Drivers – Dell Precision 7550 Physical Mouse Buttons Behaving Like Clickpad

driversmousetouchpad

Edit: this post previously stated that the mouse buttons didn't work at all. I only recently discovered that touching the touchpad can make the left button work like a clickpad.

I just bought a Dell Precision 7550, which has 3 separate physical mouse buttons beneath the touchpad. It came with Ubuntu 18.04, where these mouse buttons work as intended. However, I just did a fresh install of 20.04 alongside it, and the mouse buttons have gone funny: I can't make the right button do anything, while the middle button works normally. The left button behaves like the click of a clickpad: if I'm not touching the touchpad, it does nothing. If I touch the touchpad at the same time, however, then it works: either it issues a left click or, if I'm touching the bottom right corner of the touchpad, it issues a right click.

How do I make Ubuntu stop treating this like a clickpad, and register the physical mouse buttons?

In the (working) 18.04, xinput shows

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Consumer Control            id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Mouse                       id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DELL09C3:00 0488:120A Touchpad            id=20   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse                        id=25   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=16   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=19   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Mouse    id=28   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256                             id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256 System Control              id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate           id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Intel HID events                          id=21   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Intel HID 5 button array                  id=22   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=23   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=24   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Consumer Control            id=26   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 System Control   id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0  id=18   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=27   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Whereas the (broken) 20.04 shows:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Mouse                       id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Consumer Control            id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DELL09C3:00 0488:120A Mouse               id=20   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DELL09C3:00 0488:120A Touchpad            id=21   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse                        id=27   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Mouse    id=16   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=18   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=29   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256                             id=10   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256 System Control              id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate           id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ DELL09C3:00 0488:120A UNKNOWN             id=22   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Intel HID events                          id=23   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Intel HID 5 button array                  id=24   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=25   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=26   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 05ac:0256 Consumer Control            id=28   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0  id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 System Control   id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=19   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v9.0 Consumer Control id=30   [slave  keyboard (3)]

The Microsoft stuff is my USB mouse/keyboard. The only meaningful difference I see is the appearance of DELL09C3:00 0488:120A UNKNOWN on 20.04, suggesting some hardware isn't recognized, although everything that's recognized on 18.04 is also recognized on 20.04. /etc/X11 is nearly identical, with only some changes in Xsession.d/70im-config_launch, Xsession.d/90qt-a11y, app-defaults/XLogo, and app-defaults/XCalc, none of which look relevant, except possibly the removal of QT_LINUX_ACCESSIBILITY_ALWAYS_ON in 90qt-a11y.

Best Answer

Finally managed to fix it.

I first installed xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, and rebooted. The behavior didn't change, but the driver did change: xinput list-props "DELL09C3:00 0488:120A Touchpad" now has several new "synaptics" options, including Synaptics ClickPad which was set to 1. Setting it to 0 via xinput set-prop "DELL09C3:00 0488:120A Touchpad" "Synaptics ClickPad" 0 fixed the problem immediately.

This isn't terribly satisfying, as it's unclear why the touchpad is being detected as a clickpad in the first place. However, the touchpad is now usable, so I'm marking this as solved.

It's worth pointing out that others have reported the same issue, e.g. in this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/hw1o4c/dell_precision_laptop_7550_1_month_in/

Related Solutions

Touchpad – How to Config Trackpoint + Synaptics Touchpad Only Enable Clicks on Linux (Ubuntu)

Well, this is not the direct answer, but a suggestion and examples. If you run xinput, you will get list of your devices. Then run xinput list-props $id where $id is your touchpad id in the list.

You will have a list of options like this:

$ xinput list-props 13
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
    Device Enabled (135):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (137): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    Device Accel Profile (268): 1
    Device Accel Constant Deceleration (269):   2.500000
    Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (270):   1.000000
    Device Accel Velocity Scaling (271):    12.500000
    Synaptics Edges (292):  1765, 5371, 1637, 4453
    Synaptics Finger (293): 25, 30, 0
    Synaptics Tap Time (294):   180
    Synaptics Tap Move (295):   234
    Synaptics Tap Durations (296):  180, 180, 100
    Synaptics ClickPad (297):   1
    [...]

You can change all of these on-the-fly with xinput set-prop $id $propId $value where $id is the device id, $propId is property id in brackets and $value is what you want it to be. For example:

xinput set-prop 13 135 0 sets Device Enabled (135) to 0 and this will disable the touchpad.

You will need descriptions of properties and a way to make your changes permanent. Descriptions can be found in man synaptics, but wait, they are in another cryptic format! Let's see why.

To make changes permanent, you need to create conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, for example 30-tochpad.conf with contents like these:

    Section "InputClass"  # you can read more in `man xorg`
            Identifier "all touchpads"  # just a name for this config
            MatchIsTouchpad "on"  # enables this config for all detected touchpads
            Driver "synaptics"  # enables synaptics-specific options below

            # This will disable the device
            #Option "Ignore" "1"

            # There are options that are generic for input-devices or mouse-like devices, see `man evdev`:
            Option "ButtonMapping" "0 0 0 0 0 0 0"  # i disabled all buttons here, for example

            # Here go options from `man synaptics`
            Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
            Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
            Option "PalmDetect" "1"
            Option "ClickPad" "0"                
            # ...etc...
    EndSection

So, man synaptics describes options for xorg.conf and tells how they correspond to xinput list-props output.

PS. I tried to configure trackpoint on my ThinkPad X220 to have only two-fingers-scroll enabled, without clicks or mouse movement. I failed. Maybe you will manage to do what you want (there was an option to disable everything but clicks, maybe Synaptics Off).

Sources, more examples and unicorns:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 20.04 Elantech touchpad not working

Had the same issue on my HP Pavillion running Ubuntu 20.04. I spent two days looking for a solution.

The first thing that worked for me was editing the grub file: /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LIN UX_DEFAULT="quiet splash psmouse.proto=bare"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="i8042.reset i8042.nomux i8042.nopnp i8042.noloop"

The link below has the full procedure: https://medium.com/@barcelos.ds/how-to-fix-touchpad-mouse-not-working-in-linux-operating-systems-b328bb43b4c5

After making those changes I could not use two-finger scrolling. To get that working I had to update the Linux kernel to version 5.10

The link below is what I followed to update the kernel: http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2020/12/install-linux-kernel-5-10-ubuntu-linux-mint/

Hope this helps:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Touchpad – How to Config Trackpoint + Synaptics Touchpad Only Enable Clicks on Linux (Ubuntu)

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 20.04 Elantech touchpad not working

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