Dell Alps touchpad not recognized [Solved]

[abrondz]

Hi

I just installed Sabayon 6 on a new Dell Latitude E6420 and I'm having issues with the touchpad, specifically that it's recognized as a PS2 mouse. It works on a basic level, but I'd really like to be able to have it scroll, at least vertically.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log:

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[  2146.774] (II) Using input driver 'synaptics' for 'Synaptics Touchpad'
[  2146.774] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[  2146.774] (**) Option "AlwaysCore" "true"
[  2146.774] (**) Option "SendCoreEvents"
[  2146.774] (**) Synaptics Touchpad: always reports core events
[  2146.789] (EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
[  2146.789] (--) Synaptics Touchpad: no supported touchpad found
[  2146.789] (EE) Synaptics Touchpad Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
[  2146.812] (EE) PreInit returned 11 for "Synaptics Touchpad"
[  2146.812] (II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"
[  2146.812] (II) Unloading synaptics

/proc/bus/input/devices:

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I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="PS/2 Generic Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event5
B: PROP=0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3


Dell does provide an alps driver for the touchpad for Ubuntu, but as there's no way to install the .deb on Sabayon, I'm pretty much stuck. I've had no luck finding any similar cases on Google either.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Don't know if it's of any help to you, but below are the details of the X.Org drivers I have got installed, my xorg.conf, the instances of "synaptics" in the X.Org log file, and the instances of "SYNAPTICS" in the kernel config I am using.

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fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ eix -I synaptics
[I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-synaptics
     Available versions:  1.3.0 1.4.0
     Installed versions:  1.4.0(11:03:42 09/04/11)
     Homepage:            http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-input-synaptics/
     Description:         Driver for Synaptics touchpads

fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ eix -I evdev
[I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev
     Available versions:  2.6.0
     Installed versions:  2.6.0(18:01:20 16/02/11)
     Homepage:            http://xorg.freedesktop.org/
     Description:         Generic Linux input driver

fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Main Layout"
        Screen      0  "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        SubSection "extmod"
                Option      "omit xfree86-dga"
        EndSubSection
        Load  "i2c"
        Load  "ddc"
        Load  "vbe"
        Load  "dri"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option      "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-LVDS"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "60"
        Option      "Position" "0 0"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "0-CRT1"
        Option      "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
        Option      "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
        Option      "DPMS" "true"
        Option      "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
        Option      "TargetRefresh" "60"
        Option      "Position" "0 0"
        Option      "Rotate" "normal"
        Option      "Disable" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        Driver      "fglrx"
        Option      "Monitor-LVDS" "0-LVDS"
        Option      "Monitor-CRT1" "0-CRT1"
        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
        Device     "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode         0666
EndSection

fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ sudo cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep synaptics
Password:
[    27.388] (II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
[    27.388] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input/synaptics_drv.so
[    27.412] (II) Module synaptics: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ lsmod | grep synaptics
fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $ cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep SYNAPTICS
CONFIG_MOUSE_PS2_SYNAPTICS=y
CONFIG_MOUSE_SYNAPTICS_I2C=m
fitzcarraldo@meshedgedx ~ $

[abrondz]

Thanks, unfortunately I already have the same settings.

After some more extensive googleing, I found a patch which I applied to the 2.6.37 sources and compiled, but unfortunately I can't seem to get the kernel to boot because it keeps panicking when trying to mount / which it can't find. I must have missed something when installing it, but I did use the exact same configuration as Sabayon's stock kernel and copied the grub boot options from the stock kernel to my kernel, but still, it doesn't want to boot.

I'm very new to grub 2, the problem could lie there as well, but isn't there a guide for upgrading the kernel which doesn't use genkernel?

[abrondz]

After some trial and failure, I got the kernel booted and it solved the problem. As mentioned in the previous post, a kernel patch did the trick.

Could it be possible to include the patch in the stock Sabayon kernel packages? I'm not sure why it hasn't been included in the kernel yet, as the patch is dated 23rd November 2010, but in any case, this is the solution.

Finally, the laptop doesn't have any synaptics touchpad, it's Alps. After patching the kernel, the output from /proc/bus/input/devices looks like this:

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I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0005 Version=7326
N: Name="ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event5
B: PROP=0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103


dmesg |grep "PS/2":

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[    4.114835] i8042: PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
[    4.116686] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
[    4.450524] input: ImPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5


[Fitzcarraldo]

Finally, the laptop doesn't have any synaptics touchpad, it's Alps.

That would explain a lot! Perhaps you ought to change "Synaptics" to "Alps" in the Subject of your first post, so that future searchers may find this thread more easily.

Could it be possible to include the patch in the stock Sabayon kernel packages? I'm not sure why it hasn't been included in the kernel yet, as the patch is dated 23rd November 2010, but in any case, this is the solution.

You could file a bug report (see the link Bugs at the top of this page) requesting that the patch be considered for inclusion. I expect that the SL developers would include it if it does not cause any problems for other makes of touchpad.

[abrondz]

Done, and a bug has been filed