Yogesh Ashok Powar

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  • Lenovo Thinkpad e420 Touchpad Debian GNU/Linux

    Tags: GNU/Linux HW

    Lenovo Thinkpad e420 Touchpad Debian GNU/Linux

    Lenovo Thinkpad E450 Laptop have a relatively bigger touchpad given the fact that the display is just 14’’. While typing, many a time, palm touches the touchpad creating jumping-cursor issue.

    I am running Debian Gnu/Linux 8.0 (Jessie), the latest debian stable and I was not able to disable the touchpad. Issue was the corresponding hardware was not getting detected as Touchpad but PS2.

    root@point:~# xinput -list
    ⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    \[master pointer  (3)\]
    ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    ⎜   ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse                        id=10   \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    ⎣ 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    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ Integrated Camera                         id=8    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=9    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=11   \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
    root@point:~# xinput -list | grep  TouchPad
    root@point:~#
    

    Issue was in the kernel. Instead of building a custom kernel, backports came to rescue.

    Added following in apt sources.list

    deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main

    Installed latest available kernel

    apt-get -t jessie-backports install linux-image-amd64

    and then with a new reboot

    root@point:~# uname -a
    Linux point 4.4.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.4.6-1~bpo8+1 (2016-03-20) x86\_64 GNU/Linux
    root@point:~# xin
    xinit   xinput
    root@point:~# xinput
    ⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    \[master pointer  (3)\]
    ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    ⎜   ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint Stick             id=10   \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    ⎜   ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad          id=11   \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    ⎣ 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    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ Integrated Camera                         id=8    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=9    \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
        ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=12   \[slave  keyboard (3)\]
    root@point:~# xinput  | grep Touch
    ⎜   ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad          id=11   \[slave  pointer  (2)\]
    root@point:~# cat /etc/issue
    Debian GNU/Linux 8 \\n \\l
    

    Now I can type faster without worrying about the jumping pointer.


    Tags: GNU/Linux HW
    Updated on: 2016-04-16