Dell Inspiron 1545 touchpad suddenly s-l-o-w

[Doug]

On 06/27/2014 07:36 PM, Temlakos wrote:
> On 06/27/2014 06:53 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
>> On 06/28/14 06:28, Temlakos wrote:
>>> On 06/27/2014 06:24 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:
>>>> On 06/27/2014 03:11 PM, Zoltan Hoppar wrote:
>>>>> if you provide more information
>>>>> like your current kernel version, dmesg - fpaste link.. maybe I can
>>>>> say more.
>>>> It would be both quicker and easier to have Temlakos give us the 
>>>> response from uname -r as that will tell us exactly what we need in 
>>>> one simple step.
>>> 3.14.8-200.fc20.x86_64
>>> '
>>> By the way: though it's monumentally annoying, I have a USB mouse on 
>>> hand from a recent shipment. That works, and gives me some degree of 
>>> satisfaction.
>>>
>>> Should I turn the touchpad off completely and use the USB mouse 
>>> exclusively until I can solve the problem?
>>>
>>> I tried using KDE System Settings for the touchpad. But when I tried 
>>> raising the sensitivity of the touchpad, all that happened was that 
>>> it locked.
>>>
>> Too bad you reinstalled your system.  It would have easier to figure 
>> out what packages were most recently installed.
>>
>> Of course, you could try booting into the previous kernel to see if 
>> that is the problem.
>>
>> On my system there were updates to 3 xorg-x11-server pacages. 
>> xorg-x11-server-common, xorg-x11-server-Xephyr, and 
>> xorg-x11-server-Xorg.  I believe they may influence pointing devices 
>> when run in GUI.
>>
>> Not sure if it is the same for touchpads, but my mouse does move a 
>> block around in runlevel 3.  You could boot to that and see if you 
>> get the same sort of things with your touchpad and if it is 
>> responsive.  Or, just downgrade the xorg packages to see if that has 
>> any effect.
>>
>>
>
> Booting into the kernel installed with the live spin did not work.
>
> Here's another thing that has failed: wireless service.
>
> I reinstalled the firmware, and the "wl" module. I even modprobed it.
>
> It shows wireless enabled, but it won't make a connection. In fact, 
> before I reinstalled the system, the wireless connection, that had 
> been good, failed and never reactivated.
>
> Other wireless devices, including a desktop running F20, will connect.
>
> Temlakos
>
I came in late to this thread, so I'm leaving all the above text for 
continuity. I have an old Dell laptop--E1505--where I have been running 
pclos. I found some time ago
that the then-current kernel would not permit the Broadcom wireless to 
work. I had to install an older kernel, and then Broadcom worked. I just 
today found out that some
fairly modern kernel would not work with the latest update to that 
system, and I had to update the kernel also. (This on a much more modern 
desktp system--not
the old Dell.) So you may not have the option of running an old kernel, 
but if you have one available, you could try it. (Probably the Broadcom 
will not work with the
latest kernel, but it's worth a try.)

Re touchpad:  I never had a touchpad problem on the old Dell, except my 
own clumsy fingers, so I always use an external mouse, and to keep the 
touchpad disabled
when using the mouse, I loaded synaptiks, which will turn off the 
trackpad automatically if there is an external pointing device plugged 
in.  I don't know if you can still
find that app, but it was real helpful to me.

--doug