Laptop users with Synaptics touchpad, using kernel 2.6.x

Mike A. Harris mharris at redhat.com
Sun Aug 24 15:54:54 UTC 2003


On Sun, 24 Aug 2003, Joshua Legbandt wrote:

>> This is a known issue which is related to ACPI.  If you have one 
>> of these touchpads, and it does not work (most or all of them 
>> wont work), then currently you have to download a separate GPL 
>> licensed "synaptics" driver from the following website:
>> 
>> http://tuxmobile.org/touchpad_driver.html
>> 
>> In order to use these devices under 2.6.x kernels right now, you 
>> MUST download this driver binary, or download the source and 
>> compile it yourself.  I recommend using the binary driver as 
>> compiling the source will be overly complex for most people.
>
>Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the binary driver to work under
>XFree86-4.3.0-22, which I am otherwise happy with (it's faster that the
>RHL 9 and Severn packages by a good margin). The binary driver says that
>it is compiled for 4.2.0 and looks like it loads from my logs, but
>'"Protocol" "auto-dev"' doesn't work. From my limited debugging skills
>(IANAP), it looks like this protocol should be provided by the driver.
>I'll have to test with ACPI turned off to be sure that this isn't ACPI
>related also...

Ah, how unfortunate.  ;o/

Well, that throws the entire concept of XFree86 binary module 
compatibility across server revisions going forward.  Then again, 
it seems very few modules end up truely binary compatible despite 
XFree86.org's pie in the sky claims.  <sigh>


>But, seeing how this is an ACPI related issue, and ACPI is a "good
>thing" for my laptop (keeps it from over heating, lets me know how much
>battery I have left, etc.), is there a way to keep the kernel from
>loading the synaptics driver so that the touchpad can be treated like a
>regular PS/2 mouse?

No idea, but I'm sure others have discussed it to great lengths 
online, or on mailing lists that are searchable.  I don't have 
any laptop hardware and haven't tried a 2.6.x kernel, so I'm only 
relaying information rather than having personally tested it. ;o)


>> This work is not planned to occur in the Cambridge project
>> timeframe however, and so the synaptics driver is in limbo right
>> now.  I am going to be investigating this more deeply in a few 
>> weeks time, however I'm not sure if there will be a sane way for 
>> me to include this driver in RPM packaging or not.
>
>Understandable since the 2.6 kernel isn't planned for Cambridge. I plan
>to avoid the 2.6 kernel until I can use my laptop without an USB mouse
>attached to it.

Cambridge will have a 2.4.x kernel no doubt, but I'm not sure 
wether or not a 2.6.x kernel will also be available or not for 
testing.  Perhaps another developer can comment about that.

Take care,
TTYL




-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat





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