 09-27-2016, 09:39 PM

Hi all,
Have a new ASUS laptop which came w/Win 10. I removed the HDD, replaced w/SSD, and installed Linuxmint 17.3 KDE. I use a USB trackball which works fine, but I'd also like the touchpad to work. I'm trying to figure out how to find all the extra hardware that it doesn't recognize.

I've tried looking in dmesg, inxi -Fx, lspci, lsusb, lshw (could not get hwinfo, apt-get wouldn't install it, apparently it's not in that repository) and dmidecode w/various parameters, but nothing so far. I'd appreciate any hints as to commands I can use to determine ALL of my hardware. Thanks,

gentisle

ferrari · 09-27-2016, 11:18 PM

The built-in touchpad is likely to be connected via a keyboard controller (eg i8402 controller and I2C bus), (so not enumerated using lsusb and lspci commands).

Instead, use the xinput command to check if the touchpad device is detected/supported

Code:

xinput list

Additionally, examine the input devices present in /proc/bus/input/devices

Code:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

The Xorg log can also be checked eg

Code:

grep "input device" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

and for any user-space driver handling the device (if any)

Code:

grep "Using input" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

A useful Debian reference here...
https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTou...pe_of_Touchpad

gentisle · 10-01-2016, 07:12 AM

To ferrari:

Thanks for replying.

I had also tried the command:

Code:

egrep -i 'synap|alps|etps' /proc/bus/input/devices

but that produced a blank command line. The xinput command did yield some hope though.

⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Logitech USB Trackball id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Asus WMI hotkeys id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]

In addition, KDE's Device Viewer doesn't list the mouse either. Furthermore, in KDE's Touchpad settings
/System Settings/Input Devices/Touchpad icon, it says the Synaptics driver is not installed or not used.
Using xinput --enable 2, then 4, acted like command took, however Touchpad settings were still saying it's not there.
Under the enable/disable tab in Touchpad settings, everything is grayed out, but TPPS/2 IBM Trackpoint is listed. However, since this is an ASUS, I'm guessing that is simply a listing of choices that could be available. ??

In the Debian Synaptics page, I eventually got to a page w/an IBM TP driver, and downloaded/installed that. But nothing changed. Is Linux expecting me to disable my trackball and disconnect it? That doesn't make sense, b/c on my old laptop, I could use both.

Code:

grep "input device" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
grep "Using input" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Yielded respectively:

Code:

[     4.505] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
[     4.560] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Power Button (/dev/input/event2)
[     4.561] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Power Button" (type: KEYBOARD, id 6)
[     4.562] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Video Bus (/dev/input/event5)
[     4.562] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Video Bus" (type: KEYBOARD, id 7)
[     4.562] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Video Bus (/dev/input/event6)
[     4.562] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Video Bus" (type: KEYBOARD, id 8)
[     4.562] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Lid Switch (/dev/input/event0)
[     4.562] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Sleep Button (/dev/input/event1)
[     4.562] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Sleep Button" (type: KEYBOARD, id 9)
[     4.563] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Logitech USB Trackball (/dev/input/event4)
[     4.616] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Logitech USB Trackball" (type: MOUSE, id 10)
[     4.616] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Logitech USB Trackball (/dev/input/mouse0)
[     4.616] (II) config/udev: Adding input device USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam (/dev/input/event12)
[     4.616] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam" (type: KEYBOARD, id 11)
[     4.617] (II) config/udev: Adding input device HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3 (/dev/input/event10)
[     4.617] (II) config/udev: Adding input device HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7 (/dev/input/event11)
[     4.617] (II) config/udev: Adding input device HDA Intel PCH Mic (/dev/input/event8)
[     4.617] (II) config/udev: Adding input device HDA Intel PCH Headphone (/dev/input/event9)
[     4.617] (II) config/udev: Adding input device Asus WMI hotkeys (/dev/input/event7)
[     4.617] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Asus WMI hotkeys" (type: KEYBOARD, id 12)
[     4.618] (II) config/udev: Adding input device AT Translated Set 2 keyboard (/dev/input/event3)
[     4.618] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" (type: KEYBOARD, id 13)

and

Code:

[     4.561] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Power Button'
[     4.562] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Video Bus'
[     4.562] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Video Bus'
[     4.562] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Sleep Button'
[     4.563] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Logitech USB Trackball'
[     4.616] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam'
[     4.617] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Asus WMI hotkeys'
[     4.618] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'AT Translated Set 2 keyboard'

Code:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

listed all devices w/their name, but no extra mouse, just my Logitech Trackball.

ferrari · 10-01-2016, 03:23 PM

The device is not present in 'xinput list' output, so not surprising that Xorg does not report it either. Forget trying to configure an absent device in any desktop utility until it is first present. Some questions:
1) Is it possible that it is disabled by a hardware switch or key?
2) Check that it is not disabled in the BIOS
3) Laptop model?

A good touchpad debugging guide:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingTouchpadDetection

gentisle · 10-01-2016, 09:57 PM

No, it's enabled in BIOS (EFI). The key combo is Fn + F9, but still no go. It's ASUS ROG GW752VW-DH71. I never booted the Win10 HDD, just replaced w/SSD and installed LM17.3. I saw on the ASUS site that the special key functions had to be updated before a new touchpad driver was installed or vice versa. I'm wondering if there is a Linux equivalent to that special key software that would allow me a door in. Thanks again.

ferrari · 10-01-2016, 10:26 PM

Okay, well we're either dealing with a device that's disabled or faulty IMHO. You could try testing the behaviour with an alternative live (USB) distro, although I'd expect the same behaviour.

If you can, install evtest and check that when the Fn + F9 keys are pressed it does get registered. You may need WMI support via the asus_wmi module.

gentisle · 10-02-2016, 04:41 PM

Well, I tried evtest, and it rearranged the ID #s of the devices from what xinput gave. There was nothing listed as a touchpad. Maybe I should have tested this thing before I installed Linux, so I could send it back for replacement. Oh well! Thanks for your help.

Timothy Miller · 10-02-2016, 04:47 PM

It's quite possible the kernel in LM17 might be too old to recognize the device. I had this problem in one of my old laptops, kernels <4.0 simply wouldn't SEE it, and so it wouldn't work. Updated to a 4.0, and suddenly it worked perfectly. It'd be worth upgrading to LM18 to get the newer kernel to see if that has any affect.

ferrari · 10-02-2016, 07:55 PM

Yes, that's worth a shot I guess.

gentisle · 10-03-2016, 07:55 AM

Well, I had already downloaded LM18, and was considering upgrading, so maybe it's worth a try.

ferrari · 10-03-2016, 02:58 PM

Let us know how you get on.

gentisle · 10-06-2016, 09:09 AM

OK, I'm checking out LM18 KDE and Cinnamon in VirtualBox guests.

Does the upgrade work well in LM? I've always did a clean install. Anyone ever tried upgrading? Upgrading to ver. 18?

gentisle · 10-15-2016, 05:34 PM

Well, the mint upgrade says I don't qualify for upgrade to 18. However, I did copy the iso to usb and booted LM18KDE live. The touchpad works. I didn't try any of the settings, but that is better than what I have in LM17.3. Now if I can get the time to format and re-install and re-configure. Thanks everyone for answering.