Distribution: Gentoo GNU/Linux Hardware Environment: Dell Inspiron 8100 Software Environment: XFree 4.3.0 Problem Description: Laptop touchpad does not work; synaptics driver missing Steps to reproduce: Configure kernel, compile and boot off kernel. Touch pad won't work. Description: If you configure the kernel by including all options necessary for your laptop and boot off it the touchpad on your laptop will not work. I had to do additionally the following in order to get it to work. (1) visit and read http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/ (2) wget http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/synaptics-0.11.3p11.tar.bz2 -P ~ (3) tar -xvjf ~/synaptics-0.11.3p11.tar.bz2 (4) cp synaptics/synaptics_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input/ (5) modify /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to replace existing InputDevice section with text below. Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "synaptics" Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0" Option "Protocol" "event" Option "LeftEdge" "1900" Option "RightEdge" "5400" Option "BottomEdge" "1800" Option "TopEdge" "3900" Option "FingerLow" "25" Option "FingerHigh" "30" Option "MaxTapTime" "180" Option "MaxTapMove" "220" Option "VertScrollDelta" "100" Option "MinSpeed" "0.02" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18" Option "AccelFactor" "0.0010" #Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on" #Option "Repeater" "/dev/ps2mouse" #Option "SHMConfig" "on" EndSection (6) restart xfree server Instead of this six step procedure can this be made into a one step procedure of simply enabling an option in the kernel? There are literally hundreds of users who are experiencing this same problem in the Gentoo Linux community and as a result one of them took the initiative to write a small how-to [1] summarised above by myself. [1] http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=67852 I'd be very grateful if this could be incorporated into the kernel and automated for ease and convenience. If you require any further information or wish to discuss this further please let me know. Also, below are certain error messages about synaptics found in dmesg. $ dmesg | grep synaptics synaptics reset failed synaptics reset failed synaptics reset failed I will also attach the entire output of dmesg for reference. Many thanks.
Created attachment 634 [details] dmesg.log
Created attachment 642 [details] /usr/src/linux-2.6.0-test3-bk1/.config
Created attachment 660 [details] lspci-v.txt
This bug is now fixed since the synaptics touchpad driver is present in the latest kernel (test6).
Any progress on this one? As far as I can tell the synaptics driver is now in the kernel and does indeed work. So this can be closed.
Well, the part of the synaptics driver which can be in the kernel is in the kernel now, plus another bit that makes X work even when the X synaptics driver is not present. But you should still get the new X synaptics driver to get the full functionality out of your touchpad. I hope some new X release will include the driver, simplifying installation.