Problems getting the Synaptics Touchpad working on Hoary

[Philip Van Hoof]

Hi there,

I'm having problems getting my Synaptics Touchpad working on this Acer
Travelmate 8000 laptop.

My distribution is Ubuntu Hoary. I'm very sure that at some point in
time the touchpad did actually worked. Of course while I was upgrading
that Warty to Hoary, I used my USB-mouse. So I don't know where the
support for the touchpad of mine actually started to fail. From the logs
(which I added to this E-mail below) I'd say it's something with the
newer kernel.

I've also installed the very latest "synaptics-0.14.0.tar.bz2"
correctly. But of course, if the kernel isn't enabling the device (see
the logs), that piece of software probably isn't going to get it
suddenly magically working.

Please help me on this! I'll be at FOSDEM Brussels next week and I'd
hate it to constantly having to get my USB-mouse from my laptop-bag
while I'll be hacking on stuff in the developer rooms :-P ! 

	I mean .. this is urgent! *panic* ;-)

ps. So if you see some dude with an Acer Travelmate 8000 being
frustrated cause that stupid Touchpad isn't working, using a Logitech
USB mouse, in -- most likely -- the GNOME developer room, thats -- most
likely -- me. 

root at lort:~ # uname -a
Linux lort 2.6.10-3-386 #1 Tue Feb 15 09:18:05 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
root at lort:~ #

These are some diagnostical command-outputs (I've put the stuff of which
I think it means something in bold):

root at lort:~ # cat /etc/modules | grep mouse
psmouse
mousedev
root at lort:~ # rmmod psmouse
root at lort:~ # modprobe psmouse
root at lort:~ # dmesg | tail -n 11
Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1
 Firmware: 5.8
 180 degree mounted touchpad
 Sensor: 29
 new absolute packet format
 Touchpad has extended capability bits
 -> 4 multi-buttons, i.e. besides standard buttons
 -> multifinger detection
 -> palm detection
input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad on isa0060/serio4
[b]psmouse.c: Failed to enable mouse on isa0060/serio4[/b]
root at lort:~ #

root at lort:~ # lsmod | grep mouse
psmouse                19336  0
mousedev               11160  1
root at lort:~ #

root at lort:~ # cat /proc/bus/input/devices | tail -n 8 | head -n 7
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0007 Version=0000
N: Name="SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio4/input0
H: Handlers=mouse0 event1 ts0
B: EV=b
B: KEY=6420 0 7000f 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=11000003
root at lort:~ #

root at lort:~ # cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | head -n 92 | tail -n 20
Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier    "Synaptics Touchpad"
  Driver        "synaptics"
  Option        "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
  Option        "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
  Option        "LeftEdge"      "1700"
  Option        "RightEdge"     "5300"
  Option        "TopEdge"       "1700"
  Option        "BottomEdge"    "4200"
  Option        "FingerLow"     "25"
  Option        "FingerHigh"    "30"
  Option        "MaxTapTime"    "180"
  Option        "MaxTapMove"    "220"
  Option        "VertScrollDelta" "100"
  Option        "MinSpeed"      "0.09"
  Option        "MaxSpeed"      "0.18"
  Option        "AccelFactor"   "0.0015"
  Option        "SHMConfig"     "on"
#  Option       "Repeater"      "/dev/ps2mouse"
EndSection
root at lort:~ #

root at lort:~ # cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | tail -n 11 | head -n 7
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse" "AlwaysCore"
        InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad" "CorePointer"
EndSection
root at lort:~ #

root at lort:~ # cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | head -n 52 | tail -n 17
Section "Module"
        Load    "GLcore"
        Load    "speedo"
        Load    "v4l"
        Load    "bitmap"
        Load    "dbe"
        Load    "ddc"
        Load    "dri"
        Load    "extmod"
        Load    "freetype"
        Load    "glx"
        Load    "int10"
        Load    "record"
        Load    "type1"
        Load    "vbe"
        Load    "synaptics"
EndSection
root at lort:~ #

Note. At this moment I'm not using the fglrx xserver stuff. It is.
however, installed. I'm not using it for I'd like to use the Randr
extensions which aren't supported by fglrx. Why I'd like to use the
Randr-stuff isn't really important here: I often do presentations and
changing the resolution on-the-fly is a useful feature to have. I also,
sometimes, like to play a game. Therefor I've installed fglrx but am not
using it in my default X.org configuration.

My questions: What is mousedev and psmouse? What are the differences
between them? I'm guessing mousdev is driving my usbmouse (which is,
indeed, attached). Whereas psmouse is, at kernel level, responsible for
the touchpad-device. Am I right? And howcome psmouse isn't enabling the
touchpad but actually IS finding it? Is the usbmouse causing this? If I
boot the laptop whithout the usbmouse connected, it isn't working
either.

Is there other output from commands or contets of files you guys need
from me?

-- 
Philip Van Hoof, Software Developer @ Cronos
home: me at freax dot org
gnome: pvanhoof at gnome dot org
work: philip dot vanhoof at cronos dot be
junk: philip dot vanhoof at gmail dot com
http://www.freax.be, http://www.freax.eu.org