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Kernel 2.6.11 Trackpoint Problem

post #1 of 13
4/12/05 at 3:33am
Thread Starter 
I am currently running both Gentoo 2005.0 (stage 1 install) & Fedora Core 3 on my Dell D610, but I've been having issues with my trackpoint and its corresponding buttons not functioning in kernel 2.6.11 (note: the trackpad and its buttons work fine). Under Fedora, I have tried kernel-2.6.11-1.1177_FC4.src.rpm (built from source), kernel-2.6.11-1.14_FC3.rpm (installed from yum), as well as the vanilla kernel-2.6.11.5 from kernel.org; in gentoo I've tried the latest gentoo-sources vanilla kernel (linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r5). All have issues with the trackpoint. I have rebuilt the kernels with my .config files that work perfectly in 2.6.10, so it must be a change in the kernel tree. I saw one patch, I beleive it's for the IBM Thinkpads, that allegedly corrects the issue, however the patch broke my kernel-source in gentoo (it wouldn't compile the patched files). Does anyone know of any potential fixes? Besides this issue, the D610 works great in Linux.
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post #2 of 13
4/12/05 at 11:45am
Let me take a stab at the curser. It's real touchy, while you are stationary your pointer isn't. Extreme sensitivity to any movement? That's what I get with the 2.6.11 series on mine. Sorry I can't point you in any direction. Just letting you know you are not alone.
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post #3 of 13
4/13/05 at 12:43am
This is really interesting. I've had the opposite experience: I recently put my kernel from 2.6.8 up to 2.6.11 (Gentoo sources) and my touchpad (are we talking about the same thing, or are you referring to the 'nipple'?) finally works like it should without any extra drivers (I used to need a driver to get the touchpad to sense taps as clicks).

Mikhail
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post #4 of 13
4/13/05 at 6:46pm
Thread Starter 
Just to be clear, when I say trackpoint, I'm referring to the eraser head found in the middle of the keyboard (on mine it touched the keys g,h, & b) -- it's most common on Thinkpads, but other laptops including my Latitude, have them. When I say touchpad, I'm referring to the pad at the bottom of the keyboard (below the space bar) that you drag your fingers on. To be clear, here's an image of the D610 keyboard: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/4028.jpg

In kernel 2.6.11, my trackpoint is not functioning properly. I've tried the patch made by Stephen Evanchik, and it applies without error but now although I can move the cursor with the trackpoint, it's left & right mouse buttons do not work. The second set of mouse buttons, placed below the keyboard for the touchpad, do work.
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post #5 of 13
4/13/05 at 7:23pm
Oh wow, forget two mice (USB and touchpad), you could have three! Why they would build the laptop with both a touchpad and a trackpoint is beyond me.

Peculiar problem indeed. My guess is that the kernel can't bind both sets of mouse buttons to the same pair of keys. Have you tried running 'xev'? It will tell you the key codes (if any) the trackpoint buttons are reporting. Once you know that, my guess is you can bind both pairs of buttons to the same mouse functionality (my guess - xorg.conf).

Mikhail
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post #6 of 13
4/13/05 at 7:59pm
I have friends who hate the touchpad... I think the pointy stick is stupid. I can easily see why Dell (as well as others) have chosen to give you a choice. It's a very religious issue notebook-wise.

I have the M70 with SUSE 9.2 running 2.6.11.4. Pointy stick works, touchpad works (including tapping... ), external USB mouse works... all buttons work (below spacebar, below touchpad). I didn't have to do anything special at all.
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post #7 of 13
4/13/05 at 8:51pm
Thread Starter 
Well the trackpoint and its corresponding buttons work fine in kernel 2.6.10 (as well as the touchpad & its buttons). I'm coming from a Thinkpad to the Dell, and would not have bought my D610 if it didn't have a trackpoint (I hate touchpads, in fact the mouse issue is why I didn't consider the PowerBook). Perhaps I'll try and find what patches are included in the Suse kernel; I have a spare drive and my give Suse a go later.
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post #8 of 13
4/13/05 at 9:59pm
Hold on, sdnick, did you check xev like I mentioned? If they actually changed something on purpose, its going to be that way for a while. (My point is: why bother with a whole new distro when you can at least try and figure out the small little problem.)
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post #9 of 13
4/14/05 at 5:12am
Thread Starter 
Well I tried xev in kernel 2.6.10 on Gentoo, I've used xev before (to find out what my volume buttons were identified as) however the way I ususally use it:
PHP Code:
xev|grep keycode --linebuffered
didn't return anything. I next tried just typing xev without piping it anywhere and pressing a mouse button, unfortunately, they all respond the same. Tomorrow I'll try rebooting to 2.6.11 and see how xev responds to the top mouse buttons.
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post #10 of 13
4/14/05 at 10:45am
If they don't return any codes, they should leave kernel errors behind - check dmesg. If you are familiar with the 5680, there are three multimedia buttons up near the LCD - two of them (mail & browser) work, but the third one does not - xev returns nothing and I get keyboard errors in the kernel log.
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post #11 of 13
4/16/05 at 4:32am
Thread Starter 
I just checked under gentoo-sources-2.6.11-rc6, xev does not see the mouse clicks at all. I grepped dmesg for error, key, & mouse, but I didn't find anything related. I read that 2.6.11 has a new library dedicated to the ps/2's communication layer, perhaps this is a side effect.
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post #12 of 13
4/19/05 at 6:16am
Thread Starter 
I have at least partially solved the problem, the patch in this post seemed to work. I had to slightly modify the patch (I'll post it below) for gentoo-sources-2.6.11-rc6 (my version also applies cleanly to the latest Fedora Core 3 kernel source 2.6.11-1.14_FC3). One side effect of the patch is that a low hiss that prior to the patch could only be heard from the headphones is now audible through the speakers. I also posed the patch to Fedora's Bugzilla so hopefully a better solution can be found.

--- linux-2.6.11/drivers/input/mouse/alps.c 2005-04-18 18:16:45.000000000 -0700
+++ linux-2.6.11/drivers/input/mouse/alps.c 2005-04-18 18:36:05.000000000 -0700
@@ -99,8 +99,8 @@

input_report_rel(dev, REL_X, x);
input_report_rel(dev, REL_Y, -y);
- input_report_key(dev, BTN_A, left);
- input_report_key(dev, BTN_B, right);
+ input_report_key(dev, BTN_LEFT, left);
+ input_report_key(dev, BTN_RIGHT, right);
input_sync(dev);
return;
}
@@ -418,8 +418,6 @@
psmouse->dev.evbit[LONG(EV_REL)] |= BIT(EV_REL);
psmouse->dev.relbit[LONG(REL_X)] |= BIT(REL_X);
psmouse->dev.relbit[LONG(REL_Y)] |= BIT(REL_Y);
- psmouse->dev.keybit[LONG(BTN_A)] |= BIT(BTN_A);
- psmouse->dev.keybit[LONG(BTN_B)] |= BIT(BTN_B);

psmouse->dev.evbit[LONG(EV_ABS)] |= BIT(EV_ABS);
input_set_abs_params(&psmouse->dev, ABS_X, 0, 1023, 0, 0);
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post #13 of 13
4/19/05 at 9:56pm
Good find. Thanks for the post.
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