How to activate touchpad on/of button on oldish HP laptop?

English Hardware
1

HP Sleekbook 14 circa 2015, new openSUSE 15.3 installation.

Maintenance manual says touchpad on/off light and button are not supported in linux:

https://paste.opensuse.org/65312862

Info:

# hwinfo --mouse
31: PS/2 00.0: 10500 PS/2 Mouse                                 
  [Created at input.249]
  Unique ID: AH6Q.ZHI3OT7LsxA
  Hardware Class: mouse
  Model: "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
  Vendor: 0x0002 
  Device: 0x0007 "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
  Compatible to: int 0x0210 0x0002
  Device File: /dev/input/mice (/dev/input/mouse0)
  Device Files: /dev/input/mice, /dev/input/mouse0, /dev/input/event2, /dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse, /dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-mouse
  Device Number: char 13:63 (char 13:32)
  Driver Info #0:
    Buttons: 2
    Wheels: 0
    XFree86 Protocol: explorerps/2
    GPM Protocol: exps2
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
#

As this is an old(ish) laptop, is it possible to activate them now?

Thanks,

Bruno

2

But you cat turn it on/off with a key combination?
Possibly touchpad on/off light and button already work.

3

Hi Bruno,

I fed your unique ID to the duck and got this:

https://www.linux-community.de/fragen/lenovo-ideapad320-touchpad-linux-mint-18/
Seems to be the same touchpad, sorry, German only. But it refers to these links:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/948439/touchpad-not-detected-on-lenovo-ideapad-320-with-kubuntu-17-04
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1708852

I have to admit I didn’t read it all in detail. The key information seems to be that the touchpad is supported since kernel 4.14 and that secure boot must be disabled.

Good luck and have a lot of fun!

kasi

4

Hi, Svyatko.

It’s not a problem of the touchpad no working, it works and is always on.
There’s no function key to enable/disable it, at least not in the user manual.
Also, the touchpad light is always off. The on/off button (a depressed spot in the top left corner) doesn’t work.

IINM it worked in windows 8, but I’ve nuked it - and good riddance, it was slow as molasses.

5

Hi kasi, thanks for the help.

The ID is for the example a responder used in the thread, not related to the problematic touchpad. (Yay Google translator)

Kernel version is 5.3.18, so more recent.

Secureboot is disabled. Actually, it is grayed out, can’t be enabled, even with legacy mode (CSM) disabled. Weird, but this is a topic for another thread, maybe.

Thanks, I usually do :wink:

6

Aaach, blast! I was too optimistic after having found the ID and didn’t read it all in detail. Unfortunately, other search results to this ID are rather less helpful. I might ask if xf86-input-synaptics is installed? But since your issue isn’t operating the touchpad but the on/off button - LED it seems to go deeper. :\

7

Create bug report if you need it.

8

Hmmm. That actually says “Not supported in Linux Ubunto”, not really that is not supported in Linux. Who knows?

… but, it would be kinda nice to know what Desktop you are using. In XFCE, you can go to Settings, Mouse & Touchpad, select the Touchpad and turn off the onscreen button.

9

AFAIK HP (like Dell) usually only support Ubuntu in some of their laptops (but not this one). Perhaps that’s the reason for mentioning it.

Desktop is KDE/Plasma, there’s no option in touchpad settings to enable/disable the light and button.

Note that I don’t want to turn off anything, quite the opposite. Note also that the trackpad works, only the light and embedded button don’t.