Ubuntu – XPS13 Touchpad Issues with 14.04.2

14.04delltouchpadxps

I've just installed Ubuntu 14.04.2 on my Dell XPS13 (windows version, not a developer sputnik version). For the most part this has worked ok — the main issues lie with the touchpad, after booting the touchpad works well then the performance deteriorates. Broadly these issues include:
1) Freezing periodically
2) Jumping cursor when attempting to move

I've noticed that when this occurs there is a always a MCE error syslogged after a frozen cursor:
e.g. [Fri Mar 6 13:58:55 2015] mce: [Hardware Error]: Machine check events logged

sometimes the cursor stays frozen and I have to reboot to get it back othertimes it returns (in fact I'm presently plugging in a mouse to work).

I notice there are two pointing devices listed, the DLL0665:0 I've no idea of.

DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN SynPS/2
Synaptics TouchPad

they seem to have slightly different properties set on the config tool. gpointing-device-settings — could there be a clash?

$ xinput --lists
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:1025   id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Unifying Device. Wireless PID:2011   id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ELAN Touchscreen                          id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN              id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=16   [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                      id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=15   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys                          id=17   [slave  keyboard (3)]

UPDATE:

OK, the long-period freezing issue markedly improved when I disabled the kernel module i2c_hid. The freezing still exists, but it is greatly reduced in frequency and only lasts <1s, before freezing was many minutes or worse.

> sudo -i
> touch /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist_i2c_hid.conf
> gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist_i2c_hid.conf
> write : blacklist i2c_hid
> restart

after restarting you will see the xinput list does not show the "DLL0665:01 06CB:76AD UNKNOWN". The MCE logs are still being generated, but the touchpad is at least usable.

Best Answer

This might not solve your issue, but seeing as your question came up when I was searching on my own this might help. I found that under Mint using the linux kernel version 3.16.30 most things are working but the touchpad dies on resume from suspend. Running the below script removes and then adds back the touchpad's kernel module, resetting it to its boot time behaviour:

#!/bin/bash
sudo rmmod hid_multitouch
sudo modprobe hid_multitouch

Related Solutions

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

Related Solutions

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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