Ubuntu – Dell XPS 13 9350 – Trackpad tap works but trackpad click does not

delltouchpad

After installing Ubuntu 18.10, my trackpad is doing this interesting thing where I can lightly tap the track pad and it's registered as a single mouse click (and it works with double tap).

The trackpad also has a press down until a physical click occurs. This is intermittent with working or not and this also means that right click is not working as that works with a press and click on the right bottom area of the trackpad.

Does anyone know if this is a software issue?

Also worth noting that two finger scrolling is working.

UPDATE 1: So after a couple of updates to my 18.10 install the touchpad stopped working with the tapping, so the trackpad will only scroll and move around but I can't click at all.

Researching online, a number of people have had issues with the battery swelling and causing issues with the trackpad. I've checked and my battery is showing no signs of swelling and for good measure I removed the battery to see if that would change anything and it doesnt.

Final test was to see if clicking in the BIOS settings worked and it does, so I'm fairly convinced that this is an issue on Ubuntu. I just don't know what to change to get it working.

Update 2: More digging more guessing. The following is the output of xinput:

╰─$ xinput --list      
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ xwayland-pointer:15                       id=6    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ xwayland-relative-pointer:15              id=7    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ xwayland-keyboard:15                      id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]

This is the list of input devices that it can see and I'm now wondering if Wayland is the cause of my issues. But switching to xorg on the GDM means my trackpad and my mouse no longer work, so it seems like I caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment.

Update 3: Installing sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-all
means my mouse is back up and running on xorg but the trackpad is still not, but the xinput list has changed

╰─$ xinput --list                              
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Performance MX                   id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLL0704:01 06CB:76AE Touchpad             id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                     id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              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)]
    ↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate           id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Intel HID events                          id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]

Looking at the mousepad specifically:

╰─$ xinput list-props 12                       
Device 'DLL0704:01 06CB:76AE Touchpad':
    Device Enabled (147):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (149): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    Device Accel Profile (280): 1
    Device Accel Constant Deceleration (281):   2.500000
    Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (282):   1.000000
    Device Accel Velocity Scaling (283):    12.500000
    Synaptics Edges (302):  48, 1168, 36, 644
    Synaptics Finger (303): 25, 30, 0
    Synaptics Tap Time (304):   0
    Synaptics Tap Move (305):   61
    Synaptics Tap Durations (306):  180, 180, 100
    Synaptics ClickPad (307):   1
    Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (308):  0
    Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (309):    282
    Synaptics Two-Finger Width (310):   7
    Synaptics Scrolling Distance (311): 27, 27
    Synaptics Edge Scrolling (312): 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (313):   1, 1
    Synaptics Move Speed (314): 1.000000, 1.750000, 0.143575, 0.000000
    Synaptics Off (315):    0
    Synaptics Locked Drags (316):   0
    Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (317):   5000
    Synaptics Tap Action (318): 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 3, 2
    Synaptics Click Action (319):   1, 3, 2
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling (320): 0
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (321):    0.100000
    Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (322): 0
    Synaptics Circular Pad (323):   0
    Synaptics Palm Detection (324): 0
    Synaptics Palm Dimensions (325):    10, 200
    Synaptics Coasting Speed (326): 20.000000, 50.000000
    Synaptics Pressure Motion (327):    30, 160
    Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (328): 1.000000, 1.000000
    Synaptics Resolution Detect (329):  1
    Synaptics Grab Event Device (330):  0
    Synaptics Gestures (331):   1
    Synaptics Capabilities (332):   1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0
    Synaptics Pad Resolution (333): 12, 12
    Synaptics Area (334):   0, 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Soft Button Areas (335):  0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
    Synaptics Noise Cancellation (336): 6, 6
    Device Product ID (273):    1739, 30382
    Device Node (272):  "/dev/input/event5"

Update 5: This is the output after switching to libinput

╰─$ xinput list-props 12 
Device 'DLL0704:01 06CB:76AE Touchpad':
    Device Enabled (147):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (149): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    libinput Tapping Enabled (302): 0
    libinput Tapping Enabled Default (303): 0
    libinput Tapping Drag Enabled (304):    1
    libinput Tapping Drag Enabled Default (305):    1
    libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled (306):   0
    libinput Tapping Drag Lock Enabled Default (307):   0
    libinput Tapping Button Mapping Enabled (308):  1, 0
    libinput Tapping Button Mapping Default (309):  1, 0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (284):   0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (285):   0
    libinput Disable While Typing Enabled (310):    0
    libinput Disable While Typing Enabled Default (311):    1
    libinput Scroll Methods Available (286):    1, 1, 0
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled (287):   1, 0, 0
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (288):   1, 0, 0
    libinput Click Methods Available (312): 1, 1
    libinput Click Method Enabled (313):    1, 0
    libinput Click Method Enabled Default (314):    1, 0
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (291):    0
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (292):    0
    libinput Accel Speed (293): 0.000000
    libinput Accel Speed Default (294): 0.000000
    libinput Left Handed Enabled (298): 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (299): 0
    libinput Send Events Modes Available (269): 1, 1
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (270):    0, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (271):    0, 0
    Device Node (272):  "/dev/input/event5"
    Device Product ID (273):    1739, 30382
    libinput Drag Lock Buttons (300):   <no items>
    libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (301):   1

Thanks,
Matt

Best Answer

On Xorg, you have the synaptics driver active, while nowadays, you will be better off with libinput. To this aim, remove the package xserver-org-input-synaptics and make sure xserver-org-input-libinput is installed. You will notice that this also will increase your touchpad configuration options in "Settings - Mouse & Touchpad". When running Wayland, you likely are using libinput already.

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Ubuntu – 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 – Dell Inspiron 7347 – Inactive cursor with the touchpad on UBUNTU 14.04

You can fix it this way:

sudo -H gedit /etc/default/grub

In the open window edit line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

it should look this way

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.nopnp"

Save file and run

sudo update-grub

Run

echo "blacklist i2c_hid" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/i2c-hid.conf
sudo depmod -a
sudo update-initramfs -u
echo "synaptics_i2c" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Reboot.

Please be careful, do not retype these commands, but copy them and paste into the terminal, or you can break the whole system, if mistype.

This solution disables Plug & Play for i8042 devices, then disables i2c-hid module and enables synaptics_i2c instead or it.

Plug & Play triggers a wrong module for this device.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to config Trackpoint + Synaptics touchpad only enable clicks on Linux (Ubuntu)

Ubuntu – Dell Inspiron 7347 – Inactive cursor with the touchpad on UBUNTU 14.04

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